Twenty years ago today, the Quebec Nordiques were no more.

And hockey fans in the provincial capital began a mourning process that continues to this day, despite never giving up hope that Les Bleus would one day return.

“They never should have left,” Régis Labeaume, Quebec City’s mayor, told reporters on Sunday. “I never thought that the departure of the Nordiques was inevitable.”

Despite a passionate fan base, the team struggled to turn a profit, and the owners’ attempts to build a new stadium fell on deaf ears. “I want the Nordiques to stay in Quebec, but not at any price,” then-Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau infamously said at the time.

The Nordiques were eventually sold for $103 million to a group of investors from Denver, Colorado on May 25, 1995.

The team was re-named the Colorado Avalanche, and with Patrick Roy in nets, they took home the Stanley Cup in their inaugural season, while Quebec hockey fans were still licking their wounds.

Team history

The Nordiques were founded as a World Hockey Association team in 1972.

In 1979, the Nordiques joined the NHL, and a fierce provincial rivalry was born between the team and the storied Canadiens, 250 km away in Montreal.

In an infamous moment for the team, the Nordiques used their first overall pick in 1991 to draft the much-hyped Eric Lindros. Lindros refused to play for the team, though, saying the Quebec City market wasn’t big enough, and that he didn’t want to speak French.

After tremendous backlash across Quebec, Lindros was eventually traded to the Flyers, and the Nordiques picked up Peter Forsberg, who later became a franchise player for the team.

Return to Quebec City?

Rumours abound about a possible return of the Nordiques’ to Quebec City, especially as the city moves ahead with construction on an 18,000-seat arena, the Centre Vidéotron.

At a cost of $400 million, the arena is set to replace the Colisée Pepsi, where the Quebec Ramparts of the Quebec Major Junior league currently play.

The issue of the Nordiques’ return, like most things in the province, has also been used to score political points over the years.

Struggling to hold on to power ahead of a 2012 provincial election, former Liberal Premier Jean Charest said that a vote for the rival Parti Québécois was a vote against bringing the team back.

Quebec City mayor Régis Labeaume, meanwhile, has had to defend himself against accusations he is reneging on a promise to bring the team back.

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“If there is a hockey club, we want it, good, but (the construction of the new amphitheatre) was never based on the absolutely essential, necessary, or incontestable return of a hockey team,” Labeaume recently said.

Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney has also emerged as a central figure pushing for the team’s reinstatement. Mulroney told Quebec’s 93.3 FM this month that he was “actively addressing” the Nordiques file, and has met with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.

“We will take additional steps in the next weeks and months,” Mulroney said.

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