Er. Now they’re saying not so fast. But here’s the article anyway. Those newspapers will do anything for attention.
Atlanta Thrashers moving to Winnipeg – The Globe and Mail
An agreement to sell the National Hockey League’s Atlanta Thrashers to a Winnipeg group which plans to relocate the franchise to the Manitoba capital is done. Sources confirmed tonight that preparations are being made for an announcement Tuesday, confirming the sale and transfer of the Thrashers to True North Sports and Entertainment, which owns and operates the Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League and the MTS Centre arena, which would become the NHL team’s new home.
[…]
The announcement would end months of speculation about whether one of the NHL’s financially-troubled American sunbelt teams might move north, filling the void left when the Winnipeg Jets packed up and left for Phoenix in 1996, where they became the Coyotes. Much of the talk this spring had centred on that failing franchise, which was bought by the league after being placed in bankruptcy by its former owner Jerry Moyes in 2009. But sources in Winnipeg suggest that the Thrashers had in fact been the primary target of potential owners Mark Chipman and David Thomson all along, and that some months back, the NHL board of governors quietly approved the sale and transfer of the team […].
And supposedly they’re going to stay in the Eastern Conference next year? In the Southeast? I hope that’s not true, because it’s stupid. I guess that probably has everything to do with the issue of which Western team will be switching conferences. I will be kind of sad if it’s Detroit, per the rumors.