As well as talking about the Danny Syvret/Ryan Potulny trade-o-rama, this article at Canoe.ca is the first I’ve seen of a Canadian news source backing my newest cocakmamie scheme. Says John Short:

My guess would be that Seattle - having lost the NBA Sonics - is a better potential location for the NHL than many of the southern markets now in place.

If it mattered, you could say the same about Winnipeg and Quebec City. Arena upgrades are necessary, but they’re not impossible.

Well thought out on the surface level, Mr. Short, but I believe that the Supersonics are leaving because of issues with Key Arena, meaning you probably wouldn’t be able to drop an NHL team in there and have them not whine about it as well. Driving the nail in that coffin is also the fact that the Seattle Thunderbirds (WHL) are running from Key Arena to somewhere in Kent for the next season as well, implying that hockey isn’t flourishing there either.

Know where hockey WOULD flourish in the Pacific Northwest however? I’ve told you this before…. and since Seattle just got the MLS team, it seems fair that someone would throw Portland another major league team as well, as we’ve only got the one. I mean think about it, sure they’d share the building with the Blazers, but the Wizards and the Capitals share Verizon and it… mostly works. If Portland’s denied the MLS team and the MLB team they’ve been coveting, wouldn’t people grudgingly accept an NHL team? People in Seattle would have the option of going to Portland OR Vancouver to watch hockey, and it’d give someone local to the poor Canucks to play, instead of leaving them stuck up there in Vancouverville all alone. Just think, you could have the I-5 Ice War or something…..

So Dearest Bettman, (although I only call you that when I want something,)please give us the struggling Thrashers. I’m sure we can slot Army and Crush into the insanity that is the general MO of Portland, and it’d give the poor Canadians a chance to see snow once in a while again.