There's a lot going on right now that's really exciting. The mayor, speaker of the house, and governor are all very supportive of bringing the NHL back to Hartford, and Mayor Perez in particular is going above and beyond the call of duty to get the job done. He visited the Wild in Minnesota and was looking into how they turned a hockey market that lost its team into one of the NHL's hottest tickets and he also wrote Super Mario a letter when he announced that the Penguins might look into relocation. We have a potential owner with deep pockets and the motivation to land a team and talk of a new arena making its way onto the evening news. However, it's still a longshot. IF (and that's still a very big IF) the Penguins move, we are not at the top of their list of cities to relocate to. Our proximity to ESPN's headquarters is a huge advantage, but one that Bettman will probably ignore given the way he's been running this league into the ground. I think that what Mario is doing right now by issuing that letter is putting pressure on Pittsburgh's politicians to take action much like Kraft did when he threatened to move the Patriots to Hartford in the not-too-distant past. However, one unnamed GM has said that the divisional realignment that the NHL is considering may be a preparatory step before expanding to 32 teams, making four divisions of eight teams instead of the uneven 7 and 8 that the NHL is currently considering. While I am not for expansion and the further dilution of talent in the NHL, I would rather get a team through expansion than to rob an NHL proven market like Pittsburgh of their team simply because they don't have a new arena.
