It's my opinion that the league will decide to put off adding Québec and may do so with Vegas as well, though they might want the expansion fees to round out their fiscal year. They could also stall in the hopes that a Seattle bid come through and offer Vegas a better deal than the half-billion currently estimated to buy in with Seattle paying the full fee - leaving Québec open for a relocation as a cheaper consolation prize, possibly in the form of the current Carolina Hurricanes. That should put Québec at around $400M ($300M to buy the team, plus another 100M as relocation fees), the 100M in savings a boon for those who are afraid the fall of the Canadian dollar might impact the city's ability to maintain a team.
(For the record, I think prospective buyer Vidéotron has enough money to "overpay" the difference in currencies, and their owner, Pierre-Karl Péladeau, is adamant enough in his want of a team to be willing to take it as it is).
I don't know if they'd keep their former uniform designs or not, but I loved the Québec Nordiques' garbs, particularly the blue (away) ones:
Finn was selected 57th overall by the Nordiques in 1984, ahead of Michal Pivonka (59th), Ray Sheppard (60th), Jeff Norton (62nd), baseball Hall Of Famer Tom Glavine (69th), Paul Ysebaert (74th), Kris King (80th), current New York Islanders head coach Jack Capuano (88th), Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins head coach Clark Donatelli, Brent Severyn (99th), All-Star Kirk McLean (107th), Hall of Famer Brett Hull (117th), All-Star Kjell Samuelsson (119th), Cliff Ronning (134th), Jiri Hrdina (159th), Boston Bruins GM Don Sweeney (166th), deceased enforcer Todd Ewen (168th), Los Angeles Kings great and Hall Of Famer Luc Robitaille (171st), Team USA alumnus and one of the dirtiest players of the 1980s and 1990s Gary Suter (180th), All-Star defenseman Paul Cavallini (205th), David Volek (208th), and Sidney's dad Troy Crosby (240th).
Ahead of Finn were Hall Of Famers Mario Lemieux (1st) and Patrick Roy (51st), All-Stars Kirk Muller (2nd), Ed Olczyk (3rd), Al Iafrate (4th), Petr Svodoba (5th), Shayne Corson (8th), Gary Roberts (12th), Kevin Hatcher (17th), Craig Billington (23rd), Scott Mellanby (27th), and Stéphane Richer (29th), Stanley Cup winner Jean-Jacques Daigneault (10th), as well as NHL regulars Shawn Burr (7th), Sylvain Côté (11th), Todd Gill (25th), Brian Benning (26th), Doug Houda (28th), Tony Hrkac (38th), Jeff Brown (36th), Jeff Chychrun (37th), Paul Ranheim (38th), Trent Yawney (45th), Ken Hodge, Jr. (46th), and Robert Dirk (53rd).
Finn was a defensive defenseman who sacrificed himself for the team, be it through physical play (he surpassed the 200-PIM mark three times and was over 190 twice more) or by blocking shots. He was widely viewed as a leader, which led to his carrying the alternate captain's "A" for most of his career and sharing captain duties with up-and-comer (and future Hall Of Famer) Joe Sakic during the 1990-91 season.
He is now a hockey analyst at TVA Sports (owned by Vidéotron) and can also be hired as a speaker, in both French and English, as he has always been perfectly bilingual.
Let's have a look at the two cards he signed in black sharpie outside of TVA's headquarters, first with the then-home white uniform, with the NHL's 75th Anniversary patch:
And finally, from Pro Set's 1992-93 Parkhurst set (card #379 in the collection), here he is wearing the beautiful blue (away) uniform, with the NHL's 1993 playoffs patch:
All told, Finn played 725 regular-season NHL games (and 23 more in the playoffs), playing with the Nordiques until 1994-95, then playing half a season with the Tampa Bay Lightning, a year and a half with the Kings, and finishing off by suiting up with the IHL's Long Beach Ice Dogs for the 1997-98 season.
He also helps me check off #29 in my Nordiques Numbers Project.
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