TIME FOR AN NHL HOCKEY TEAM IN SASKATCHEWAN

By: Mark Slodovnick

With the exception of the Maritimes, Saskatchewan is the only province of Canada that does not yet have an NHL hockey team. Some provinces, including Alberta and Ontario, have two NHL teams. Why has Saskatchewan been passed over?

It is not for a lack of interest in the game of hockey. Ironically, despite that it does not have an NHL team, Saskatchewan holds the distinction of having consistently produced the highest per-capita rate of players who have made it to the NHL from anywhere in Canada, or the planet.

As a country, we mourn the loss of young life, as well as the life-altering physical and mental injury, stemming from the Humboldt tragedy that took place earlier this month. The outpouring of grief has been both spontaneous and heartfelt. Ancillary to our collective reaction has been the extent to which we feel a great warmth for the game. This has been on full display, as Canadians have donned hockey jerseys, placed hockey sticks on our doorsteps, and played road hockey as a means of expressing our grief. Our sadness is for the tragedy of lost life and serious injury, but its connection to hockey has shown itself to be evocative for so many Canadians. Arguably, there is nowhere in the country where hockey is more a part of the very fabric of society than Saskatchewan.

Anyone who forecasts that Saskatchewan is too small a market, or too spread out, to support an NHL franchise, may be overlooking the successful experiments in Winnipeg for hockey, and Green Bay for football. It is submitted that such naysayers vastly underestimate the extent to which Saskatchewan society would embrace an NHL hockey team, and support it.

To help establish this notion, we are circulating an on-line petition asking (a) the people of Saskatchewan and (b) Canadians in general, to consider the proposition of installing an NHL hockey team in Saskatchewan.

For greater measure, we are also proposing by way of the petition that the name of the team be the Saskatchewan Broncos.

Please click on the link and sign the petition, and indicate in the comments section whether you are from Saskatchewan. If this petition receives the robust response anticipated, we will take this information to the NHL, to investors, and to the appropriate levels of government in order to make dream a reality.

Please spread the petition as far and wide as you are moved to do so.

Go Broncos!

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PETITION

BE IT RESOLVED THAT a National Hockey League franchise be granted to either the city of Regina or Saskatoon, or both, to be named the "Saskatchewan Broncos".