In 1974–75, they finally made the playoffs with the help of the high-scoring Marc Tardif; the year also saw the debut of Real Cloutier, who would be one of the WHA's great stars. STATUS PLAYER TEAM SOURCE; Show complete transfer coverage . The 1978–79 season would be the final one for the WHA and for J. C. Tremblay, who retired at the end of the season and had his #3 jersey retired. This was still enough, however, for the Nordiques to garner home-ice advantage for the first time ever as an NHL team. Quebec City was the smallest market in the NHL, and the second-smallest major-league city in North America. The Nordiques president publicly announced that they would make Eric the centrepiece of their franchise turnaround and refused to trade him, saying that he would not have a career in the NHL as long as he held out. Then as now, Quebec City had no privately owned English-language radio stations and only one privately owned English-language television station. From 1973–75, the blue on the Nordiques uniforms briefly reverted to a dark royal blue shade. However, due to the way the playoffs were structured for most of the 1980s, the Nordiques faced the near-certainty of having to get past either the Montreal Canadiens or Boston Bruins to make it to the conference finals. After that season, Sundin was traded to the The playoff loss proved to be the Nordiques' swan song in the NHL as the team's financial troubles increasingly took centre stage, even in the face of renewed fan support over the previous three years. On June 30, 1992, after confusion over whether Quebec had traded Eric's rights to the Philadelphia Flyers or New York Rangers was settled by an arbitrator the Nordiques sent Lindros to the Flyers in exchange for forwards Peter Forsberg and One of the draft picks was used by the Nordiques to select goaltender The deal transformed the Nordiques from league doormats to a legitimate Stanley Cup contender almost overnight. The league's Canadian teams (with the exception of Montreal, Toronto, and to a lesser extent, The Nordiques felt the difficulties created by the new environment more than the league's other Canadian teams. The Nordiques made the playoffs for the first time in six seasons, and also garnered home-ice advantage in the first round for only the third time ever as an NHL team. In contrast, Montreal and Ottawa, other NHL cities with large francophone fan bases, enjoyed significant anglophone support and had fully bilingual operations.
The team won their first NHL division title in 1985–86 (and as it turned out, one of their two in Quebec, the other in 1994-1995), but a defensive collapse in the playoffs allowed the Hartford Whalers to sweep the Nordiques in three games. However, they fell to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Canadiens in the first round, winning the first two games but then losing the next four due to inspired goaltending from Montreal's Patrick Roy.
The next season saw more of the Nords-Habs rivalry as the playoff series went to seven games, with the Canadiens coming out on top. This was still enough, however, for the Nordiques to garner home-ice advantage for the first time ever as an NHL team. The financial difficulties were even more pronounced by a weakening Canadian dollar, since the Canadian teams' revenues are earned in Canadian dollars, but player salaries are paid in US dollars.
The Nordiques finished with 91 points, at the time their highest point total as an NHL team.
The slide continued: in 1988–89 they had the league's worst record. Badaboum was created just for Rendez-Vous, but it generated such a following that the Nordiques made him a permanent fixture at home games.
The Nordiques were unable to defend their title and fell in the playoffs to the New England Whalers.
The Nordiques finished last in their division—the first of five straight years of finishing at the bottom of the Adams Division—and missed the playoffs for the first time in eight years.
It is not to be confused with
The only WHA teams located farther north were the Alberta Oilers (changed its name to Edmonton Oilers after one season), Calgary Cowboys, Vancouver Blazers and Winnipeg Jets. However, the San Francisco group's funding collapsed prior to the start of the first season, and the WHA, in haste, sold the organization to a group of six Quebec City-based businessmen who owned the highly profitable Quebec Remparts junior team. As a result, the Nordiques entered the NHL along with the Whalers, Oilers and Jets. Aubut asked for a bailout from Quebec's provincial government, but the request was turned down, as few in Quebec were willing to be seen as subsidizing a hockey club that paid multimillion-dollar salaries. Afterward, the NHL implemented the Canadian Assistance Plan, a revenue-sharing agreement that saw the league provide financial support for the Senators, Flames and Oilers in order to ensure they would stay in Canada and protect the NHL's lucrative Canadian television contracts.
Quebec Nordiques all-time stats, scoring leaders and demographics breakdown in the NHL. Then as now, Quebec City had no privately owned English-language radio stations and only one privately owned English-language television station, while the only English-language newspaper was the weekly Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph. However, they faltered in the postseason and was eliminated in the first round by the defending Stanley Cup champion New York Rangers. In that same season when Quebec hosted "Rendez-Vous '87" (an alteration of the All-Star Game to include the Soviet national team), a costumed mascot, Badaboum—a fuzzy, roly-poly blue creature—began entertaining fans at the Colisée with his bizarre dance routines. COMSAT moved the team to Denver where it was renamed the Colorado Avalanche.