Tragedy in the NHL
Tragedy struck the NHL today, a plane carrying members of the Florida Panthers crashed into another air transport mid flight. There were no survivors. In accordance with the freedom of information act we were able to retrieve the flight plan and passenger manifest. It is confirmed that the plane was carrying the 40 contracted players of the Panthers, their coaching staff, owner Vinny Viola and their management.
A picture on the downed plane above
Commissioner Bettman spoke of the tragedy:"The entire NHL is mourning the loss of 60 great men, all of whom had families, we lost 60 great human beings today. Our condolences go out not only to them, but to their families and the victims on board the other aircraft."
In Viola's will it waa requested that the team be sold and the funds from the sale be given to his family.
The Quebecor entertainment group has purchased the rights to the franchise and has announced that the team will be moved to Quebec immeadiately, they will called the Quebec City Knights and their colours are green and white.
The Quebecor group has announced that Julien Brisebois will be the team's General Manager.Pierre Dion, CEO of the group and primary Knights owner has named Julien Brisebois as the team's first General Manager. He made the following comments on today's news: "We are deeply saddened by todays tragic events, and offer our condolences to the families of the victims. For quite some time we have pursue a franchise, we had finalized talks to buy the Florida Panthers, the deal was supposed to go through at seasons end, however today's news has sped up the process."
Julien Brisebois first move was to name Jacques Martin intern Head Coach. He stated: "I am grateful to be given this opportunity, however I am deeply saddened by today's events. I am glad that the fans are excited for the return of NHL hockey to Quebec, however a long, dark, cold and painful road is ahead of us as we build from scratch. Their will be many many bumps in the road as we build our club." Martin said he expects the team to struggle mightily this year and asks for patience from the fans.
The NHL does not have a contingency plan for diasters. Due to a lack of transfer agreement with the top European leagues, the Knights were forced to fill out the roster with members of the Italian National squad. The Italian Serie A is well below the caliber of the NHL.
GM Brisebois faces a difficult task as he must now build an organization from scratch, in a city that is French, has tough language laws and for a team that won't win many, if any games at all this year.
Many free agents have stated they will not play in Quebec due to language concerns and the poor quality of the current roster. Pierre Dion has said that the team wants French players but is an equal oppurtunity employer. The Knights will likely be the worst team the NHL has ever seen fielded this year. There is light at the end of the tunnel as the draft this year features generational talents Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel and Quebec born phenom Daniel Gagne.
Brisebois got to work immediately trying to shore up the roster and build a foundation, he signed a trio of veterans:
F Simon Gagne 1yr 750K
D Joni Pitkanen 2yr 4.8M
G Tim Thomas 1 yr 1.5M
He also signed Havard defencemand Kevin Gravel to a 3yr ELC worth 850k a year. He has this to say on his moves: "We needed a few veterans to help the mode in the room, it's going to be a brutal season. Simon will provide a bit of offence of course but he will also bring leadership, Joni will help make Tim's nights slighty easier and he's going to log big minutes as we try to keep those scores down.
Tim is a veteran puck stopper, he's going to see a ton of rubber and on most nights he's going to get bombarded but he can keep it close for a good amount of games."
2014-2015 Quebec Knights
S.Gagne(79)-A.Alberici(56)-D.Kostner(71)
G.Wilson(69)-A.Trevisan(57)-A.Cacciaguerra(59)
P.Bergmini(56)-M.Tobia(55)-A.Scarabelli(55)
F.Colliva(49)-M.Cavallo(52)-M.DiNicola(55)
J.Pitkanen(84)-T.Larkin(64)
A.Trivellato(59)-G.Fini(56)
U.Ciori(54)-M.Azzaroni(56)
T.Thomas(83)
A.Bernard(71)