PRIME MINISTER TOUTS POTENTIAL QUEBEC CITY TEAM

Quebec City would be a great place for the National Hockey League to expand, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday. “If you’re looking at markets, I would certainly say to the NHL, to anyone, there is no better place for an expansion team in the National Hockey League than this city, Quebec, which is a great hockey centre,” he told a news conference in the provincial capital after an unrelated announcement. Harper’s comment came a day after NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said the league will begin a formal expansion process next month. When asked if he was afraid of upsetting people in Markham, Ont., which is reportedly interested in a franchise, Harper replied, “there are already two teams in Ontario. We need two teams in Quebec.” He then took a jab at the Toronto Maple Leafs. “I have to say that the last time I was in Toronto, people were saying they ( also) needed a professional team,” he said to laughter. Quebecor Inc. issued a statement shortly after Bettman’s comment to say it plans to apply for a franchise with the intent of bringing back the Nordiques to Quebec City. Deputy commissioner Bill Daly said the earliest any expansion would happen is the 2017- 18 season. Quebec City has not had an NHL team since the Nordiques left for Denver and became the Colorado Avalanche in 1995.