A Brief History of the Quebec Nordiques

Before the Colorado Avalanche arrived in the Mile High City, the team was the Nordiques and was home north of the border in Quebec City, Quebec.
The Quebec Nordiques began play in 1972 as part of the World Hockey Association before joining the NHL as part of a four-team expansion in 1979. During the team's seven years competing in the WHA, it won two division titles and the Avco World Trophy in 1977 as league champions.
Quebec, along with the Edmonton Oilers, Hartford Whalers and Winnipeg Jets, joined the NHL in 1979 after a merger agreement was reached between the WHA and the NHL. The Nordiques, which translates to Northerner or Northmen in English, played their first game in the National Hockey League on Oct. 10, 1979 against the Atlanta Flames.

Making his NHL debut that night was Michel Goulet, who was the franchise's first pick in the 1979 NHL Draft as Quebec selected him at No. 20 overall in the 1979 first round. Goulet spent 11 seasons with the Nordiques and recorded 946 points (456 goals, 490 assists) in 813 contests, and still ranks third on the franchise's all-time scoring list.

Drafted the same year as Goulet with the 83rd overall pick was Anton Stastny, the first player born and trained in Slovakia to be drafted by an NHL team. He and his brother, Peter, made the trip across the Atlantic Ocean for the 1980-81 season and started the trend of players from Europe's Eastern Bloc making the move to play pro hockey in North America.
In 1980-81, Peter Stastny captured the Calder Memorial Trophy, the franchise's first NHL award, after setting a rookie scoring record in the league with 109 points (39 goals, 70 assists)--a mark that he held until Teemu Selanne registered 132 points in his first campaign in 1992-93. Peter and Anton's success led to their brother Marian entering the NHL with Quebec the following campaign, and they became the third trio of brothers to play on the same team in NHL history.

During his time with the Nordiques, Peter Stastny recorded seven 100-point seasons, played in six all-star games and is still the leading scorer in Quebec history after producing 380 goals and 668 assists. His 1,048 points and 668 assists still rank second in the franchise annals behind Joe Sakic, and his 1.42 points-per-game average still ranks first.
Peter Stastny (No. 26) is one of four players to have his number retired in Quebec, joining J.C. Tremblay, Marc Tardif and Goulet. Tremblay never played for the NHL Nordiques as he was the only person to compete for Quebec in each of its seven seasons in the WHA, and had his No. 3 retired just before the franchise moved into the NHL. Tardif was the franchise's first captain and played 10 total campaigns with Quebec, six in the WHA and four in the NHL, and his No. 8 was sent to the rafters in 1983.
Goulet was a five-time NHL all-star and his No. 16 was retired during the 1994-95 season. He still owns the top three goal-scoring seasons in franchise history, including a record 57 in 1982-83. He and Peter Stastny were both inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1998 and are two of six Hockey Hall of Famers that played for the Nordiques, also joined by Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Mats Sundin and Guy Lafleur.

Sundin was selected by Quebec with the first overall pick in the 1989 NHL Draft, the first of three consecutive No. 1 overall selections made by the Nordiques. The club also drafted Owen Nolan with the first pick in 1990 and Eric Lindros in 1991.
Lindros never played for Quebec and was eventually traded to the Philadelphia Flyers in 1992. In return, the Nordiques received Forsberg, Steve Duchesne, Ron Hextall, Mike Ricci, Chris Simon, Kerry Huffman, two first-round draft picks and $15 million.
Forsberg made his NHL debut with the Nordiques in 1994-95 and recorded 50 points (15 goals, 35 assists) in 47 contests that year to win the Calder Memorial Trophy, marking the second time a Quebec player was named the NHL's rookie of the year. It wasn't the only hardware the Nordiques took home that year however, as first-time head coach Marc Crawford won the Jack Adams Award as the league's coach of the year.

The team finished that 1994-95 campaign in first in the Northeast Division but fell in six games to the defending Stanley Cup champion-New York Rangers in the conference quarterfinals that postseason. Despite the disappointing opening-round exit, that playoff experience helped set the foundation for the franchise's success in the coming years.
Overall, the Nordiques qualified for the playoffs in nine of their 16 NHL seasons, including a span of seven-straight years from 1981-1987 and in two of its final three campaigns in Quebec City--also falling to the eventual Stanley Cup-champion Montreal Canadiens in six games in 1993.
Charlie Lyons and the COMSAT company purchased the Nordiques in the summer of 1995 and moved the team to Colorado to play as the renamed Avalanche for the 1995-96 campaign. The Avs won the Stanley Cup in that inaugural season in Denver, giving the city its first major professional sports championship, and the club added a second title five years later in 2001. The Avalanche is now entering its 25th season in Colorado in 2020-21.