The NHL is back in Winnipeg! My take.

Yes, that's right! It was announced on Tuesday, that after 15 years since the Jets left for the Valley of the Sun, the city of Winnipeg, home to such people as Chris Jericho, has received an NHL license for this season. How they did it? True North Sports & Entertainment, owners of the MTS Centre (pictured) and the AHL's Manitoba Moose, have acquired the owner-less Atlanta Thrashers and will relocate the Thrashers from the Phillips Arena to the MTS Centre for this season. As a result, True North is in negotiations to move the Moose east to St. John's.

What is my take on all of this? For one thing, I wanted Winnipeg back into the comp, but as an expansion team for 2012-13, granting the go ahead from the NHL governors, which financially would make more sense than relocating an existing club who has no owners. And since they start playing again in four months (NHL regular season usually starts October 1), in the way our global economy has shaped for the last few years, it would have been a bad financial decision to move them right away. It would take months, even a year for a franchise to build up financially, and that is why I prefer merging two existing teams and that would give way to a new franchise from the ground up. Maybe merge the Thrashers with the Panthers and hence the renaming of the Panthers to the Miami Thrashers (and they play in Fort Lauderdale). The CFL has done it before (Hamilton Tigers merged with Wildcats to form the Tiger-Cats, which won numerous Grey Cups), so has the Australian Football League (Fitzroy Lions merged with the Brisbane Bears to form the Brisbane Lions, 3 straight AFL premiers in a row 2001-03) and the National Rugby League of Australia and New Zealand recently done it (St. George-Illawarra Dragons, the 2010 NRL premiers).

As much as I have a soft spot for the Thrashers, I'm really happy that Winnipeg is back in the NHL. Sad for Atlanta which saw the Flames left for Calgary years ago. My theory is that the Thrashers had poor ownership and off the ice problems. If the city wants to accept ice hockey again, it could be through AHL or ECHL, maybe CHL. Who knows what might happen? Good luck to both Atlanta and Winnipeg no matter where they go from here.