Six years after his last visit to Quebec, everything indicates that the Canadian will play a preparatory meeting at the Videotron Center on the sidelines of the 2025-2026 National Hockey League season.
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“We’re not far,” said team owner Geoff Molson at the inauguration of the Bleu Blanc Bouge refrigerated ice rink on Tuesday in Quebec. We hope to play a pre-season match next year here against [les Sénateurs] from Ottawa. It’s not finalized yet, but it’s very likely that we’ll be here next year.”
Molson also indicated that if the CH held a preparatory meeting in Quebec, on a date which remains undetermined, his organization would not receive subsidies from the government.
The mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, received a Canadiens jersey from the hands of owner Geoff Molson on Tuesday, adorned with the number 15, since it was the inauguration of the 15th Bleu Blanc Bouge ice rink. – Photo Stevens Leblanc
Coming to play two preparatory games at the Videotron Center last year, the Los Angeles Kings had controversially obtained between $5 and $7 million from the Quebec government.
“We have come several times over the years and we come to play a preseason hockey game and to give people in this region a chance to see the Montreal Canadiens. No, there are no subsidies,” Molson said.
Quebec mentioned
Of course, the arrival of the owner of the Canadiens to Quebec could not take place without the word “expansion” being mentioned.
Asked whether the organization would be open to the return of an NHL franchise at the other end of Highway 20, Geoff Molson reiterated his response from recent months: “We would be open, and even more so, we would be supporters. If the opportunity ever presents itself, we will be there to support it.”
However, as Stéphane Turcot told TVA Québec, “from a strictly business point of view, when a convenience store is doing well, we don’t open another one a few kilometers away.”
“Yes, our convenience store is doing well,” Mr. Molson replied to our colleague. But I would say we can live with two convenience stores.”
Like the comments made recently by the commissioner of the circuit, Gary Bettman, Geoff Molson indicated however that the expansion process is a subject which the governors discuss “from time to time”, but that “it is not a subject that is discussed a lot.
“Every time we talk about expansion, Quebec City is “discussed”,” he nevertheless asserted.
