“Major League Hockey”: the project looks like an appalling mess

Late Thursday evening, Steve Dangle caused a stir when he announced that a new professional hockey league would be coming to North America: the Major Hockey League.

There was talk of a 3-on-3 league in which there would be plenty of financial resources, but above all, a league in which Quebec would have a club.

16 teams would arrive in the fall with hundreds of millions of dollars to distribute → https://t.co/JJpzzayL1T

– DansLesCoulisses (@DLCoulisses) May 10, 2024

Obviously, it was great news at the time. The project was new, the money was there and it was going to offer a chance for field hockey players who don’t make it to the NHL to play at the professional level regardless.

Except that…

Since yesterday, the project has been the talk of the town for all the wrong reasons. Right now, it’s looking like a terrible mess… so much so that Steve Dangle has withdrawn his video announcing the project.

But it doesn’t stop there. In a text by Brad Elliott Schlossman picked up by TVA Sports, we realize that the deeper we dig, the more huge red flags there are in the project.

The deeper you dig, the more mysterious it becomes. Who is Max Chambers? https://t.co/y7qyKdtzud

– TVA Sports (@TVASports) May 11, 2024

First of all, while we suspect there’s Saudi money involved in the project, the league’s putative owner, Max Chambers, is a pretty peculiar guy. It’s hard to know how he made his fortune, and aside from the fact that we know he was interested in buying the Blues in 2011, he really flies under the radar.

It’s all the stranger when you consider that Chambers claims to have agreements in place for the arenas he intends to occupy with his project… but none of the arenas contacted seem to be aware of them.

In Minnesota, no arena in the region has heard of the project, and the same goes for Québecor and Centre Vidéotron. Of course, he may have an agreement with another arena in the province… but no one is confirming anything at the moment.

Is it just that arenas can’t reveal anything at the moment? I suppose that’s possible, but seeing so many nebulous details surrounding the arrival of a new project isn’t exactly reassuring.

Let’s hope it’s just a bad PR job, because right now, the project is really all over the place… to the point where we can almost wonder if it will actually see the light of day.

In Brief

– A new line-up for Cole Caufield today.

Cole Caufield will play on the 2nd line with Shane Pinto & Brady Tkachuk today. https://t.co/rycsDjuacC

– /r/Habs (@HabsOnReddit) May 11, 2024

– News from Brad Marchand.

Boston coach Jim Montgomery said Marchand is day-to-day with an upper-body injury, but was upset about the hit and apparent punch from Sam Bennett – adding there’s a history with him and “evidence of what went on.”

Florida’s Paul Maurice defended his player, saying he didn’t… https://t.co/F58qcvWVPi

– Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) May 11, 2024

– Indeed.