was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in return for Wendel Clark. This trade was controversial for both teams, as Sundin was one of the Nordiques' rising talents, while Clark was the Leafs captain and fan favourite. While Clark performed respectably, he then became embroiled in a contract dispute after the season ended and was sent to the New York Islanders. Final season and move to Denver For the 1994–95 season, Marc Crawford was hired as the new head coach, and Forsberg was deemed ready to finally join the team, but first there was the problem of a lockout. In the shortened season of 48 games, the Nordiques finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference. However, the team faltered in the postseason and was eliminated in the first round by the defending Stanley Cup champion New York Rangers in six games. The playoff loss proved to be the Nordiques' swan song as the team's financial troubles increasingly took centre stage, even in the face of renewed fan support over the previous three years. The league's Canadian teams found it difficult to compete in a new age of rising player salaries and a weakening Canadian dollar. Quebec City was by far the smallest market in the NHL; it was also the second-smallest major-league city in North America, behind only Green Bay, Wisconsin; home of the National Football League's Green Bay Packers. However, the Packers had long drawn support from the nearby major market of Milwaukee, a luxury the Nordiques did not have. The Nordiques also faced a unique disadvantage due to Quebec City's status as a virtually monolingual francophone city. There were no privately-owned anglophone radio stations and only one privately-owned anglophone television station. The only anglophone newspaper was a weekly. The near-total lack of English-language media limited the Nordiques' marketability even in their best years, and made many non-French-speaking players wary of playing for them. While Aubut never lost money on the Nordiques, he feared unsustainable losses without a bailout from Quebec's provincial government. However, Premier Jacques Parizeau turned the request down, as few in Quebec were willing to be seen as subsidizing a hockey club that paid multimillion-dollar salaries. Finally in May 1995, shortly after the Nordiques were eliminated from the playoffs, Aubut announced the acceptance an offer from COMSAT Entertainment Group, owner of the National Basketball Association's Denver Nuggets to move the team to Denver, where