[Stephen Ave]

As far as Winnipeg getting an NHL team, to me it seems like a longshot, and I mean a real longshot. Mainly for two reasons, the MTS centre is too small, (it only holds 15,000), and corporate support. The team would get tremendous support from the 'average joe' fan, but so much of the revenue these days comes from coroprate support in the way of season tickets and private boxes. Corpoarte support is what carries teams during it down cycles and bad saesons.
Unless the Asper family is going to buy up all of the corporate boxes, and a boatload of season tickets there won't be much corporate support.
The test for Winnipeg would be after the team was there for 5 years and the novelty had worn off, as soon as they had a mediocre team, how many 'average joes' are going to shell out $120.00 a game? Winnipeg could probably support a team right now, but long term, seems doubtful.

As for the international hockey tournament, Winnipeg would be a great place to host it, and hopefully we see it go there.