Quebec City is located at 47 degrees north latitude; Nordiques translated from French to English means "Northerners" or "Northmen."

The Nordiques' first head coach was the legendary Maurice "Rocket" Richard but he only lasted two games – a 2–0 loss to the Cleveland Crusaders and a 6–0 win against the Alberta Oilers.

In 1974–75 season, the Nordiques finally made the playoffs with the help of the high-scoring Marc Tardif; the year also saw the debut of Real Cloutier, who would be one of the WHA's stars.

They beat the Phoenix Roadrunners and the Minnesota Fighting Saints to reach the finals, where they were swept in four games by the Gordie Howe-led Houston Aeros.

The 1975–76 season saw the squad become a high-flying offensive juggernaut, becoming the only team in major professional history to have five players break 100 points (Tardif, Cloutier, Chris Bordeleau, Bernier and Houle).

By 1978, the WHA was in crisis, and Marcel Aubut, by then the team's president under ownership of the Carling O'Keefe brewer, began checking on interest in the NHL.

They finished the 1979–80 NHL season with the second-worst record in the league despite the play of promising rookie left winger Michel Goulet.

The following season, led by Peter Stastny's 109-point Calder Memorial Trophy-winning performance, the Nordiques made the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time, but fell in the best-of-five preliminary round in five games to the Philadelphia Flyers.

However, due to the playoff structure during most of the 1980s, the Nordiques faced the near-certainty of having to get past either the Montreal Canadiens or Boston Bruins – or both – to make it to the conference finals.

The intraprovincial rivalry with the Canadiens intensified during the 1983–84 NHL season culminating in the infamous Good Friday Massacre – or "la bataille du Vendredi saint", as it is called in francophone Canada – during the 1984 playoffs.

In that same season, when Quebec hosted Rendez-vous '87, an alteration of the NHL All-Star Game to include the Soviet national team, a costumed mascot, Badaboum – a fuzzy, roly-poly blue creature – began entertaining fans at the Colisée de Québec with his bizarre dance routines.

The season was also highlighted by the arrival of Hall of Famer Guy Lafleur, who turned down a lucrative offer from the Los Angeles Kings and chose instead to finish his career in his home province.

[8] After the Nordiques selected him anyway, Lindros then refused to wear the team jersey on draft day and only held it for press photographs.

[14] On June 30, 1992, after confusion over whether Quebec had traded Lindros' rights to the Philadelphia Flyers or New York Rangers was settled by an arbitrator,[15] the Nordiques sent Lindros to the Flyers in exchange for forwards Peter Forsberg and Mike Ricci, goaltender Ron Hextall, defencemen Steve Duchesne and Kerry Huffman, and future considerations, which eventually became enforcer Chris Simon, two first-round picks and US$15 million.

However, they fell to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Canadiens in the first round, winning the first two games but then losing the next four due to inspired goaltending from Montreal's Patrick Roy.

Sakic and Sundin both scored over 100 points each, and head coach Pierre Page was a finalist for the Jack Adams Award.

[24] This trade was controversial for both teams, as Sundin was one of the Nordiques' rising talents, while Clark was the Maple Leafs captain and fan favourite.

[26] 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.

However, the team faltered in the 1995 playoffs and was eliminated in the first round by the defending Stanley Cup champion New York Rangers in six games.

[27][28] 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 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.

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.

[33][34] The last active player in any league was Martin Rucinsky, who announced his retirement after the 2014–15 season while playing in the Czech Extraliga.

Prior to the 1975–76 season, the Nordiques unveiled what was now their standard look, returning to a powder blue base and adding three fleur-de-lis symbols on the waist.

The Colorado Avalanche unveiled the "Reverse Retro" design based on the Nordiques uniforms on November 16, 2020, honouring the legacy of the franchise.

The Nordiques would have abandoned the blue, white, and red palette they had worn throughout their history in favour of a teal, black, and navy scheme.