I think many here are thinking like the average person, not like a multi-millionaire young player. Comments like "it's a quiet, safe, family place" are somewhat irrelevant to these guys, because no matter where they live, they'll be living in the nicest part of it. These people are living with the highest of high end amenities, and the cities with more of that to offer are likely going to be the most attractive. I saw a comment earlier about "when I was a student I lived in a big city and bars and clubs were no different than they are here, just more of them". Well, the thing is, the average club is no different, but you likely weren't going to the same bars and restaurants that they were, as a student. The majority of time, anyway.
I'd say, in no order (as different people will have different priorities), things they (the players AND their families, as while you may think they don't care if it's cold, or quiet, their girlfriends and wives do. See Pronger, Chris, Edmonton) probably look for are:
- Big payday. (and this is likely number one)
- lower income taxes (can't be overlooked, and goes hand in hand with the first one). i.e. they vary pretty heavily from US to Canada, state to state, province to province.
- Competitive team (current, and ability to contend in the future)
- warm climate
- abundance of high end, and exclusive, housing areas (areas of housing in excess of $2M and $3M)
- abundance of high end, and exclusive, night life, restaurant, culture.
- proximity to family and friends
- media scrutiny (although I think that's likely minor)
You figure out where you think Ottawa fares well. I'd personally say it doesn't fare to well in many ways right now. Not likely to offer a big payday, relatively high taxes, not a competitive team, on a tight budget that won't likely let them build one, in one of the coldest NHL cities, in a snow belt, mediocre on the high end amenties (can't compete with Chicago, New York, LA, Toronto, Vancouver, but not as bad as say, Edmonton or Winnipeg), and the media probably isn't much different from Canadian city to city.
Particularly with players that have families, it underlines the importance of keeping them, as they're less likely to want to pick up and move.
