That's revisionist. The owner promised to keep them here if sales targets were met, and then removed the partial season passes that were the most popular, and even when those sales targets were met despite that, he moved the team anyway because he wanted to have his businesses in a more tax friendly state in the South, backed by the NHL commissioner who was pushing his own Southern expansion strategy, and a Governor Rowland who was focusing on courting the fucking Patriots in a farce to move them to CT so he didn't care when a lowly NHL team left.

Fuck Karmanos.

Yes and no. The NHL never really wanted a team in Hartford and a group of way more influential owners badly wanted the team out. Hartford has a relatively low ceiling for a sports franchise, it would perpetually be a small market team. So they orchestrated the sale to an owner who wanted to move the team, who then did his best to suppress attendance to build the case for relocation. Hartford fans met the attendance and season ticket sale goals Karmanos said he needed to keep the team in Hartford, and he moved it anyway.