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Of course half these young professionals grew up and learnt their trade in one horse prairie towns that make Winnipeg look like New York.
I think in comparison with California, Florida, NY or Toronto all the other NHL markets suck if all the player is just looking at locale, but most players are small town canadian kids who will be happy to go there if the team is well run. Players don't have unlimited choice either, they get to pick amongst 5 or 6 teams generally, and if you are Swedish Winnipeg is less of a culture shock than Dallas or Nashville.
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They are not going to have much of a choice. The problem is going to be the free agents. Once they have played in larger more temperate venues and have become accustomed to that lifestyle do you think they are going to want to go there?
They will have a choice on where they go and while not everyone can go to NY, TO or Cali, they will have choices. Fancy that discussion around the dinner table. "Well honey we can go to a large city that is kinda cold with excellent shopping and high end amenities surrounded by other large cities with the same, we can go to a large warm city with excellent shopping etc kinda close to some other warm cities, we can go to one of those cities we went on vacation to last winter or..... we can go to this frigid small city that is surrounded by tundra. Oh and guess what... i will be gone a lot of the time when the weather is at its worst.
This is what is being seen in Edmonton now. They have a fine crop of youngsters but not a whole lot of good free agent talent. In order to have a good team you really need a mix of both. Even to stay in the running they will have to pay a premium to attract and keep those players and then the issue of salary cap and small stadium come into play. The ticket prices will have to go up to support it. It could work but the odds are really stacked against them.