The Jets

Lore & Background

The story of the Jets begins with ambition. The Winnipeg Arena, a modest concrete bowl in the heart of the city, became the proving ground. The early WHA years were rough, with the team finishing last in the league more often than not, but the fan base was ferocious. Winnipeggers filled those seats with a loyalty that felt almost defiant, as if cheering for the Jets was a statement that this city belonged in hockey's conversation. Then came Bobby Hull. The 1972 free-agent signing that brought the legendary winger to Winnipeg was the single most transformative moment in the franchise's early life. Hull, a player who had already been a superstar in Chicago, gave the Jets a face, a swagger, and a reason for the entire city to gather. The Winnipeg Arena became a cauldron — the crowd noise was a physical force, and the blue-and-yellow jerseys became a civic uniform. The rivalry with the Minnesota North Stars, just a few hours to the south, sharpened the identity. To be a Jets fan was to be prouder than your market size had any right to be. A team built on grit, defensive structure, and a goaltending performance that bordered on the mythic, the Jets fell to the Edmonton Oilers in the 1985 Smythe Division Final and to the Calgary Flames in the 1987 Smythe Division Semifinal — both 4-0 sweeps that still sting, but which the city wears as badges of honour in a decade of fierce battles. The celebration in the Arena, the streets, the frozen lakes — it was the city exclaiming, at last, that it had earned its place. And then the silence. The move to Phoenix in 1996 left a wound that took fifteen years to heal, a wound that made the 2011 return feel less like a business transaction and more like a homecoming long overdue.

In Their Own Story

The November air outside the Canada Life Centre is the kind that cuts through a jacket and settles in your lungs, the kind that reminds you you are in Winnipeg, that the sky is low and the light goes amber by four. Inside, the ice is freshly resurfaced, the Zamboni's white streaks still visible under the floodlights. A puck sits at centre ice, small and black and absurdly important. The crowd is a low murmur, a thousand conversations braided together, and then a player skates out, stick dragging, skates biting the ice with a soft shriek, and the murmur becomes a roar. Someone in the third row is wearing a faded 1979 jersey, the kind that has been washed so many times the blue has gone grey at the shoulders. They are not watching a game. They are watching a city remember itself.

Reader's Guide

The building sits in the city's core, a glass-and-steel structure that glows blue in the winter dark, and its interior is designed to funnel sound inward, so that a full house feels like a single, breathing organism. The tradition that matters most is the simple act of showing up. Winnipeggers do not treat a Jets home game as entertainment in the casual sense. It is a weekly ritual. Families arrive in layers of blue, children are carried over the railing, and the pre-game atmosphere carries a weight that larger-market arenas often lack. There is a communal ownership to it, as though the team belongs to the room rather than the other way around. It is small, heavier than expected, and it sits there as a reminder that this city, in one improbable season, did the thing that seemed impossible. For supporters, that Cup is not a trophy. It is a promise kept, and the arena is where the promise is renewed every time the puck drops.

Did You Know?

• The original Winnipeg Jets were one of the charter members of the World Hockey Association for the 1972–73 season, joining the NHL in 1979 via the WHA–NHL merger.
• Bobby Hull's 1972 free-agent signing in Winnipeg is widely regarded as the moment the franchise found its identity, transforming a fledgling WHA team into a competitive and culturally significant club.
• The original Jets never won the Stanley Cup, but they captured three Avco World Trophies as WHA champions in 1976, 1978, and 1979.

A WHA Pioneer Absorbed into the NHL

Winnipeg was granted one of the founding franchises in the World Hockey Association on December 27, 1971, giving the city a professional hockey identity at a time when the league was still proving itself. By 1979, many WHA teams had folded, but the Jets survived and were absorbed into the NHL alongside the Quebec Nordiques, Edmonton Oilers, and Hartford Whalers as part of the WHA-NHL merger. For over two decades, the team anchored Winnipeg's sports culture. However, financial troubles eventually led owner Barry Shenkarow to sell the club in 1996 to American businessmen Steven Gluckstern and Richard Burke. Though they initially considered moving the team to Minnesota, which had lost its own franchise to Dallas in 1993, they ultimately struck a deal with Phoenix businessman Jerry Colangelo. The original Jets played their final game on April 28, 1996, and the franchise departed to become the Phoenix Coyotes, later the Arizona Coyotes.

Twelve Seasons in the Southeast

The city of Atlanta was awarded an NHL expansion franchise on June 25, 1997, and the new team, the Atlanta Thrashers, began play in the 1999-2000 season. It was actually Atlanta's second NHL franchise, following the Atlanta Flames who had departed for Calgary in 1980. Over their twelve seasons in the Southeast, the Thrashers managed to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs only once, during the 2006-07 campaign, and failed to win a single playoff game. This persistent inability to compete in the postseason, combined with struggles to draw crowds in their final years, painted a picture of a franchise struggling to find its footing. The team's on-ice mediocrity and off-ice financial difficulties set the stage for the eventual relocation that would bring professional hockey back to Winnipeg.

True North's Quiet Pursuit

When the Phoenix Coyotes filed for bankruptcy after the 2008-09 season, True North Sports & Entertainment, the company that already owned Winnipeg's Canada Life Centre and the AHL's Manitoba Moose, began a low-key campaign to acquire the franchise. Their chairman, Mark Chipman, pursued the opportunity through a series of serious bids that the league took seriously enough to draft a tentative schedule with Winnipeg replacing Phoenix. At one point, TNSE was just ten minutes from securing the Coyotes before the NHL shelved the bid after obtaining a large municipal subsidy for the Phoenix ownership. This contrasted sharply with the aggressive, public approach of Jim Balsillie, who had tried to use bankruptcy laws to move the team to Hamilton. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and other owners praised TNSE's restrained approach, which significantly raised their profile when the Thrashers' relocation question eventually arose.

Reclaiming a Name and a City

On May 31, 2011, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman confirmed at a press conference in the MTS Centre that the Atlanta Thrashers had been sold to True North for a reported $170 million, with $60 million going to the league as a relocation fee. The Board of Governors approved the move on June 21. The naming process was carefully managed: True North did not acquire the Thrashers name or logo, and while Manitoba Moose, Whiteout, and Falcons were all considered, the latter was quickly dropped out of respect for Atlanta's existing professional team. The name was kept secret until the 2011 NHL entry draft in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on June 24, when Chipman introduced general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff to make their first pick on behalf of the Winnipeg Jets. The league, which directly controlled the old Jets' trademarks after taking over the Coyotes, granted permission for the new franchise to use the storied name. Season tickets sold out to the general public in just 17 minutes on June 4, 2011.

Gallery