The Story of the Original Winnipeg Jets

The Story of the Original Winnipeg Jets

In 1971, the city of Winnipeg got its first taste of professional hockey when it was granted one of the founding franchises in the World Hockey Association. The Winnipeg Jets would become the most decorated franchise in WHA history and later joined the NHL through the 1979 merger. The team played in the NHL until 1996 when mounting financial difficulties due to a combination of rule changes to free agency, a weakening Canadian dollar, and a dilapidated home arena caused the team to be sold and relocated to the United States. Hello everyone, my name is Congrats and this is the story of the original Winnipeg Jets from their time in the WHA all the way until its official demise and relocation in the NHL. I hope you learned something today and let’s get right into the video. So, starting with the WHA history, the Winnipeg Jets were basically a living embodiment of what made the WHA such a fascinating league to look at. The Jets would spend a good amount of money trying to bolster the roster by bringing in NHL caliber talent. For example, they signed Bobby Hall to a record-breaking contract for his time, which included a $1 million signing bonus. They were also the first team to seriously investigate the European talent pool, bringing in a number of Swedishborn hockey players to the WHA in order to support the team. Guys like Anders Hedberg and Ul Nielsen, for example. And because of all of this, the Jets were easily the most successful franchise in the WHA’s history. They routinely made the playoffs, only missing once over the course of the league’s entire history. They also were a multi-time AFCO Cup champion, playing for the AFCO Cup on five occasions over the course of the WHA’s history and winning the championship three times. And because of all this success, the franchise would gain a lot of positive reviews and a good reputation amongst its NHL peers. And it also gained international recognition as in 1978 the franchise would play an exhibition game against the Soviet national team and they would beat the Soviets 5 to3 in that game. The franchise also took part in interleague exhibition games with the NHL clubs and as a result the Jets were seen as a competitive equal to a number of NHL teams with some exceptions being made for for example the Montreal Canadians who were a dynasty in the 70s and the upand cominging New York Islanders. The Jets were a shoein as a team that would enter the NHL through the 1979 merger agreement with the WHA. And as many of you already know, the Jets were one of four franchises to go from the WHA into the NHL through the 1979 merger. But of course, the Jets would be victims of the NHL’s rules and regulations for the 1979 expansion draft. And as a result, the Jets roster was decimated during this period. The Jets lost half of their top six scorers to the expansion draft rules, and they also made some questionable decisions with regards to who they were going to protect. The franchise also lost some players in the reclamation draft, which of course did not help things out. They tried to pick up the pieces where they went, but as a result of all of this, the Jets basically were going to be at the bottom of the league standings for its first couple of seasons. Compound this also with the fact that the team was also put in the heavily contested Smite division, and it was pretty clear where the Jets were going to be from its inaugural season until at least the early part of the 1980s. Thankfully, the team would undergo a very quick rebuild using their high-end draft picks to get some pretty good players. For example, Dave Babage, Dale Howardchuck, guys who would become uh members of a very strong nucleus by the time you get to the mid1 1980s. And as a result, the Jets were a pretty consistent team. They saw a good amount of regular season success. And for its 15 years in the NHL, the Jets would make the playoffs 11 times. But the problem is is that Winnipeg saw a lot of regular season success in this period, but they did not see a lot of playoff success. In fact, the Winnipeg Jets would only make it out of the first round twice in its NHL history. And this was primarily because of the NHL playoff structure at the time. Because of the playoff structure at the time, the Jets basically had no choice but to play the Edmonton Oilers in the Calgary Flames. The Jets basically were always stymied in the playoffs by either the Flames or the Oilers. For example, in 198485, the Jets would put up a franchise record 96 points and finished with the fourth best record in the NHL that season, but they ultimately finished second in their division. And because of the playoff format at the time, they had to play the Calgary Flames in the first round and would ultimately have to play the Edmonton Oilers in order to get to the conference final that year. They were able to survive their matchup against Calgary, but they were swept by the Oilers in the second round and that was the end of the season. And this was basically the story of the Jets across the 1980s and the early9s and things didn’t really get any better for them. And as a result, the Jets were, I guess you could say, maybe a playoff pretender in some people’s eyes at that time, but really it was just a a situation with their division. The story of the ultimate demise of the Winnipeg Jets and their relocation by the mid1990s is a little bit more complicated and as a result I have to provide a little bit of context for you. So before we get to the 1990s, the NHL had an exclusive thing with its Canadian franchises where the Canadian teams had the ability to pay their players in Canadian dollars, which makes sense because, you know, the Canadian teams would make their revenue in mostly Canadian and they only had to pay in USD if the player was acquired from an American franchise, for example, via trade. But in the 1990s, the free agency rules became a lot more liberalized. And a part of this liberalization was that the players were given the ability to demand to be paid in US dollars. And at this time, the Canadian economy was not looking too good and the Canadian dollar was exceptionally weak. And this would burn a lot of Canadian franchises. And this included, of course, the Winnipeg Jets. Considering the fact that Winnipeg was the second smallest market in the NHL at this time, the team faced enormous amounts of pressure to try and maintain payroll and support their players in order to stay competitive. And compounding this was also the fact that Winnipeg’s home arena was at this point 40 years old by the time you get to the mid90s. And the arena also was not suited for the modern NHL. There were no luxury suites. The arena was very antiquated. And there were also a number of obstructed views. And as a result, the stadium could not bring in enough ancillary revenues and could not really generate enough income in order to support the NHL team in the long term. Unfortunately, by 1995, the Jets would become the smallest team in the NHL when the Nordiks relocated to Colorado, and the Jets also could not secure enough financing in order to build a brand new arena in Winnipeg. In 1995, the team’s owner, Barry Shankaro, agreed to sell the team to American businessmen Steven Glster and Richard Burke for $65 million. But at the same time, there was a local consortium called the Spirit of Manitoba who were hoping to intervene on this deal with the plan to persuade Shankaro to delay the deal as long as possible in order for the Jets to play in the NHL in Winnipeg for the 9596 season. and hopefully the Spirit of Manitoba can get enough money to buy the Jets from Shankaro and then finance the building of a new arena. However, it became apparent not too long afterwards that this group basically didn’t have enough money to not only buy the team but also to try and soak up the losses in order to build a new arena. So things ultimately went the way of the American businessmen. Gluxter and Burke would buy the Jets and their plan was to relocate the franchise to Minnesota. Essentially, this was done to replace the void that was made by the loss of the Minnesota Northstars a couple years earlier. The plan was to move the team into the Target Center, which of course was in the Twin Cities region. Target Center was also housing the Minnesota Timberwolves of the NBA at this time, but the T-Wolves were not interested in sharing the arena and Gluxter and Burke could not get an agreement with regards to an arena placement. And because there weren’t any other potential venues that were suitable for the NHL team, the Jets were not going to be relocated to Minnesota. Glux would be able to reach an agreement with Jerry Kangelo, who was the owner of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns. he would move the team to Phoenix, Arizona, and the team would be renamed the Phoenix Coyotes. The Jets managed to qualify for the 1996 playoffs in their final season in Winnipeg, and they played their last game on April 28th, 1996, which was a home playoff loss to the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 4 to1. Following the relocation, the Coyotes are known as a franchise that has mostly been stuck in mediocrity for the last decade or so. But it should be noted that the Coyotes used to be a pretty solid playoff team. In their early years, back in the late 90s and early 2000s, the Coyotes were able to routinely make the playoffs. And dating back to 2012, the team actually did make the conference finals, but they lost to the underdog LA Kings that season. And really, the franchise has been mostly marred by what was basically musical chairs with their ownership group. After 30 years of spending time in the desert, the Coyotes were officially relocated to Salt Lake City, Utah after basically not having a suitable NHL Arena. And now the franchise is known as the Utah Mammoth after having been renamed at least twice over the last season or so. Thankfully for the people of Winnipeg, the NHL would return to the city about 15 years after the relocation of the original Jets when True North Sports and Entertainment bought the Atlanta Thrashers in 2011 and planned to relocate the team to Winnipeg for them to become the second incarnation of the Jets for the 2011 2012 season. True North had initially attempted to buy the Phoenix Coyotes back in October of 2009 when the franchise was financially unstable. And the NHL was very serious about this. They took it seriously enough that they actually developed a tentative game schedule for the team if they were to actually play in Winnipeg for that season. But ultimately, the NHL would get a massive subsidiary from Phoenix’s municipal government. And as a result, the NHL did shove the bid from True North Sports. Gary Bman actually praised the organization for its approach and as a result they were seen as a very good contender for a future NHL franchise. When the Atlanta Thrashers came up for relocation rumors in 2010 2011, True North Sports basically was at the front of the game and as a result they were able to buy the Thrashers and plan to relocate them to Winnipeg. They also had to buy the rights to the Winnipeg Jets trademark and also the original franchise’s logos. And therefore, we now have Winnipeg Jets 2.0 since 2011. The franchise has been a main state in the NHL since its relocation. But it also should be noted that the current day Winnipeg Jets do not hold the original franchises records. Those franchise records stayed with the Coyotes and I believe they’re now with Utah as of this point. And the current day Winnipeg Jets actually hold the records of the Atlanta Thrashers. So that’s basically the whole story. I hope you learned something today. Thank you so much for watching. Don’t forget to leave a like and subscribe to the channel to see more content like this one. Thank you and I’ll see you all in my next video.

The Story of the Original Winnipeg Jets | NHL History Documentary

In this video, we dive deep into the rich history of the original Winnipeg Jets, one of hockey’s most beloved lost franchises. From their roots in the WHA (World Hockey Association) to joining the NHL in 1979, the Jets carved out a reputation as a small-market team with big talent, passionate fans, and unforgettable moments. The franchise produced legends like Dale Hawerchuk, while battling powerhouse teams like the Oilers and Flames during the 1980s and early 1990s. But the story of the Winnipeg Jets is also one of heartbreak. Struggles with arena revenue, small-market economics, and league pressures eventually led to the team relocating in 1996, becoming the Phoenix Coyotes (later Arizona Coyotes, now the Utah Mammoth). Still, the passion of Winnipeg’s hockey fans never faded, and the NHL would return to the city in 2011, with the Jets being reincarnated and becoming a mainstay in the league today. This video explains the history of the original Winnipeg Jets from their creation until their relocation. Like and subscribe for more!

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