The year was 1972 and the World Hockey Association was born. One of the founding franchises was the Winnipeg Jets. Only five years after the NHL had expanded, the WHA brought professional hockey to Canadian cities Quebec City, Edmonton and Winnipeg. The league struggled in many markets and many players were reluctant to give the new league a chance.
The Jets first major signing was Bobby Hull. Lured away from the NHL, Hull became known as the Golden Jet. Having a superstar of Hull’s caliber join the league gave it legitimacy.
Jets management surrounded Hull with a cast of European superstars, Anders Hedberg, Ulf Nilsson as well as Lar Erik Sjoberg, helped Winnipeg win 3 Avco Cups. The Jets were the last team to win the Avco Cup, beating the Edmonton Oilers before the league folded.
In 1979, the Jets along with the Quebec Nordiques, Hartford Whalers and Edmonton Oilers were added to the NHL as expansion franchises.
Upon entering the league, the team was stripped of their top six forwards and as a result ended up in last place through the team’s first two years in the NHL. Life on Maroons Road was not fun. The Jets only won nine games in 1980-81, but that summer Winnipeg found its future, drafting Dale Hawerchuk first overall in 1981. With other draft picks and trades, Hawerchuk joined the likes of Laurie Boschman, current city councilor Thomas Steen, Scott Arniel and Paul McLean. That core group made it to the playoffs for the next seven seasons.
Due to playoff formats, the Jets struggled to make it past the second round, Winnipeg was poised every year to face the Wayne Gretzky led Edmonton Oilers in the '80’s. The last time the Jets won a playoff series was 1987. During these playoff runs, a hockey phenomenon emerged. Winnipeg was the home of the “white out.” The Winnipeg Arena was electric and the crowds of that time have been called the best in NHL playoff history.
With the decline of the economy and rising NHL salaries, owner Barry Shenkarow was forced to sell the team to an American ownership group led by Richard Burke in 1996. The jets played their last game on April 28 1996, a home playoff loss to Detroit. Defenceman Norm McIvor scored the teams only goal in a 4-1 loss.
Despite a public outcry and numerous rallies which raised $13 million for the team, the Jets moved to Phoenix and became the Coyotes in the fall of 1996.
Every year but one through the first five years, the team was competitive, making the playoffs during that time. An inadequate arena and dropping attendance forced Burke to sell the team to Steve Ellman and Wayne Gretzky in 2001. In 2003, the Coyotes moved to Glendale, the home of the Glendale Arena, now known as the Jobing.com Arena, but attendance numbers did not improve.
By 2005 Ellman wanted out and sold the Coyotes to Jerry Moyes, the co-owner of the Arizona Diamond Backs.
The team returned to Winnipeg on Sept. 17, 2006 to play a pre-season game against the Edmonton Oilers and were shut out in front of a sellout crowd of 15,015.
By December 2008, with mounting losses, the NHL took over operations of the Coyotes and in May 2009, Moyes put the team into bankruptcy just hours before NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was to give Moyes an offer to purchase. Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie attempted to purchase the Coyotes and move them to Hamilton. The NHL argued that move was against league rules and an Arizona court agreed and blocked the sale.
Behind the scenes Winnipeg businessman and Manitoba Moose Owner/governor Mark Chipman was quietly preparing a bid to purchase with the partnership of Canadian billionaire David Thompson, the richest man in Canada. Their bid was dependant on the team moving back to Winnipeg, a move the NHL would fight against, as Bettman tries to keep hockey in Arizona alive.
In the spring of 2009, after missing the playoffs for four years running, they made the post season but lost in the conference quarter final in seven games to the Detroit Red Wings.
By 2009, two prospective owners stepped forward - Jerry Reinsdorf and Ice Edge Holdings. Both offers to purchase were conditional on municipal taxpayer to cover any losses, which suggested the owners knew hockey was not viable in Glendale. Both those deals eventually fell through. By November of 2010, the NHL and the City of Glendale were working on a deal with Chicago businessman Michael Hulsizer - a deal that would cost $170 million dollars with Hulsizer covering the team’s losses this season. In exchange, Glendale would have to raise $116 million through bond sales to help finance the team in return for parking revenue at Jobing Arena.
By February of 2011, the Goldwater Institute, a private government watch dog had threatened to sue the city of Glendale, saying that the bond sale would break the Arizona constitution. The threat of a lawsuit scared away investors and halted the sales of the bonds and put the deal in jeopardy. On March 7, 2011, the City of Glendale investigated the possibility of suing Goldwater for interfering with the sale. On Tuesday March 8, Gary Bettman arrived in Phoenix and asked Goldwater to step down as the NHL commissioner admitted that time was running out to work something out to keep the Coyotes. Bettman said the league would soon have to look at their other options. The first option is a return to Winnipeg and a sale to the Chipman/Thomson group.
Winnipeg is home to MTS Centre, which would be the smallest arena in the NHL but the economy of Winnipeg has changed drastically since 1996. An improved Canadian dollar, a new arena and a strong ownership group are the prime reasons why many believe that the NHL is viable again in Manitoba.
