#Sports #Hockey #WinnipegJets
The Winnipeg Jets are a professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the chance to win the world’s greatest Trophy, The Stanley Cup.
The team was founded in 1972, playing in the World Hockey Association (WHA), till 1979 when they joined the NHL.
In its search for talent, the WHA turned to the previously overlooked European market in search for talent, signing players from Finland and Sweden. Anders Hedberg, Lars-Erik Sjoberg and Ulf Nilsson signed with the Jets in 1974 and thrived in North America, both in the WHA and later the NHL.[10] The Jets won three of the six remaining WHA championships after signing European players, and their success sparked similar signings league-wide. Many of these players went on to NHL careers.
In the 1979 merger of the NHL and WHA was the culmination of several years of negotiations between the National Hockey League (NHL) and the World Hockey Association (WHA) that resulted in four WHA franchises, the Edmonton Oilers, New England Whalers, Quebec Nordiques and Winnipeg Jets, joining the NHL as expansion franchises for the 1979–80 season. The agreement ended the seven year existence of the WHA, and re-established the NHL as the lone major league in North American hockey.
The two leagues had discussed the possibility of merging for numerous years despite the acrimonious relationship between the two after the WHA raided the NHL for players upon the former’s founding in 1971. The two sides came close to an agreement in 1977 but the merger was defeated by a group of hard line owners in the NHL. The 1979 agreement was initially rejected by the NHL by one vote. However, a massive boycott of Molson products in Canada led the Montreal Canadiens, who were owned by Molson, to reverse their positions in a second vote along with the Vancouver Canucks, allowing the plan to pass.
As part of the agreement, the former WHA clubs were stripped of most of their players, permitted to keep only two goaltenders and two skaters, and NHL teams were given the right to reclaim players from the WHA clubs WITHOUT COMPENSATION. THE FOUR TEAMS WERE PLACED AT THE END OF THE DRAFT ORDER for the 1979 NHL Entry Draft as opposed to the front of the draft for previous NHL expansion teams.
In 1996 the franchise moved to Phoenix, Arizona. The original Winnipeg Jets played their last game on April 28 of that year.
This is commonly referred to by Jets fans as The Jets 1.0 Era
Because………
On May 2011 True North Sports & Entertainment (TNSE) bought an NHL Franchise (Atlanta Thrashers) and relocated the franchise to Winnipeg prior to the 2011–12 season. There was much speculation what name TNSE may give the franchise…..
At the 2011 NHL Draft the team was announced as the Winnipeg Jets
This is commonly referred to by Jets fans as The Jets 2.0 Era
