Winnipeg Jets

The Winnipeg Jets are a professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg. The Jets compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The team is owned by True North Sports & Entertainment, playing its home games at Canada Life Centre.

The franchise was established in the World Hockey Association (WHA) in 1972. They made the playoffs every year except for the 1974–75 season, won the Avco Cup three times (in 1976, 1978, and 1979) and appeared in the Avco Cup Finals two additional times (in 1973 and 1977). The club joined the National Hockey League (NHL) in 1979 after the NHL merged with the WHA. The team struggled early on in the NHL, in part due to the 1979 expansion draft, going a combined 29–106–25 through the 1979–80 and 1980–81 seasons. The Jets made the Stanley Cup playoffs every season from 1981–82 to 1987–88, though the team only finished with a winning record twice during that period, in 1984–85 and 1986–87, which were also the only times the Jets advanced past the first round until 2017–18. After the 1995–96 season, the Jets were deactivated while their players, coaches, and staff relocated to Phoenix, Arizona, to become the Phoenix Coyotes.

On June 25, 1997, the NHL expanded to Atlanta, with the Atlanta Thrashers, and began play in the 1999–2000 NHL season. True North Sports & Entertainment then bought the team in May 2011, and relocated the Thrashers to Winnipeg prior to the 2011–12 season, making them the first NHL franchise to relocate since the Hartford Whalers became the Carolina Hurricanes in 1997. The team inherited the Jets branding, but the records and history of the original franchise initially remained with the Coyotes. On September 24, 2026, the NHL consolidated the records and statistics of the original Winnipeg Jets with the Thrashers and the modern Jets; thus, the Jets were retrospectively deactivated from 1996 to 1999, with the franchise resuming operations as the Atlanta Thrashers.