Winnipeg Jets (1972-1996)

World Hockey Association (1972-1979)
National Hockey League (1979-1996)

Winnipeg Jets

Tombstone

Born: November 1, 1971 – WHA founding franchise. ¹
Relocation Announced: December 12, 1995²

First Game: October 12, 1972 (W 6-4 @ New York Raiders)
Last Game: April 28, 1996 (L 4-1 vs Detroit Red Wings)

WHA AVCO Cup Championships: 1976, 1978 & 1979

Arena

Winnipeg Arena
Capacity: 10,100 (1972-1979), 15,393 (1979-1996)
Opened: October 18, 1955³
Closed: November 7, 2004⁴
Demolished: March 26, 2006⁵

Marketing

Team Colors:
1972-1979: Navy, Red, White
1979-1996: Blue, Red, White

Ownership

Owners:

1972-1975: Ben Hatskin
1975-1978: Community-owned
1978-1996: Barry Shenkarow et al

Background

The original Winnipeg Jets pro hockey team was a charter member of the World Hockey Association (WHA), formed on November 1, 1971. The franchise was awarded to Winnipeg businessman Ben Hatskin, who once played center for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League.⁶

At the time of the WHA’s founding, Hatskin was entering his fifth year as owner of a team in the Western Canada Junior Hockey League (WCJHL), a minor league circuit called the Winnipeg Jets.⁷ Hatskin christened his new WHA team the Jets. In turn, the WCJHL club became known, colloquially, as the Junior Jets. Hatskins would own both for the 1972-73 hockey season. In 1973, he sold the Junior Jets to that team’s general manager, who in turn became the Winnipeg Clubs,⁸ later the Monarchs, and played on until 1977, when they moved to Calgary.

Winnipeg Jets sign Bobby Hull

From the start, Hatskin wanted to be taken seriously and was determined to bring a first-class major league hockey operation to Winnipeg. A month after the team was formed, he was in hot pursuit of one of the game’s top stars, Bobby Hull.⁹

Hull had been a superstar for the Chicago Black Hawks of the established National Hockey League (NHL). Feeling he was highly underpaid, he joked with reporters that he would jump to the new league for $1 million, a sum considered absurd at the time. Hatskin and the WHA, however, took Hull very seriously. After seven months of back-and-forth negotiations, Hull inked a multi-year deal with the Jets worth $2.5 million.¹⁰

That came a month after the team’s first signing, Norm Beaudin, a star in the American Hockey League (AHL), who played twelve games with the NHL Minnesota North Stars. Beaudin would henceforth be known in team lore as the Original Jet.

World Hockey Association dominance

Propelled by Hull, Beaudin, and Ab McDonald, the Jets were one of the WHA’s most successful teams, on the ice and at the ticket window. They made the WHA playoffs in all but one of the league’s seven seasons, and even in that campaign, they finished with a winning record of 38-35-5. It was after that season, 1974-75, that Hatskin sold the team to consortium that converted it into a community-owned entity. That structure only lasted two years, before a group led by Barry Shenkarow bought the team with an eye toward getting into the NHL.¹¹

The following year, they won the AVCO Cup, the league’s championship trophy, the first of four straight finals appearances. They lost in 1977 but won in 1978 and 1979, the league’s final season. Long before hosting that final cup and Shenkarow’s purchase of the team, though, the Jets fellow WHA competitors, were angling for a merger with the NHL.¹²

Winnipeg struggles in the NHL

After several fits and starts, the two league’s announced an agreement in March of 1979. The merge became official on June 22 of that year, though many have since described it as an absorption as only four of the six surviving WHA teams joined the NHL and on onerous terms. The Jets, however, were one of them.

The four WHA clubs were considered expansion teams and, as such, were forced to pay $6 million each to join the NHL.¹³ The existing NHL teams were allowed to reclaim any former players that had gone to the WHA, save for two skaters and two goaltenders.¹⁴ The former WHA teams could restock via an expansion draft, but had to compensate the NHL team from which they took a player to the tune of $125,000 a head.¹⁵In some cases, the WHA teams redrafted their lost players.¹⁶ For the regular draft, all four newcomers were placed at the back of the line.

The Jets finished their first NHL season with a record of 20-49-11, good for fifth place in the six-team Smythe Division, but not short of qualifying for the playoffs. Still, it was the worst showing of the four former WHA clubs. The following year, Winnipeg finished with a dismal record of 9-57-14.

The Jets improve

The poor finishes, though, produced high draft picks for the team. That, combined with a move to the weak Norris Division, meant a second-place finish in 1982 with a record of 33-33-14. The Jets went on to make the playoffs in 10 of the next 14 seasons, but unfortunately, made it out of the first round only twice, and never got any further than that.

By the early 1990s, the realities of running a modern pro sports franchise began to encroach on the Jets’ business model. The team played in what was considered to be a minor league facility, even though it was expanded to NHL standards in 1979.¹⁷ The cost of that renovation, however, was passed on to the Jets in the form of higher lease payments. The Jets made no money on parking or concessions, with all of that revenue going to the city.

As early as 1983, the Jets were looking to get a new arena built in Winnipeg, but local political leaders balked.¹⁸ The Jets’ majority owner Barry Shenkarow, banged on for over ten years trying to get a new arena built, stating repeatedly that the team might have to move, but to no avail.¹⁹

Move to Phoenix

Finally, after years of losing tons of money, Shenkarow and his partners sold the team to Richard Burke (NOT Monica Gellar’s former boyfriend) of Minneapolis and Steve Gluckstern from New York on October 18, 1995. They planned to move the team to Minnesota.²⁰ Minneapolis/St. Paul had been without an NHL team for two years at that point, after the departure of the Minnesota North Stars, who had moved to Dallas. An 11th-hour effort to sell the team to local investors in Winnipeg fell through.²¹

The move to Minnesota stalled when it was determined that the cost to renovate the St. Paul Civic Center, the former home of the WHA’s Minnesota Fighting Saints, were too great. The new owners settled on Phoenix after bringing in Jerry Colangelo, owner of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks, as a partner.²²

The saga of the Winnipeg Jets has a happy ending, of course. After it became painfully apparent that the Jets weren’t bluffing, the city built a new arena in the hopes of landing an expansion team or coaxing an existing franchise to move to Winnipeg. They accomplished the latter when the Atlanta Thrashers packed their bags and left for Manitoba on March 29, 2011, bringing the NHL back to Winnipeg after a 15-year absence.

Our Favorite Gear

Winnipeg Jets WHA Apparel

When it comes to replica jerseys, we turn to our friends at Royal Retros, who put extraordinary detail into their fully customizable hockey sweaters.

Free Customization Included
Each jersey individually handmade
Any name and number
Sewn tackle twill crest, numbers & letters
100% polyester
Heavyweight fabric made to game standards
Fight strap included

Winnipeg Jets (1972-1996)

Winnipeg Jets

Tombstone

Arena

Marketing