Jets Seek to Reclaim Their Past As NHL Weighs Records Shuffle

The complex history of three different National Hockey League team relocations is intertwined in a petition from the Jets regarding its franchise history.

Winnipeg and its owner, Mark Chipman, have asked the league to consolidate their records, a move that could have widespread ramifications for a team operating in the NHL’s smallest market. 

The original Jets franchise relocated to Arizona in 1996 to become the Coyotes, only to leave there in 2024 and become what is now the Utah Mammoth. The franchise records of the original Jets, however, are now in a state of limbo. As opposed to a straight team relocation, the Coyotes’ hockey operations were sold to Mammoth owner Ryan Smith and his partners, the Arizona franchise was deactivated, and the records of the Coyotes and the original Jets remained in Arizona. 

That was in the hopes of reviving an NHL franchise there. Former Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo, however, later relinquished his rights, and there is no active plan to restore NHL play in the Phoenix area.

The current Jets franchise, meanwhile, was created out of the relocation of the former Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg in 2011. The Jets’ current records also account for the Thrashers’ achievements, similar to other team relocations, but now Chipman would like to fold in those of the original Jets as well.

“It’s not as simple as just doing it. … It’s something we’re looking into,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said. “It’s not so much a process as it’s what the end result would look like and can we make it make sense?”

Consolidating the records could create a more streamlined accounting of the full history of the NHL in Winnipeg, and allow the Jets to more freely market and celebrate the achievements of their top stars. Jets icon and Hockey Hall of Famer Dale Hawerchuk, for example, has a statue outside of Canada Life Centre, the team’s home arena, and he is beloved across Manitoba. His records, however, still lie with the nonexistent Arizona franchise, as he was with the original Jets between 1981 and 1990. 

There is some precedent elsewhere in pro sports in this area. In the NBA, the original Charlotte Hornets moved to New Orleans in 2002 and, later, became the Pelicans. The league then returned to Charlotte, and the franchise there ultimately regained the Hornets name, and in 2014, the records of the original franchise there—retroactively making the Pelicans, in effect, an expansion team. 

A similar thing happened in the NFL when the Baltimore Ravens, formerly the original Cleveland Browns, left behind their franchise records upon their move to Maryland, and a new version of the Browns claimed them when they started play in 1999.