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51-778: There were a number of notables that played in the PNWHL. One was Bill Riley who won scoring titles playing for the Kitimat Eagles and made the jump to the NHL with the Washington Capitals . Another was Larry Playfair who played for the Jr. Bears in Vanderhoof and went on to an NHL career with the Buffalo Sabres . There were a number of players with outstanding talent including Dave Pickett with

102-416: A "Reverse Retro" jersey was introduced in collaboration with Adidas. The jersey was designed to emulate the original Jets' 1979–90 look but used colors of the current Jets. Before the 2021–22 season , the blue WHA-era uniform the modern-day Jets wore in the 2019 Heritage Classic became the team's third jersey. A second "Reverse Retro" jersey, this time a recoloured version of the 1990–96 Jets white uniform,

153-669: A 7–3 Jets win. The 1976, 1978 and 1979 Avco Cup winning Winnipeg Jets were inducted into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame in the team category. By 1978–79 , the vast majority of the WHA's teams had folded, but the Jets were still going strong. After the season, the Jets were absorbed into the NHL along with the Nordiques, Oilers and Hartford Whalers . Pre-merger inter-league exhibitions had shown that

204-630: A coach) - 1990 • Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame - 1998 • Number 8 jersey retired by Amherst Ramblers - 2013 Winnipeg Jets (1972%E2%80%9396) The Winnipeg Jets were a professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg . They began play in the World Hockey Association (WHA) in 1972. The club joined the National Hockey League (NHL) in 1979 after the NHL merged with the WHA. Due to mounting financial troubles, in 1996

255-541: A decimated roster, the Jets finished dead last in the league for their first two seasons in the NHL, including a horrendous nine-win season in 1980–81 that still ranks as the worst in Jets/Coyotes history. This stands in marked contrast to the other 1979 Avco Cup finalist, the Oilers, who went on to dominate the league during the second half of the 1980s. The Jets' first two wretched NHL seasons did net them high draft picks; in

306-585: A deer, to provide meat for Riley and his family. Riley's son, Billy Jr., was killed in a motor vehicle accident in 2011 in Moncton at age 35. In 2017, after seeing a segment on Hockey Night in Canada about Toronto Maple Leafs legend Bill Barilko , Riley sent his daughter Tracey, who lived in Timmins , to the site of Barilko's grave to clean his tombstone. • Calder Cup (As a player) - 1982 • Callaghan Cup (As

357-677: A head coaching position with the Amherst Ramblers of the Maritime Junior A Hockey League . Later, he was the head coach, general manager and director of player personnel of the Miramichi Timberwolves of the Maritime Junior A Hockey League . He also served as head coach of the Moncton Wildcats during the 1996–97 season , finishing with a 16–52–2 record. Riley was roommates with Dave Feamster , and together they once poached

408-527: A series of bids for the financially-troubled Coyotes in October 2009, which were taken seriously enough that the league drew up a tentative schedule with Winnipeg in place of Phoenix. The NHL shelved the bid after securing a large subsidy from the Coyotes' municipal government. As True North's low-key approach was praised by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman , this placed True North in a favorable position once question of

459-543: Is licensed in a way that permits reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License , but not under the GFDL . All relevant terms must be followed. Bill Riley (ice hockey, born 1950) William James Riley (born September 20, 1950) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player, and was the third black player in the National Hockey League (NHL). He played for

510-535: The 1979 NHL expansion draft , they opted to protect defenceman Scott Campbell , who had shown a good deal of promise in the last WHA season. However, Campbell suffered from chronic asthma that was only exacerbated by Winnipeg's frigid weather. The asthma drove him out of the league entirely by 1982. Upon entering the NHL, the Jets were based in the Smythe Division of the Campbell Conference . However, with

561-412: The 1980 draft they picked Dave Babych second overall and in 1981 they drafted future Hall of Fame member Dale Hawerchuk first overall. The team developed a solid core of players by the mid-1980s, with Hawerchuk, Thomas Steen , Paul MacLean , Randy Carlyle , Laurie Boschman , Doug Smail , and David Ellett providing a strong nucleus. Also in 1981, a league-wide realignment placed the Jets with

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612-524: The NHL and WHA . Note: This list includes draft picks from both the NHL and WHA . The original Winnipeg Jets retired two numbers in their history. When the Jets relocated to Arizona, the banners of these players also made the move, and these numbers originally remain retired with the Arizona Coyotes , in Jets' colors. Beginning with the 2014–15 season, those numbers were unretired and brought back to circulation; they were still inducted as part of

663-734: The Prince Rupert Kings , Doug Stumpf , Gord Cook and brothers Hugh and Harry Bell , all of whom played for the Houston Luckies . Many of the young junior players moved on to Junior Leagues such as the Western Canada Tier 1 after honing their talent against the Intermediate teams in the PNWHL. This ice hockey league article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . As of this edit , this article uses content from "Pacific Northwest Hockey League" , which

714-525: The Quebec Nordiques moved to Denver as the Colorado Avalanche in 1995–96 . Despite a loyal fan following, serious doubts were raised about whether Winnipeg could continue to support an NHL team. Additionally, their home arena, Winnipeg Arena , was over 40 years old, had no luxury suites, and numerous obstructed-view seats. Faced with mounting losses, Jets owner Barry Shenkarow agreed to sell

765-419: The Washington Capitals and Winnipeg Jets between 1974 and 1980. The rest of his career, which lasted from 1974 to 1984, was spent in the minor leagues. Riley's mother worked as a cleaning lady, while his father earned the minimum wage of $ 1.25 per hour. With limited finances, they made the necessary sacrifices to outfit their son with the required equipment to play hockey starting in peewee. Riley stuck with

816-580: The Winnipeg Jets of the Western Canada Hockey League . The Jets' first signing was Norm Beaudin (earning the player the moniker of "the Original Jet"), while the first major signing was Bobby Hull . Hull's acquisition, partially financed by the rest of the WHA's teams, gave the league instant credibility and paved the way for other NHL stars to bolt to the upstart league. The Jets were

867-464: The 1978–79 WHA Jets were the competitive equal of most NHL teams, with the possible exceptions of the three-time defending Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens and the rising New York Islanders . However, the Jets had to pay a very high price for a berth in the more established league. They had to give up three of their top six scorers – the core of the last WHA champion – in a reclamation draft. They were also forced to draft 18th out of 21 teams. In

918-652: The 1995–96 season, it eventually became apparent that the Spirit of Manitoba consortium was far too undercapitalized to purchase the franchise and underwrite expected losses while a proposed new arena was built. Meanwhile, Gluckstern and Burke failed to reach an agreement with the City of Minneapolis to share the Target Center with the NBA 's Minnesota Timberwolves . They purchased the team nevertheless, but with no suitable alternate venues in

969-556: The Arizona Coyotes Ring of Honor. After the move to Arizona, number 10 was inducted in honor of Dale Hawerchuk , number 7 was inducted for Keith Tkachuk , and number 27 was inducted for Teppo Numminen . Shane Doan 's number 19 was the only number officially retired by the Coyotes. The current Winnipeg Jets (formerly Atlanta Thrashers ) also honoured both numbers in the Winnipeg Jets Hall of Fame. Notes: These are

1020-606: The Central was at least the competitive equal of the re-named Pacific Division and the strict division-based playoff bracket had been abandoned. As the NHL expanded in the United States and free agency rules were liberalized, operating costs and salaries grew rapidly; players had the leverage to demand being paid in U.S. dollars league-wide. Until about the early 1990s, Canadian teams were able to pay their players in Canadian dollars, with

1071-608: The Coyotes and thus controlled the Jets' trademarks. However, the franchise's records still belong to the Coyotes. In April 2024, after years of instability, the Coyotes suspended operations, with their assets (including players and hockey operations staff) being transferred to the new Utah Hockey Club . Unlike the Thrashers' relocation to Winnipeg (which saw all records transferred), the Coyotes entered inactivity, with their intellectual property remaining in Phoenix. Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo

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1122-550: The Flames in six games, and fans wore white for every home playoff game thereafter. Fans dubbed it the "White Out" which is a prairie term for a winter snow storm. Marketing for the team during the playoff referred to the "charge of the white brigade." In later years, marketing referred to the White Out as "White Noise." Fans of the AHL franchise Manitoba Moose also continued this tradition when

1173-427: The Jets donned their "classic" look, ditching the contrast-colour nameplates and unveiling their famous roundel logo. In 1977 the Jets added a white shoulder yoke on the blue uniform, and the following season, switched from red to blue pants. Upon moving to the NHL in 1979, the Jets unveiled new uniforms. Then-general manager John Ferguson Sr. had been derided for changing the classic New York Rangers uniforms during

1224-544: The NHL (and to still be with the franchise) upon his retirement in 2017. The only other former original Jet playing professionally by that time was Deron Quint , who played in the German DEL in Germany until 2017. The current Winnipeg Jets have acknowledged the original Jets' history on a number of occasions. The original franchise's division and Avco Cup championships currently hang atop the rafters of Canada Life Centre , as are

1275-577: The Norris, the relocation of the Colorado Rockies to New Jersey compelled Winnipeg to return to the more competitive Smythe Division along with the Oilers and Calgary Flames – by some accounts, the two best teams in the league during the second half of the 1980s. Due to the way the playoffs were structured at the time, whenever the Jets made the playoffs, they faced the near-certainty of having to beat either

1326-428: The Oilers or the Flames (or both) to get to the Campbell Conference finals. At the time, the top four teams in each division made the playoffs, with the regular-season division winner playing against the fourth-place team and the regular-season runner-up playing the third-place team in the division semifinals. The division semifinals winners advanced to the division finals, and the two division final winners would meet in

1377-533: The Oilers went on to win the Stanley Cup . The Jets won only one more playoff series, in 1987 (defeating Calgary in the division semifinal before losing to Edmonton in the division final). It was not until the 1993–94 season that further expansion and re-alignment permitted the original Jets to return to the re-branded Central Division (the former Norris Division) of the Western Conference. By this time however,

1428-468: The Oilers. While they managed to dispatch the Flames (with the league's fifth-best record) in four games in the best-of-five division semifinal, they were swept by the eventual Stanley Cup champion Oilers in the division final. In fact, Winnipeg and Edmonton played each other in the playoffs six times between 1983 and 1990 . The Oilers not only won every series, but also held the Jets to only four total victories. Five times (1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, and 1990),

1479-458: The Thrashers' relocation came up. The new Jets, despite reclaiming the name and subsequently the original franchise's logos, retained the Thrashers franchise records rather than the records of the original Jets. During their history, the Jets retired two numbers: Bobby Hull's #9 and Thomas Steen 's #25. The Coyotes have continued to honor those numbers, and hang their banners in the Jets' old blue-red-white colour scheme. Dale Hawerchuk 's No. 10

1530-708: The Twin Cities area, the Jets' new owners reached an agreement with Jerry Colangelo , owner of the NBA's Phoenix Suns , to move the team to Phoenix and become the Phoenix Coyotes . The Jets managed to qualify for the playoffs in their final season in Winnipeg, and played their last game on April 28, 1996, a home playoff loss to the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 4–1. Norm Maciver scored the last goal in Jets history. Winnipeg

1581-443: The WHA wearing blue and white uniforms with red trim. White uniforms featured a blue shoulder yoke, blue numbers and blue-white-red-white-blue waist, sock and sleeve stripes. The blue uniforms were the inverse of their white counterparts minus the contrasting yoke and used red numbers. In the franchise's first season, the uniforms featured the futuristic "Jets" wordmark in front along with red or white player nameplates. Starting in 1974,

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1632-464: The WHA's best defenceman. Behind these players and other European stars such as Willy Lindstrom , Kent Nilsson , Veli-Pekka Ketola , leavened by players such as Peter Sullivan , Norm Beaudin and goaltender Joe Daley , the Jets were the most successful team in the short-lived WHA. The team made the finals in five of the WHA's seven seasons, winning the Avco World Trophy three times, including in

1683-461: The conference finals. For example, in 1984–85 , they finished with the fourth-best record in the entire league (behind only Philadelphia , Edmonton and Washington ). They also notched 96 points, which would remain the franchise's best as an NHL team until the 2009–10 Coyotes racked up the franchise's second 100-point season (and first as an NHL team). However, they finished second in the Smythe behind

1734-416: The exceptions being contracts acquired in trades from U.S. teams. However, since the Canadian teams still collected most of their revenue in Canadian dollars, having to pay players in U.S. dollars proved to be a serious drain on finances given the declining value of the Canadian dollar. For most of their NHL tenure, Winnipeg was the league's second-smallest market, and was set to become the smallest market after

1785-452: The first North American club to seriously explore Europe as a source of hockey talent. Winnipeg's fortunes were bolstered by acquisitions such as Swedish forwards Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson , who starred with Hull on the WHA's most famous and successful forward line (nicknamed "the Hot Line"), and defenceman Lars-Erik Sjoberg , who would serve as the team's captain and win accolades as

1836-467: The franchise moved to Phoenix, Arizona and became the Phoenix Coyotes (the former name of the now inactive Arizona Coyotes ). The team played their home games at Winnipeg Arena . On December 27, 1971, Winnipeg was granted one of the founding franchises in the WHA. The original owner was Ben Hatskin , a local figure who made his wealth in cardboard shipping containers. The team took their name from

1887-536: The game in spite of the absence of many black role models in the sport. After two seasons with the Amherst Ramblers , a team he would go on to coach many years later, he held no aspirations of pursuing hockey as a big-league career. In 1973 while working in a factory and playing senior hockey with the Kitimat Eagles senior team in the Pacific Northwest Hockey League in British Columbia, Riley

1938-516: The honoured numbers of the original Jets who were inducted into the current Jets' Hall of Fame . They have also worn throwback uniforms of the original Jets on a few occasions, and brought back the Whiteout tradition in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The new franchise acquired the trademarks to the name and logo of the original Jets from the NHL when it moved to Winnipeg – at the time, the league directly owned

1989-406: The late 1970s, so he brought most elements of that design to the Jets. Both uniforms featured a thick shoulder stripe that extended through the sleeves, along with another thick stripe on the waist. In addition, the blue uniforms now featured white numbers with red trim and a white inverse of the team's logo in front. In 1987, the Jets added a "Goals for Kids" patch which remained a prominent figure on

2040-602: The league's final season against Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers . Another notable accomplishment was the Jets' 5–3 victory over the Soviet National team on January 5, 1978. In the WHA's last season, Kent Nilsson scored 107 points, while Morris Lukowich had 65 goals, and Peter Sullivan had 46 goals and 86 points. During the Avco Cup Finals, Gary Smith gave up the last goal in WHA history to Dave Semenko in

2091-479: The league's other Central Time Zone teams in the Norris Division , which over the course of the decade would become the weakest division in the league. Led by Hawerchuk, Steen, Babych and Carlyle, the Jets returned to respectability fairly quickly, and made the playoffs 11 times in the next 15 years. However, regular-season success did not transfer over into the playoffs. This was because after just one season in

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2142-519: The minors, primarily with the Dayton Gems. It was during this time that he was reunited with and played under future Capitals' coach McVie. He would eventually be signed as a free agent by the Capitals during the 1976–77 NHL season and played for the Capitals in parts of the next three seasons. Riley was claimed by the Winnipeg Jets in the 1979 NHL Expansion Draft , but only played in 14 games before he

2193-569: The team briefly relocated to St. John's, Newfoundland, as the St. John's IceCaps , as did fans of the "IceCap's White Out" and "Coyotes White Out", respectively. When the Thrashers moved to Winnipeg as the second incarnation of the Jets, they brought back the White Out tradition for all playoff appearances for the Jets. Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties minutes Notes: Note: This list includes Jets captains from both

2244-567: The team to American businessmen Steven Gluckstern and Richard Burke for $ 65 million. They planned to move the team to the Minneapolis–Saint Paul region (which had lost the Minnesota North Stars to Dallas in 1993. In response, a local consortium called the Spirit of Manitoba was assembled. While they persuaded Shenkarow to delay the proposed sale to American interests long enough that the Jets ultimately remained in Winnipeg for

2295-459: The uniforms until the relocation. In 1990, the Jets unveiled their final uniform design, featuring the updated crest in front and contrasting sleeve and waist stripes. They also switched back to red pants. The current incarnation of the Winnipeg Jets employs a different uniform design and logo, although they occasionally use the "old" Jets uniform as an alternate jersey . For the 2021 season ,

2346-425: Was added in 2006, in the Coyotes' current sand-red-black scheme. Another tradition that was retained when the franchise moved to Phoenix was the "whiteout", in which fans wore all white to home playoff games. Shane Doan , drafted seventh overall by the Jets in the 1995 NHL entry draft prior to their last season in Winnipeg, and who played his rookie season in Winnipeg, was the last original Jet to still be active in

2397-648: Was discovered after putting up 206 points in 80 games across two seasons. Future NHL coach Tom McVie was in the process of fortifying his lineup for the Dayton Gems of the International Hockey League (IHL). He discovered Riley in Kitimat and invited him for a tryout. Riley accepted and made the club in 1974. Riley was given a tryout with the Washington Capitals during their inaugural season in 1974-75 and played in one game, but he spent most of his time in

2448-413: Was granted a five-year window to construct a new arena in the Phoenix area, upon which automatic expansion would have been triggered to "re-activate" the Coyotes. However, in late June, Meruelo opted to discontinue his efforts to build an arena and re-activate the team, ceding the Coyotes intellectual property back to the NHL, and leaving the fate of the Jets/Coyotes records uncertain. The Jets debuted in

2499-631: Was not left without a professional ice hockey team for the 1996–97 season as the International Hockey League 's Minnesota Moose moved to Winnipeg to become the Manitoba Moose a few months after the Jets left town. The NHL ultimately returned to Winnipeg 15 years later, with the Atlanta Thrashers relocating to become the second incarnation of the Jets franchise which is owned by True North Sports & Entertainment . Prior to this, True North submitted

2550-484: Was released in the 2022–23 season . The Winnipeg White Out is a hockey tradition that dates back to 1987 when fans were asked to wear white clothing to home playoff games, creating a very intimidating effect and atmosphere. It was created as a response to the "C of Red" created by fans of the Calgary Flames , whom the home-town Jets were facing in the first round of the 1987 Stanley Cup playoffs . The Jets eliminated

2601-616: Was sent to the minors, where he played, with the New Brunswick Hawks , Moncton Alpines and the Nova Scotia Voyageurs , until he retired following the 1983–84 season. Riley was player-coach and captain of the St. John's Capitals of the Newfoundland Senior Hockey League for three seasons during the late 1980s. After retiring from professional play, Riley returned to coaching in 1989-90, when he landed

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