Editing Arizona Coyotes (section)

===Original Winnipeg Jets (1972–1996)===
{{Main|Winnipeg Jets (1972–1996)}}
[[File:Dean Kennedy.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Two hockey players on the ice and a referee in the background|The franchise played in Winnipeg as the Jets from 1972 to 1996. They were originally members of the WHA before joining the NHL in 1979. Pictured is [[Dean Kennedy]].]]
The team began play as the [[Winnipeg Jets (1972–1996)|Winnipeg Jets]], one of the founding franchises in the [[World Hockey Association]] (WHA). The Jets were the most successful team in the short-lived WHA, winning the [[Avco World Trophy]], the league's championship trophy, three times and making the finals five out of the WHA's seven seasons. It then became one of the four teams admitted to the NHL as part of a [[NHL-WHA merger|merger]] when the financially struggling WHA folded in 1979.

However, the club was never able to translate its WHA success into the NHL after the merger. The merger's terms allowed the established NHL teams to reclaim most of the players that had jumped to the upstart league, and the Jets lost most of their best players in the ensuing reclamation draft. As a result, they finished last in the NHL during their first two seasons, including a nine-win season in [[1980–81 NHL season|1980–81]] that is still the worst in franchise history. However, they recovered fairly quickly, making the playoffs 11 times in the next 15 seasons, but the Jets only won two playoff series, largely because they were in the same division as the powerful [[Edmonton Oilers]] and [[Calgary Flames]]. Because of the way the playoffs were structured for much of their Winnipeg run, the team was all but assured of having to defeat either the Oilers or the Flames (or both) to reach the conference finals. In [[1984–85 NHL season|1984–85]], for instance, they finished with the fourth-best record in the NHL with 96 points, at the time their best as an NHL team. However, they were swept by the Oilers in the division finals. [[1986–87 NHL season|Two seasons later]], they dispatched the Flames in the first round, only to be swept again by the Oilers in the division finals. The franchise did not win another playoff series for 25 years.

The Jets ran into financial trouble when player salaries began spiralling up in the 1990s; this hit the Canadian teams particularly hard. Winnipeg was the second-smallest market in the NHL for most of the Jets' existence and became the smallest after the [[Quebec Nordiques]] moved to [[Denver]] in 1995 to become the [[Colorado Avalanche]]. In addition, the club's home arena, [[Winnipeg Arena]], was one of the smallest in the league, seating just under 15,400 people. It was over 40 years old and had no luxury suites. Despite strong fan support, owner Barry Shenkarow was forced to put the team on the market. Several attempts to keep the team in Winnipeg fell through.