Rebirth of the Winnipeg Jets

The Winnipeg Jets are back!!

A great day for NHL traditionalists such as myself, with news of the rebirth of a classic Canadian hockey franchise, the Winnipeg Jets. Owners of the recently-moved Atlanta Thrashers franchise True North Sports and Entertainment have bowed to public pressure, announcing that they will name the new team like the old team. Thus, the Jets, a staple in the league until they became the Phoenix Coyotes after the 1996 season, are back and everyone around the league seems to be very happy because of it. 

The new Winnipeg jersey is still being created – the Jets’ first-round pick in today’s draft, eighteen-year-old Mark Scheifele was given a generic black-and-grey number with the familiar NHL logo on the front – and will feature a new logo, instead of the old one(s) you see at the top of this post. To me, that doesn't matter so much. The important thing is that the franchise name is back, and with it returns some of the great Jet names of days gone by, names like Dale Hawerchuk, Doug Smail, Pokey Reddick.

This is the perfect choice, and a popular one, based on the way Jets fans took over the draft with chants of “Go, Jets, go!” when the name was announced. Really, the franchise couldn't be called anything else. It just wouldn't have sounded right. The Jets and Winnipeg are tied together. To name the team anything else would almost certainly have not captured the town’s attention, and with so much focus league-wide on the second coming of this franchise, and specifically it’s popularity with regard to crowds and television ratings, connecting with the fans who’ll be the lifeblood of this hockey team is very important.

In other Winnipeg Jets news, the team has named Claude Noel, former coach of the American Hockey League’s Manitoba Moose team – the franchise that had previously occupied the Jet’s new home, the 15,015-seat MTS Centre – as the reborn franchise’s first head coach, beating out Mile Haviland, a former interim coach of both the Chicago Blackhawks and Columbus Blue Jackets. 

This glowing character reference from Pittsburgh Penguins GM, Ray Shero: "Claude is smart, competitive and communicates well with players. He's also very good at changing things tactically during a game."

Just like choosing the Jets to be the team’s name, this was a solid choice by General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff, a smart front office operatot whose presence in Winnipeg figures to make this franchise a success.

This is a good day for hockey!