Thoughts on the return of the NHL to Manitoba

by Bob Herpen
The Phanatic Magazine

It's 61 degrees, windy and drizzly right now in Winnipeg. Hardly Summer-like weather for a region known for its extremes.

But when the National Hockey League's capricious Wheel of Morality turned, turned, turned in the Manitoba capital's favor on Tuesday morning, it must have been a shock to see the clouds parted and a ray of sunshine come blazing down from the heavens, thanks to the hockey gods.

The NHL is back in a Canadian city for the first time in 15 years.

Atlanta, now a two-time loser, sees its Thrashers depart for greener and flatter pastures.

Black is white, night is day, teaching is dead. An American team in a regional, populated hub has been uprooted in favor of a smaller but infinitely more passionate regional and hub in a country with one-tenth the population.

In Atlanta, there's barely a ripple of protest. If you've looked at the comment sections of the Journal Constitution over the past month, you get the usual assortment of milquetoast casual fans who wish the departed team well with thanks for time served, wedged in between the mulletheads who believe it is a vast conspiracy among the major market teams.

In simple terms, it's the economy, stupid. That's the reason the Jets left in 1996, and why the Thrashers will take flight in 2011. A suitable owner in either city, to keep the franchise in that city, could not be found and another owner in another town provided what the NHL needed.

It also doesn't hurt that the Canadian dollar is the strongest it's been in decades. Recently worth more than American greenbacks, the Loonie is still close to a 1-to-1 rate, that brilliant balance, which makes international business proceed in the best of all possible worlds.

That, and the fact that tepid interest in Georgia's capital stood in stark contrast to the avalanche of support in the biggest city of the Canadian Plains.

When word leaked out that Atlanta's latest NHL entry was about to be hijacked to the Great White North, upwards of 200 people turned out.

In the Spring of 1995, when the Jets were about to be sold to a group in Minneapolis, 30,000 fans rallied to the cause in downtown Winnipeg. They ponied up the money to keep a season-ticket base of well over 10,000. Government and civic leaders joined the fight, one group willing to take up the mantle of saviors and purchase the club while building a brand-new arena. The Jets stayed -- but only for one more year -- before heading down to Phoenix.

Just today, at the iconic corner of Portage and Main, hundreds converged, decked out in old-school Jets paraphernalia at the big news. Rumor had it that mayor Sam Katz led fans in a conga line.

There is no name. There is no face, no uniforms. But there is hope and enthusiasm the likes of which most NHL-eligible cities in the United States can't possibly understand.

For fans of the Thrashers who invested time, money and loyalty, I can only say I'm sorry. Your fathers and grandfathers got over the loss of the Flames in 1980 if they cared at all, and that pretty much says it all about hockey's pull in the Deep South.

For fans of the Jets, who patiently waited for the NHL to return, I can only say that your loyalty and blind faith was rewarded. Many, many strange events had to occur for the stars to align properly, and you get your second shot to show the world why you deserve to get a team back. Don't blow it by being conceited or showing up as empty seats if the team sucks.

The Prospects

According to the Free Press, a non-league-mandated minimum of 13,000 season tickets have to be sold in order for things to get off the ground at the MTS Centre, which holds 15,015 spectators.
Winnipeg is inheriting one of the dozen or so mediocre clubs in today's 30-team NHL, but it is not one without players who show promise.

Dustin Byfuglien and captain Andrew Ladd are Stanley Cup winners. Evander Kane continues to grow into his young body and game-by-game, is finding his niche in the big time. Nik Antropov, Bryan Little, Rob Schremp, Blake Wheeler and Jim Slater are all solid if unspectacular players.

Chris Mason and Ondrej Pavelec are a serviceable duo in net. They're bound to be busy, because the Thrashers have sacrificed defensive posture for an up-tempo offensive mindset since their early days.

It's a far cry from what the league did to the Jets when they came over from the WHA in 1979.

Back then, rules stipulated that the four incoming clubs could only protect three players and leave the rest in a dispersal draft. That pretty much gutted the last Avco Cup champions, who suffered through the worst winless streak in NHL history at 30 games in 1980-81 before the fruits of that failure -- Number One pick Dale Hawerchuk -- helped to rebuild the franchise.

In addition, with the exception of the Washington Capitals, the Southeast Division is still up for grabs.

Atlanta used a kick of veteran talent to win the division in 2007, and has largely remained competitive as the Caps, Bolts and Hurricanes work up and down the ladder to gain supremacy. Who knows how the 2011-12 team will react to nightly sold-out crowds?

It again will be a far cry from the Jets' sojourn a generation ago. First placed in the Norris Division, Winnipeg had to contend with ascending clubs Minnesota and Chicago. Then, after taking up residence in the Smythe Division, the red white and blue were third-class citizens behind the mighty Oilers (five Stanley Cups) and Flames (one Cup), and later took a back seat to the Vancouver Canucks in the early 1990s.

In 1986, when you asked who was the second-best center in the NHL behind Wayne Gretzky, how many fans could come up with Hawerchuk as the answer?

Twenty-five years later, when you ask who is the best offensively-oriented defenseman in the division after Washington's Mike Green, it's not going to cause the gray matter much strain to guess Byfuglien.

The History

Winnipeg is not a city accustomed to NHL success. In the Jets' 17-year-stay, they won exactly two playoff series -- both over the Calgary Flames -- in 1985 and 1987. Both times Hawerchuk was injured and both years they were blitzed out of the postseason by Edmonton in the second round.

The Jets only recorded above .500 seasons in 1984-85, 1986-87, 1989-90, 1991-92 and 1992-93.

Shane Doan is the last active player in the league who suited up for the franchise's last days in Winnipeg. Teemu Selanne, who played for the Jets from 1992-96, is still currently active with Anaheim. Mark Recchi, Paul Kariya and Nikolai Khabibulin are also current NHLers who played in 1996 before the Jets left.

Among the notable players to pass through Manitoba are Hawerchuk, Thomas Steen (father of the Blues' Alex Steen), Ducks broadcaster and former goaltender Brian Hayward, current Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle, U.S. Hall of Fame defenseman Phil Housley, Keith Tkachuk, Tie Domi, Dave Manson, NBC/VS analyst Ed Olczyk, current Canucks assistant Dave Babych and ESPN NHL analyst Barry Melrose.

The Specs

While the Coyotes franchise and the NHL own the intellectual rights to the nickname and colors of the old Jets, there's nothing that can't be fixed by throwing a little bit of money around. After all, that's how the sausage is made in relocation deals.

In the entire history of the league, only the Flames retained their full name and color scheme when moving from one city to another.

Speculation from TSN of Canada and other quarters puts the nickname at anything from Thrashers to the Manitoba Gold, to the Falcons and back to the Jets again. The league will have to weigh the prospects of franchise continuity against a powerful brand that has a special hold in the entire Jets-cheering region.

Whatever the new Winnipeg club is called, the finances on the ground will be a key factor in long-term viability.

The Free Press reported that individual tickets will range from $39 and $129 with season-ticket packages spreading out from a total of $1,755 to $5,805 per 45-game season.

With a seating capacity already the lowest in the NHL, it may behoove MTS to keep the actual number of seats low, while expanding the boxes and luxury suites. That plan stands a good chance of keeping both season-ticket interest and corporate sponsorship opportunities at a maximum.

The Upcoming Season

Barring any last-minute shenanigans, or the disapproval from the NHL's Board of Governors, Winnipeg will play in the Southeast Division for just the 2011-12 season.

It's no weirder than when the Whalers moved to Carolina in 1997 and played in the Northeast, or when the Flames moved to Calgary in 1980 and still played in the Patrick Division. Or when the NHL saw fit to stick Montreal and Los Angeles in the Norris Division for seven years.

The travel involved on a temporary basis will most likely have an adverse effect on the uprooted franchise. Winnipeg is 1,564 miles from Washington, DC; 1,728 miles from Raleigh, NC; just over 2,000 miles from Tampa and well over 2,200 to Sunrise, FL.

That means realignment is badly needed, to get Winnipeg back into the Western Conference where it belongs.

A most-likely scenario involves moving Dallas back where they should be in the Central, pushing Nashville into the Southeast, sending Vancouver into the Pacific and having Winnipeg take Vancouver's spot in the Northwest.

But with the NHL's pipe dream of expanding the playoffs, a return to a four-division system may be right around the corner.