NHL Approves Four Expansion Teams

On June 27, 1997, the National Hockey League (NHL) officially approved expansion to 30 teams by the year 2000 with the announcement of new teams in Atlanta, Columbus, Minnesota and Nashville.

The history of the National Hockey League begins with the end of its predecessor league, the National Hockey Association (NHA), in 1917.
 

The NHL's first quarter-century saw the league compete against two rival major leagues—the Pacific Coast Hockey Association and Western Canada Hockey League—for players and the Stanley Cup.

The NHL first expanded into the United States in 1924 with the founding of the Boston Bruins, and by 1926 consisted of ten teams in Ontario, Quebec, the Great Lakes region, and the Northeastern United States.

At the same time, the NHL emerged as the only major league and the sole competitor for the Stanley Cup; in 1947, the NHL completed a deal with the Stanley Cup trustees to gain full control of the Cup.

The NHL's footprint spread across Canada as Foster Hewitt's radio broadcasts were heard coast-to-coast starting in 1933.

The Great Depression and World War II reduced the league to six teams, later known as the "Original Six", by 1942.

The Original Six era ended in 1967 when the NHL doubled in size by adding six new expansion teams. The six existing teams were formed into the newly created East Division, while the expansion teams were formed into the West Division.

The NHL continued to expand, adding another six teams, to total 18 by 1974. This continued expansion was partially brought about by the NHL's attempts to compete with the World Hockey Association, which operated from 1972 until 1979 and sought to compete with the NHL for markets and players.

The NHL became involved in international play in the mid-1970s, starting with the Summit Series in 1972 which pitted the top Canadian players of the NHL against the top players in the Soviet Union, which was won by Canada with four wins, three losses, and a tie. Eventually, Soviet-Bloc players streamed into the NHL with the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989.

When the WHA ceased operations in 1979, the NHL absorbed four of the league's teams, which brought the NHL to 21 teams, a figure that remained constant until the San Jose Sharks were added as an expansion franchise in 1991. Since then, the league has grown from 22 teams in 1992 to 30 today as the NHL spread its footprint across the United States. The league has withstood major labor conflicts in 1994–95 and 2004–05, the latter of which saw the entire 2004–05 NHL season canceled, the first time in North American history that a league has canceled an entire season in a labor dispute.

There was again another conflict in the NHL, a dispute between the players and owners and the season was cut almost in half, with 526 games being cancelled, approximately 43 percent of the season.

Just after 5 am on January 6, 2013, after approximately 16 continuous hours of negotiating, the NHL and the player's union reached a tentative deal on a new collective bargaining agreement to end the lockout. The first games of the season were held on January 19.

The expansion had it's own problems too. In under 20 years the Atlanta franchise was folding, and being moved back to Winnipeg, and would be renamed to the Jets in 2013, the franchises original namesake. The Jets still play in Winnipeg to this day.

NHL Approves Jets Move To Phoenix

On Jan. 19, 1996, the National Hockey League (NHL) approved the move of the Winnipeg Jets to Phoenix. The move was another example of a Canadian team moving to a new American market. The Quebec Nordiques had moved to Colorado following the 1994-95 season.

The Jets became the Phoenix Coyotes and have struggled to establish a market in the desert.

In 2011 Winnipeg offered up a new stadium to host another NHL team. The NHL agreed that Canada should have another team, and Winnipeg was re-given the Jets, but this time in the form of the Atlanta Thrashers franchise.

The Jets, formerly known as the Atlanta Thrashers were founded in 1999 in Atlanta, and have won zero Stanley Cups, zero Conference Championships, zero President Trophies and zero Division Championships.

In their 12 years, the Thrashers, now Jets, have qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs only once, during the 2006–07 season. Partially due to their lack of playoff success, the team had difficulty-drawing fans to attend their games over their final seasons.

The original Winnipeg Jets, which were founded in 1972 as part of the World Hockey Association (WHA), moved to the NHL in 1979 following the collapse of the WHA.

During their time in the WHA the Jets put together some fantastic seasons winning the Avco World Trophy, similar to the Stanley Cup, three times, during the 1975-1976, 1977-1978 and the 1978-1979 seasons.

Another notable accomplishment was the Jets' 5–3 victory over the Soviet National team on January 5, 1978, making the Jets the first club team ever to defeat the Soviet elite squad.

In the last season in the WHA, Kent Nilsson had 107 points, while Morris Lukowich had 65 goals, and Peter Sullivan had 46 goals and 86 points. The Jets made it to the Avco Cup and Gary Smith gave up the last goal in WHA history to Dave Semenko in a 7–3 Jets win.

Hockey great Bobby Hull played for the Jets and holds the record for most games played with 411, goals with 303 and points with 638.

After the Jets moved into the NHL they were just another team in a bigger league, and their winning ways did follow suit as they failed to win a Stanley Cup or even win a Conference Championship, President Trophy or Division Championship.

The Jets would win only two playoff series. The first came in 1985, as the Jets finished with the fourth-best record in the entire league (behind only Philadelphia Flyers, Edmonton Oilers and Washington Capitals.

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).

While they managed to dispatch the Calgary Flames in four games in the best-of-five division semi-final, the eventual Stanley Cup champion Oilers, with Wayne Gretzky, in the division final, swept them. 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 over the six-playoff series.

Five of those times (1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, and 1990), the Oilers went on to win the Stanley Cup.

The second playoff series victory came in 1987, defeating Calgary in the division semi-final before losing to Edmonton, in the division final.