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THERE’S A story, one you might have heard before, about the Winnipeg Jets returning home. No, not the current Winnipeg Jets, not the ones who headed north from their former home in Atlanta and have since put down roots in Manitoba’s capital. The other ones, the original franchise, which now makes its home in the Arizona desert. And as the story goes, it was only by the narrowest of margins the franchise that left Winnipeg in 1996 and headed south to become the Coyotes failed to complete the circuit. But Mark Chipman isn’t sure it’s understood just how close that return was to coming to fruition. “We had a press conference scheduled for a Saturday morning and the chairs were set up,” said Chipman, chairman of True North Sports & Entertainment, of the flirtation with an NHL homecoming in May 2010. “Nobody knew that. But on that Friday, there was a good chance that we would have reacquired the original Jets.”
It took another year, however, before Chipman, along with True North’s David Thomson, commissioner Gary Bettman and other executives, stepped on stage to announce the acquisition of the Thrashers and Winnipeg’s reintroduction to the NHL ranks. But after 15 years spent laying the foundation for the historic return by turning the Manitoba Moose into a first-rate AHL organization, Chipman didn’t see the May 2011 announcement as mission accomplished. “It’s never, ever been our intention to just be in this league – it was never, ever (assistant GM) Craig Heisinger’s or (GM) Kevin Cheveldayoff’s or any of our mindset to say that we’re in. ‘Let’s just be satisfied that we’re in,’” Chipman said.
THE PHYSICAL SIZE OF THE MARKET DOESN’T DICTATE HOW MANY HOCKEY FANS RESIDE WITHIN IT
– Mark Chipman
Despite the lack of early on-ice success, the results, particularly in recent seasons, bear out Chipman’s assertion that satisfaction didn’t come from simply punching Winnipeg’s ticket back into the big leagues. Across the three seasons prior to 2019-20, Winnipeg iced one of the NHL’s most competitive rosters, and the Jets’ 300 points are tied for the seventh-most in the league over that span. That’s not to mention Winnipeg’s back-to-back playoff appearances, which included a trip to…