The NHL will return to Winnipeg next season, 15 years after shaky economics and the lack of a local owner led to the sale of the Jets and the team's move from the frigid prairie city to Phoenix.
Commissioner Gary Bettman announced Tuesday the Atlanta Thrashers had been sold to True North Sports and Entertainment and will play in Winnipeg's MTS Arena next season under a name still to be determined. The reported price was $170 million.
Realigning the NHL's divisions is expected to be discussed by league governors June 21 but it's unclear whether that will happen for next season. The Thrashers, who entered the NHL as an expansion team for the 1999-2000 season, played in the Southeast Division.
The NHL usually announces its schedule in June for the upcoming season.
"We get to be back in a place we wish we hadn't left in 1996," Bettman said at a news conference held in Winnipeg and televised throughout Canada. "We don't like to move franchises. Sometimes we have no choice."
A name for the team has not been chosen, although popular sentiment seemed to be in favor of reviving the Jets name, abandoned when that team moved to Phoenix and became the Coyotes.
True North, headed by Winnipeg businessman Mark Chipman and media mogul David Thomson, bought the Thrashers from the Atlanta Spirit Group. The Thrashers, the NHL's second venture into the Atlanta market, made the playoffs only once.
The strength of the Canadian dollar should work in favor of the transplanted Thrashers. In addition, the pockets of True North appear to be deep and its discretion was equally deep throughout the negotiating process.
In a statement posted on the Thrashers' web site, Atlanta Spirit executives Bruce Levenson and Michael Gearon said they had tried to find buyers who would keep the team in Atlanta but "nobody has come forward."
Fans in Winnipeg partied on downtown streets, where they watched the news conference on massive TV screens.
The move leaves the Chicago Wolves without an NHL affiliate. True North Sports and Entertainment also owns the AHL's Manitoba Moose, which likely will be relocated and change their affiliation to Winnipeg from the Canucks.
Wolves general manager Wendell Young said Tuesday an announcement should be made early next week regarding a new affiliate. He said six franchises have contacted the Wolves and the list has been narrowed to three "contenders."
"With this Manitoba thing, it's going to be a domino effect with everyone jockeying for cities very quickly," Young said. "We need to figure out which one is best for us and to make sure we mesh with the NHL team."
The Wolves have been affiliated with the Thrashers since joining the AHL in 2001.
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