When the whole Phoenix Coyotes debacle gets sorted out and when they're re-located (and they will be) hopefully to Quebec City, but most likely to Seattle; I'm hoping that if La Belle du Province is indeed the next stop for the old Winnipeg Jets/current Coyotes, the new owners will take pity on Jets fans like me that long for the old Jets records to be put back where they belong and re-established in the city of Winnipeg. Now that Winnipeg has re-gained it's NHL franchise, it's only fair and sensible that we re-gain the names of the Jets past glories. That would only make sense and would truly make the wrong that forced us to lose our team in the first place a thing of the past. The records and accomplishments of names like Hawerchuck, Steen, Hull, Hedberg and Selanne don't belong in Phoenix. In a prior post, I mentioned how none of those past stars (if not legends) of professional hockey in Winnipeg don't belong in sedona red and desert sand. They belong in red, white and blue (or now red, white, silver and navy blue)
I don't care about NHL rules and standards concerning relocated teams. I've never understood how it made sense to them how the records of one team can so easily be moved to another and into another, foreign market to which fans of the new team probably (and in Phoenix's case, most definitely) don't even know who these players are. Only Shane Doan, Kieth Tkachuck, Nikolai Khabibulin and the now retired Teppo Numminen had ever donned a Jets sweater. And obviously that's only because they were Jets before the franchise relocation. But why does that mean the history of the team has to go too? I say the Coyotes' history started in 1996. The Atlanta Thrashers' ended in 2011. The same goes for Colorado/Quebec. I'm sure Noridiques fans would agree with me.
And that brings me back to the Coyotes hopefully moving to Quebec. Since the Quebec Noridiques went through the exact same thing the Jest did, they know what a team and its history mean to the city and its fan base. If they could get the Nords history back from Colorado you know they would. Short of merging teams together to ensure the records go back to where they belong (as was the case in 1976 when the Kansas City Scouts merged with the Minnesota North Stars-of course the NHL today wouldn't allow that and would today just contract a team instead of merging them) giving, or at least selling, a team's history back to them would seem to be the only way to right a wrong. So maybe that's the answer. Maybe the new owners of the Coyotes in Quebec could (with the approval of the NHL) sell the records back to the Jets. Then the retired numbers of Hull, Hawerchuck, Steen and future honored Jets would be where they belong.
Hey, you never know. It could happen.
