Winnipeg Jets

A record book stitched back together

Two different clubs have carried the name. The first began in the World Hockey Association in 1972, joined the NHL in 1979 and left for Phoenix in 1996. The second is the former Atlanta Thrashers, an expansion team founded in 1999, bought by True North Sports & Entertainment and moved to Manitoba in 2011. For fifteen years the two histories sat in separate ledgers. In September 2026 the league consolidated them, so the team now playing at Canada Life Centre formally holds the original franchise's record.

The white-clad crowd predates both versions of the modern club. The Winnipeg Whiteout started in 1987 and was revived when the relocated team first reached the postseason in 2015. Since the run to the Western Conference Final in 2018, the club has run outdoor watch parties alongside home play-off games, and more than 170,000 people have attended them. In spring 2025 the Donald Street party was capped at 5,000 and ticketed at $10, with a smaller gathering at True North Square.

116 points, then the floor

The 2024-25 season was the best in the franchise's history: 116 points, the Central Division title and a first Presidents' Trophy. The deepest play-off run remains 2018, when the team lost the Western Conference Final to Vegas.

What followed was a collapse rather than a drift. Connor Hellebuyck had knee surgery on 22 November 2025 and missed thirteen games before returning on 13 December. The team then went 0-7-4 between 15 December and 8 January. Scoring fell from 3.35 goals a game, third in the league, to 2.81, tied 24th. Only three forwards cleared 67 points.

Elimination came on 13 April 2026, with a 6-2 defeat to Vegas confirming it. The final record was 35-35-12, 82 points, seventh in the Central Division and twelfth in the Western Conference. Winnipeg became the fifth defending Presidents' Trophy holder to miss the play-offs, and the first league season in which that happened in back-to-back years. The individual numbers were not the problem: Mark Scheifele set career highs with 36 goals and 103 points, Kyle Connor scored 39 and finished on 92, and Gabriel Vilardi reached 72.

The goaltender who asked out

Hellebuyck signed a seven-year, $59.5 million contract on 9 October 2023. He won the Vezina Trophy in 2020, 2024 and 2025, took the Hart Trophy in 2025 as the league's most valuable player, and won Olympic gold at Milano Cortina in February 2026. He privately asked to be traded in April 2026, shortly after the club missed the play-offs, and made it public on 27 August 2026 with training camps due to open on 16 September. His statement said he had tried to handle the matter quietly and that moving on was the best path for him and his family.

General manager Kevin Cheveldayoff acknowledged the request the same day, saying the goaltender had been open about wanting a change, and later described him as part of the organisation until he is not. Hellebuyck did not report to camp and was suspended. As of mid-October no trade had been completed.

The club had already moved on the crease. Stuart Skinner signed a two-year, $7.5 million deal on 1 July 2026, with Clay Stevenson sharing the work early in the season. Defenceman Mario Ferraro arrived on a three-year, $12 million contract, and Viggo Bjorck, taken eighth overall in the 2026 draft, pushed for a roster place at eighteen. Head coach Scott Arniel is in a third season without an extension. The one piece of long-term certainty is Kyle Connor, re-signed on 8 October 2025 for eight years and $96 million, the richest contract the club has given out.

Six games into an 84-game season

This is the first campaign of an 84-game schedule. Winnipeg opened at home on Friday 2 October against Boston and lost in overtime, then beat Detroit on 4 October, Pittsburgh on 5 October and Colorado on 7 October before losing 5-1 to Anaheim on 9 October, a game Josh Morrissey missed with an upper-body injury.

On 13 October the team beat Minnesota 5-2 at Canada Life Centre. Cole Perfetti scored twice, opening the scoring 1:50 in for his fourth of the season; Scheifele added a goal and two assists, Connor a goal and an assist, and Cole Koepke scored as well. Kirill Kaprizov replied twice for Minnesota. Skinner made 19 saves. That left Winnipeg 4-1-1.

The rest of the calendar is shaped by a mid-season break from 4 to 12 February, a six-game homestand from 1 to 13 March and a finish in early April. TSN is carrying 50 games, 24 of them from Canada Life Centre.

Outdoors on 25 October

The eighth Heritage Classic brings Montreal to Princess Auto Stadium on Sunday 25 October 2026, with a 6pm face-off. Tickets went on sale on 24 March 2026. Winnipeg hosted the 2016 edition against Edmonton and played Calgary at a neutral Saskatchewan venue in 2019; Montreal has previously met Edmonton outdoors in 2003 and Calgary in 2011.

The alumni game is the night before, Saturday 24 October, indoors at Canada Life Centre. It is the first Heritage alumni fixture to feature players from the post-2011 team, including Dustin Byfuglien, the GST line and former captains Andrew Ladd and Blake Wheeler, alongside Canadiens alumni. Season ticket members were given first access.

What the building does on a normal night

Away from the outdoor game, the club leans hard on promotions. Single-game tickets went on sale on 11 August 2026 for a schedule that includes a Halloween game, a 90s night, an après-ski night, a hoser game and a country night. Headwear giveaways are spread across the season: a 90s denim dad hat on 10 November, a fuzzy bucket hat on 2 January, a hoser hat on 13 March and a cowboy hat on 20 March, with a beer boot cup, a collector cup and mittens filling the gaps.

A Lunar New Year night against the Los Angeles Kings on 17 February is new, joining Filipino, Ukrainian and South Asian heritage nights, WASAC Night and Black History Night. Other dates carry mental health, Pride, Hockey Fights Cancer, military appreciation, women in sport and Parkinson's awareness themes. A separate tier of specialty tickets bundles items that are not given away on the concourse, including a Scheifele bobblehead and a baseball jersey.