The original owner was Ben Hatskin, a local figure who made his wealth in cardboard shipping containers.

Winnipeg's fortunes were bolstered by acquisitions such as Swedish forwards Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson, who starred with Hull on the WHA's most famous and successful forward line (nicknamed "the Hot Line"), and defenceman Lars-Erik Sjoberg, who would serve as the team's captain and win accolades as the WHA's best defenceman.

During the 1979 Avco Cup Finals, Gary Smith gave up the last goal in WHA history to Dave Semenko in a 7–3 win against the Oilers.

Pre-merger inter-league exhibitions had shown that the 1978–79 Jets were the competitive equal of most NHL teams, with the possible exceptions of the three-time defending Stanley Cup champion, the Montreal Canadiens, and the rising New York Islanders.

In the expansion draft, they opted to protect defenceman Scott Campbell, who had shown a good deal of promise in the last WHA season.

The team developed a solid core of players by the mid-1980s, with Hawerchuk, Thomas Steen, Paul MacLean, Randy Carlyle, Laurie Boschman, Doug Smail, and David Ellett providing a strong nucleus.

Led by Hawerchuk, Steen, Babych and Carlyle, the Jets returned to respectability fairly quickly, and made the playoffs 11 times in the next 15 years.

As the NHL expanded in the United States and free agency rules were liberalized, operating costs and salaries grew rapidly; players had the leverage to demand being paid in U.S. dollars league-wide.

Faced with mounting losses, Jets owner Barry Shenkarow agreed to sell the team to American businessmen Steven Gluckstern and Richard Burke for $65 million.

[5] They planned to move the team to the Minneapolis–Saint Paul region, which had lost the Minnesota North Stars to Dallas before the 1993–94 season.

[6] Meanwhile, Gluckstern and Burke failed to reach an agreement with the Minneapolis to share the Target Center with the National Basketball Association's Minnesota Timberwolves.

The NHL ultimately returned to Winnipeg 15 years later, with the Atlanta Thrashers relocating to become the second incarnation of the Jets franchise which is owned by True North Sports & Entertainment.

Prior to this, True North submitted a series of bids for the financially-troubled Coyotes in October 2009, which were taken seriously enough that the league drew up a tentative schedule with Winnipeg in place of Phoenix.

Another tradition that was retained when the franchise moved to Phoenix was the "whiteout", in which fans wore all white to home playoff games.

They have also worn throwback uniforms of the original Jets on a few occasions, and brought back the whiteout tradition in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

[10] Unlike the Thrashers' relocation to Winnipeg (which saw all records transferred), the Coyotes entered inactivity, with their intellectual property remaining in Phoenix.

[11] However, in late June, Meruelo opted to discontinue his efforts to build an arena and re-activate the team, ceding the Coyotes intellectual property back to the NHL, and leaving the fate of the Jets/Coyotes records uncertain.

In the franchise's first season, the uniforms featured the futuristic "Jets" wordmark in front along with red or white player nameplates.

Starting in 1974, the Jets donned their "classic" look, ditching the contrast-colour nameplates and unveiling their famous roundel logo.

Then-general manager John Ferguson Sr. had been derided for changing the classic New York Rangers uniforms during the late 1970s, so he brought most elements of that design to the Jets.

In 1990, the Jets unveiled their final uniform design, featuring the updated crest in front and contrasting sleeve and waist stripes.

[13] Before the 2021–22 season, the blue WHA-era uniform the modern-day Jets wore in the 2019 Heritage Classic became the team's third jersey.

[15] The Winnipeg whiteout is a tradition that dates back to 1987 when fans were asked to wear white clothing to home playoff games, creating a very intimidating effect and atmosphere.

Beginning with the 2014–15 season, those numbers were unretired and brought back to circulation; they were still inducted as part of the Arizona Coyotes Ring of Honor.