<Tr> <Th> Official website </Th> <Td> www.nhl.com/jets </Td> </Tr> <P> The Winnipeg Jets are a professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada . They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The team is owned by True North Sports & Entertainment and plays its home games at Bell MTS Place . </P> <P> The Jets began play as the Atlanta Thrashers in the 1999--2000 NHL season . True North Sports & Entertainment then bought the team in May 2011 and relocated the franchise from Atlanta, Georgia to Winnipeg prior to the 2011--12 season (the first NHL franchise to relocate since the Hartford Whalers became the Carolina Hurricanes in 1997). The team was renamed the Jets after Winnipeg's original WHA / NHL team, which relocated after the 1995--96 season to become the team now known as the Arizona Coyotes . </P> <P> On December 27, 1971, Winnipeg was granted one of the founding franchises in the World Hockey Association (WHA). By 1979, the vast majority of the WHA's teams had folded, but the Jets were still going strong and they were absorbed into the NHL along with the Quebec Nordiques, Edmonton Oilers and Hartford Whalers as part of the WHA--NHL merger . Team owner Barry Shenkarow sold the team to American businessmen Steven Gluckstern and Richard Burke . Burke and Gluckstern originally planned to move the team to Minnesota (which had lost the North Stars to Dallas in 1993), but eventually reached an agreement with Phoenix businessman Jerry Colangelo that would see the team move to Arizona and become the Phoenix Coyotes . The original Winnipeg Jets played their last game on April 28, 1996 . </P>

When did winnipeg jets come back to winnipeg