Although the first superstar of the Jets 1.0 era (of National Hockey League fame) Dale Hawerchuck was snubbed from the NHL's Centennial Top 100 despite being the youngest player to reach 100 points until Sidney Crosby came along, missing the rookie points record by three points in his rookie year of 1981-82, and scoring at least 100 points seven out of his first eight seasons. He endd his career, playing for four different clubs with 1188 games played in which he scored 518 goals and 891 assists for 1409 points. He averaged a point a game in his career. He presently sits 19th all-time on the NHL scoring list, but yet, no place in the NHL top 100.
However, one former Jet that they couldn't ignore, even though it turned out he played a heavy majority of his career in Anaheim, is Teemu Selanne. Selanne is a first-ballot hall-of-famer, he holds the rookie goal-scoring and points record, scoring an inconceivable 76 goals and 132 points in the 1992-93 season as a member of the Winnipeg Jets. He is the current all-time Olympic points leader with 105. He, along with Joe Sakic, was named to the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Hall of Fame last month
He was traded by the new owners of the Jets in 1996, just after the sale of the team to know-nothing owners, Steven Gluckstern and Richard Burke (they wanted to save money on contract salaries, so they demanded former Jets general manager John Paddock trade Selanne instead of Kieth Tkachuck or Alexei Zhamnov before the team the team moved to Phoenix, Arizona.)
He won a Stanley Cup with the Anaheim Ducks in 2007. He earned it. He should have won with the Jets if the hockey gods made it fair to Winnipeg fans - they didn't. But Selanne got what a player of his talent and personal calibre deserve. Accolades, a championship, respect, and soon to be enshrined in the Hockey Hall Of Fame.
For this, Selanne will always be a Jet. Anaheim may have had the opportunity to witness his brilliance for the better part of 16 years, but Winnipeg will always see him as one of their own.
