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Originally Posted by FireGilbert
I understand the Coyotes were not treated as an expansion team at the time but don’t get your argument as to why things can’t be changed now. Can’t the NHL just sort out any licensing issues and make the change retroactively?
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They could, but what would be the point? It's a fact that the original Winnipeg Jets franchise is now in Arizona, and it's a fact that the franchise now in Winnipeg was originally the Atlanta Thrashers. And it's a fact that Winnipeg was without an NHL team for 15 years, and for most of that time there was no plan to bring a team back there. Pretending otherwise will not make these facts go away.
By the way, there is precedent in the NHL for relocating a team and treating it as an expansion franchise in the new location. The New York Americans (1925-1942) were considered a new franchise which merely inherited the players of the defunct Hamilton Tigers (1920-1925). The fact that this was not done when the Jets left town demonstrates that the NHL had no intention of repeating that precedent in this case.