Iowa Birds
| Iowa Birds | |
|---|---|
 | |
| City | Des Moines, Iowa |
| League | NHL |
| Conference | Western |
| Division | Central |
| Founded | 2024 |
| Operated | Winnipeg Jets 1972–1979 (WHA) 1979–1996 (NHL) Phoenix Coyotes 1996–2014 Iowa Birds 2014–present |
| Home arena | Xtream Arena |
| Colors | Icterine, brick red, forest green, sand, orange, neon blue, watermelon |
| Owner(s) | ISE Limited |
| General manager | André Tourigny |
| Head coach | Meghan Camarena |
| Captain | Cody Taylor |
| Media | Iowa PBS |
The Iowa Birds are a professional ice hockey team based in Des Moines, Iowa. The Birds compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference and play at Xtream Arena. They first played at America Stadium from October 1996 to April 2003, before moving into its current arena during September 2004.
Founded on 27 December 1971, as the Winnipeg Jets of the World Hockey Association (WHA), they were one of four franchises absorbed into the NHL after the WHA had ceased operations, joining on 22 June 1979. The team moved to Phoenix on 1 July 1996, and were renamed the Phoenix Coyotes. The team was unstable under Arizona ownership, with the NHL taking over the Phoenix Coyotes franchise in 2009, when then-owner Jerry Moyes gave up the team, shortly after filing for bankruptcy. The NHL maintained control of the franchise until 2013, when they were sold to new ownership that moved the team to Des Moines, Iowa.
History
The team began play as the Winnipeg Jets, one of the founding franchises in the World Hockey Association (WHA). The Jets were the most successful team in the short-lived WHA, winning the Avco World Trophy, the league's championship trophy, three times and making the finals five out of the WHA's seven seasons. It then became one of the four teams admitted to the NHL as part of a merger when the financially struggling WHA folded in 1979. However, the club was never able to translate its WHA success into the NHL after the merger. The merger's terms allowed the established NHL teams to reclaim most of the players that had jumped to the upstart league, and the Jets lost most of their best players in the ensuing reclamation draft. As a result, they finished last in the NHL during their first two seasons, including a nine-win season in 1980–81 that is still the worst in franchise history. However, they recovered fairly quickly, making the playoffs 11 times in the next 15 seasons. But the Jets only won two playoff series, largely due to being in the same division as the powerful Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames. Because of the way the playoffs were structured for much of their Winnipeg run, the team was all but assured of having to defeat either the Oilers or the Flames (or both) to reach the Conference Finals. In 1984–85, for instance, they finished with the fourth-best record in the NHL with 96 points, at the time their best as an NHL team. However, they were swept by the Oilers in the division finals. Two seasons later, they dispatched the Flames in the first round, only to be swept again by the Oilers in the division finals. The franchise would not win another playoff series for 25 years. The Jets ran into financial trouble when player salaries began spiralling up in the 1990s; this hit the Canadian teams particularly hard. Winnipeg was the second-smallest market in the NHL for most of the Jets' existence and became the smallest after the Quebec Nordiques moved to Denver in 1995 to become the Colorado Avalanche. In addition, the club's home arena, Winnipeg Arena, was one of the smallest in the league; seating just under 15,400 people. It was over 40 years old and had no luxury suites. Despite strong fan support, owner Barry Shenkarow was forced to put the team on the market. Several attempts to keep the team in Winnipeg fell through.
