Mark Scheifele will begin the 2026-27 season with the Winnipeg Jets’ biggest offensive records newly within reach—and with Dale Hawerchuk officially standing in front of him.
The NHL has combined the record books of the original Winnipeg Jets and the current club, linking the team that played in Manitoba from 1979 through 1996 with the franchise that returned in 2011 after its Atlanta Thrashers years. For Scheifele, the change puts the player who coached him in junior hockey back at the centre of Winnipeg’s statistical history.
Hawerchuk back atop Winnipeg’s books
Hawerchuk now holds the Jets’ career marks for goals and points, with 379 goals and 929 points. Thomas Steen becomes the franchise leader in assists with 553.
Scheifele enters his 16th NHL season with 907 points in 961 games, made up of 372 goals and 535 assists. He can move into first place in each of those three categories during the coming campaign.
“There was always one player I was chasing, and that was Dale,” Scheifele said. He said the merged history makes that pursuit more meaningful, rather than treating his own milestones as separate accomplishments.
The centre said Hawerchuk belonged in the same records as the current Jets. Hawerchuk, he noted, was a defining figure in both the city and the club’s identity.
One Winnipeg story
- The original Jets entered the NHL in 1979 and spent 16 seasons in Winnipeg before moving to Phoenix in 1996.
- That relocated franchise’s records will remain with the Arizona Coyotes history, covering the club’s 1996-2024 existence. They will not be counted as Jets records.
- The Thrashers played in Atlanta from 1999 until the franchise moved to Winnipeg in 2011, reviving the Jets name.
- The NHL’s latest decision joins the 1979-96 Jets and the present-day Jets under one statistical umbrella.
NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said records carry the milestones and memories that shape both the game and the communities around it. He said the league supported Winnipeg’s effort to recognize its full NHL past as one continuing history.
True North Sports and Entertainment executive chairman Mark Chipman called the decision significant for the organization, former players and multiple generations of supporters. He said the first Jets teams built traditions and an identity that the current club can carry forward, adding that fans had long viewed those eras as part of the same Winnipeg story.
Scheifele expects the move to land well in the city. He said uniting Jets 1.0 and Jets 2.0 simply fits, particularly for fans who grew up following the first edition of the team.
A former coach, a record to chase
Hawerchuk recorded 929 points—379 goals and 550 assists—in 713 games across nine seasons with the original Jets from 1981 to 1990. His 16-season NHL career also included stops with the Buffalo Sabres, St. Louis Blues and Philadelphia Flyers. He entered the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2001.
He died of cancer on Aug. 18, 2020, at age 57.
Before Scheifele became Winnipeg’s long-serving No. 1 centre, Hawerchuk coached him for three seasons with the Barrie Colts of the Ontario Hockey League from 2010 to 2013. Scheifele had arrived after a trade from Saginaw, and recalled that Hawerchuk personally helped persuade him to join Barrie.
“I learned something from him every day,” Scheifele said in a 2018 interview, describing Hawerchuk’s influence during those junior seasons.
Scheifele has spent his entire NHL career with Winnipeg after the club selected him seventh overall in the 2011 NHL Draft. The Jets have reached the Stanley Cup Playoffs eight times since the franchise returned to Manitoba and captured the Presidents’ Trophy in 2024-25.
Winnipeg opens the 2026-27 regular season at home against the Boston Bruins on Oct. 2. Scheifele said he is eager to get back into games and the rhythm of the schedule, adding that he is ready for the season to begin.
