The Winnipeg Jets were coming off back-to-back Avco Cup Championships when they entered the NHL along with the Edmonton Oilers, Hartford Whalers and Quebec Nordiques in June, 1979. Winnipeg had appeared in four straight WHA finals, winning three of them.
While merger talks between the two leagues were still ongoing, after the Jets easily swept aside the Howe family and the New England Whalers in 1978, they were dealt a huge blow by the New York Rangers, who signed two thirds of Winnipeg’s “Hot Line” in skilled Swedes Ulf Nilsson and Anders Hedberg on March 20, 1978.