The representatives of Winnipeg and Minnesota have been in the NHL simultaneously for 21 seasons: the original Jets and the North Stars from the fall of 1979 through the 1992-93 season, and the second version of the Jets and the Wild from the fall of 2011 to the current first-round series that resumes with Game 5 in Winnipeg on Friday night.
The Jets were among four WHA teams absorbed into the NHL in the fall of 1979. For two seasons, the Jets and the North Stars were in different conferences, they were together in the Norris Division of the Campbell Conference in 1981-82, and then Winnipeg was moved to the Smythe Division.
The Smythe was also home to the Edmonton Oilers – Gretzky, Messier, Coffey, etc. – and some strong Winnipeg teams ran into early elimination.
The original Jets reached the playoffs 10 times and the North Stars 11 times in the 14 years that they were together in the NHL. There were only seven years when both the Jets and the North Stars reached the playoffs.
The best chance for a playoff series would have been in 1982, when the North Stars finished first and the Jets finished second in the Norris, but both were upset in the first round:
The "so close we can taste it'' Stars by Chicago, and the Jets by St. Louis.
Minnesota lost the North Stars to Dallas after the 1992-93 season and returned with the expansion Wild in the fall of 2000. Winnipeg lost the Jets to Phoenix after the 1995-96 season and returned with the transplanted Atlanta Thrashers in the fall of 2011.
Winnipeg replaced the Thrashers in the Eastern Conference for two years, and this is the fifth season that the new Jets and the Wild have been in the Central Division – greatly increasing the odds the two cities finally were going to wind up engaged in an NHL playoff series.