The Winnipeg Jets are a professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and are members of the Southeast Division of the National Hockey League's Eastern Conference. The team is owned by True North Sports & Entertainment, who purchased the Atlanta Thrashers franchise in Spring 2011 and relocated to Winnipeg prior to the 2011-12 NHL season (the first NHL franchise relocation since the Hartford Whalers became the Carolina Hurricanes in 1997). The Jets play their home games at the MTS Centre in Downtown Winnipeg, and take their name from Winnipeg's original WHA/NHL team, which became the Phoenix Coyotes in 1996.

The City of Atlanta was awarded an NHL expansion franchise, named the Atlanta Thrashers, on June 25, 1997. It was the second NHL franchise for Atlanta (their first being the Atlanta Flames, established in 1972, who departed for Calgary in 1980 to become the Calgary Flames). The Thrashers began play in the 1999–2000 season.

In their 12 years, the Thrashers qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs only once, during the 2006–07 season. Partially due to their lack of playoff success, the team had difficulty drawing fans to attend their games over their final seasons.

Winnipeg ⁱ/ˈwɪnɪpɛɡ/ is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers (a point commonly known as The Forks).

The name "Winnipeg" comes from the Cree for "muddy waters". The Winnipeg area was a trading centre for Aboriginal peoples prior to the arrival of Europeans. The first fort was built there in 1738 by French traders. A settlement was later founded by the Selkirk settlers in 1812, the nucleus of which was incorporated as the City of Winnipeg in 1873 with a population of 1,869. Winnipeg is the seventh-largest municipality in Canada, with a population of 663,617 in the Canada 2011 Census.

Winnipeg has a diversified economy, with sectors in finance, manufacturing, food and beverage production, culture, retail and tourism. Winnipeg is a major transportation hub, served by Richardson International Airport. The city has railway connections to the United States and Eastern and Western Canada through three Class I rail carriers.

Nail Railovich Yakupov (Russian: Наиль Раилович Якупов, Tatar Cyrillic: Наил Раил улы Якупов, Latin: Nail Rail uli Yakupov; born October 6, 1993) is a Russian junior ice hockey right winger currently playing for the Sarnia Sting of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL).

Besides being the consensus early favourite for top pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, Yakupov, a Tatar, and a Muslim also represents the first potential breakout hockey star from the Republic of Tatarstan (though there have been other NHLers from this region), a federal subject of the Russian Federation, located 500 miles east of Moscow.

Yakupov was selected second overall by the Sarnia Sting in the 2010 Canadian Hockey League (CHL) Import Draft. Prior to this, he played in the Russian Minor Hockey League (MHL) for his hometown team, the Reaktor Nizhnekamsk, but thought that trying to join the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) would be a quicker path to his dream to play in the National Hockey League (NHL).

Yakupov scored his first OHL goal against the Windsor Spitfires on September 24, 2010. After winning OHL Rookie of the Month for the month of October, Yakupov participated in the November 11 game of the Subway Super Series for Team Russia, at the John Labatt Centre in London, Ontario; Russia lost the game 4-0.

Zach Bogosian (born July 15, 1990) is an American professional ice hockey defenseman currently playing for the Winnipeg Jets. The first person of Armenian descent to play in the NHL, Bogosian attended Cushing Academy in Massachusetts before he joined the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) in 2006. He played two seasons in the OHL, and was nominated for the Red Tilson Trophy as the league's most outstanding player in his second season. Bogosian was regarded as a complete, physical defenseman who could contribute on both offense and defense; he was rated as one of the top players heading into the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, where the Atlanta Thrashers selected him third overall. He signed a contract with the team a few weeks after the draft and began the season with the Thrashers, though he missed several weeks of his rookie year due to injury. In his second season, he tied a team record for goals by a defenseman. Bogosian first played in an international tournament when he joined the American national team at the 2009 IIHF World Championship.

Ryan Reaves (born January 20, 1987) is a Canadian professional ice hockey right winger currently playing for the St. Louis Blues.

Reaves was drafted by the St. Louis Blues in round 5, #156 overall, of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft. Reaves was recalled from Peoria by the Blues on October 10, 2010 after Cam Janssen suffered a concussion from a hit to the head in the Blues season opener on October 9. Reaves made his NHL debut on October 11, 2010. in which he served 15 penalty minutes in the Blues' 5-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks. He was returned to Peoria after two games with the Blues as Vladimír Sobotka returned from the IR. He scored his first NHL goal on January 12, 2011 against Jonas Hiller of the Anaheim Ducks.

Ryan is the son of Willard Reaves, a former professional football player in the NFL and CFL.