Winnipeg Jets Hockey Team

The president of the Winnipeg Jets said he has no plans to sell the NHL team to an investors' group from Anaheim, in the wake of Canadian news reports Tuesday that a purchase offer was made. "We have not accepted any offers," Jets President Barry Shenkarow said in a telephone interview. "We're not moving and we're not selling the team. Let's drop it." Shenkarow conceded that he has been approached by people who "said they want to buy the team."

Teemu Selanne still uses a piece of luggage with Winnipeg Jets embroidered on the side, with his name embossed on black leather. That weathered hang-up bag is one of the last ties he has to the team he and the Mighty Ducks will play in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs beginning Wednesday at the Pond. "Somehow it seems like five years ago when I was traded," said Selanne, who arrived from Winnipeg on Feb. 7, 1996, only months before the franchise moved to Phoenix.

Negotiations to bring the Winnipeg Jets to Arizona next season have been completed and all that remains is approval from the NHL. Jerry Colangelo, the chief negotiator for Phoenix and owner of the NBA's Phoenix Suns and baseball's expansion Arizona Diamondbacks, said he and the Jets' owners, Richard Burke and Steven Gluckstern, will sign a letter of intent Tuesday in New York. That letter will be taken to the NHL Board of Governors meeting Thursday in Palm Beach, Fla.

The Winnipeg Jets know they're being pursued. They have felt it nearly every morning the last few weeks when they picked up the newspaper as the Mighty Ducks closed in on them. The Ducks were at their heels again Tuesday, walking into the Jets' hotel across from Reunion Arena a few hours before Winnipeg's game against the Dallas Stars, the Ducks' opponent Thursday.

Teemu Selanne still uses a piece of luggage with Winnipeg Jets embroidered on the side, with his name embossed on black leather. That weathered hang-up bag is one of the last ties he has to the team he and the Mighty Ducks will play in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs beginning Wednesday at the Pond. "Somehow it seems like five years ago when I was traded," said Selanne, who arrived from Winnipeg on Feb. 7, 1996, only months before the franchise moved to Phoenix.

In a stunning departure from their plan to build slowly and cautiously, the Mighty Ducks acquired Winnipeg star Teemu Selanne on Wednesday, giving up their last two first-round draft picks--defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky and center Chad Kilger. With Selanne, nicknamed the Finnish Flash, the Ducks finally have a linemate worthy of Paul Kariya, the young star who had been creating opportunities for teammates not always capable of cashing in.

Just when boredom was setting in, just when rows of empty seats were popping up all over the supposedly sold-out Pond of Anaheim and another silent spring was on the horizon, the Mighty Ducks made the best move they've pulled off since they named themselves after a kiddie movie. Finally, the Ducks learned that fireworks fizzle and giveaway T-shirts lose their novelty.

Winnipeg Jet General Manager Mike Smith said that he will match the Calgary Flames' $2.7-million offer to Finnish star Teemu Selanne.

The Chicago Blackhawks traded newly acquired goaltender Stephane Beauregard to the Winnipeg Jets for center Christian Ruuttu and future considerations.

A photograph of Teemu Selanne in a Winnipeg Jet uniform still hangs in the customs hall at the airport here, among the displays of local attractions. Six weeks after he was traded to the Mighty Ducks for defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky and center Chad Kilger, fans still talk about Selanne and the spectacular goals he scored for the Jets, a fascination Tverdovsky understands.

At the first practice, Teemu Selanne smiled and the Mighty Ducks smiled along with him. He laughed, they laughed. He skated like the wind, they skated like the wind. Or tried to, anyway. Right from the start, it was clear something would be different about the Ducks. Selanne would make it so. After all, that's why they put on his shoulders the burden of leading the franchise out of its infancy and into maturity. It's why he was acquired in the Feb. 7 trade with the Winnipeg Jets.

The Mighty Ducks' trade for Teemu Selanne has left two jilted cities in its wake--Winnipeg, the frigid outpost where he became a star, and Phoenix, the Sunbelt city where he was supposed to sell the game of hockey next season. Selanne was already being promoted in Phoenix as the new team's marquee player. Now he's history, and people had hardly learned to pronounce his name. "I was shocked," said Gary Narinyan, a serious hockey fan who is a salesman at a sports apparel store in Phoenix.

In a stunning departure from their plan to build slowly and cautiously, the Mighty Ducks acquired Winnipeg star Teemu Selanne on Wednesday, giving up their last two first-round draft picks--defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky and center Chad Kilger. With Selanne, nicknamed the Finnish Flash, the Ducks finally have a linemate worthy of Paul Kariya, the young star who had been creating opportunities for teammates not always capable of cashing in.

Just when boredom was setting in, just when rows of empty seats were popping up all over the supposedly sold-out Pond of Anaheim and another silent spring was on the horizon, the Mighty Ducks made the best move they've pulled off since they named themselves after a kiddie movie. Finally, the Ducks learned that fireworks fizzle and giveaway T-shirts lose their novelty.

A look at the principals of Wednesday's trade between the Ducks and Winnipeg Jets. TEEMU SELANNE Height: 6-0. Weight: 200. Born: July 3, 1970, in Helsinki, Finland. Shoots right. Winnipeg's first-round pick (10th overall) in the 1988 entry draft. Scored a league-leading 76 goals and won the Calder Trophy as the NHL rookie of the year in 1992-93. Selected to play in the All-Star games in 1992-93, 1993-94 and 1995-96.

To the thousands of Ducks fans who actually made it to Wednesday night's game at the Pond, job well done. It couldn't have been easy, picking yourselves off your living room floors, applying the cold compresses, ordering out for smelling salts and composing yourselves in time for a 7:35 p.m. faceoff after you were given the news. Teemu Selanne to the Mighty Ducks.