The hockey world mourns a longtime icon whose vision helped reshape an entire franchise: Ted Turner
Ted Turner never coached a game, but his push to bring the NHL back to Atlanta changed where the league landed next.
When Turner died Wednesday at 87, the hockey angle hit a little differently.
He wasn't just a media giant. He was the original owner of the Atlanta Thrashers, the franchise that later became the current Winnipeg Jets.
That link matters because the modern Jets do not exist in Winnipeg without the Atlanta chapter first opening.
Turner helped create that opening when he brought the NHL back to the city in 1999.
Atlanta had already lost one NHL team when the Flames left for Calgary in 1980.
For the league to circle back less than 20 years later took ownership muscle, money, and a market big enough to make the bet.
Turner had both the profile and the ambition to make that happen.
His name carried weight far beyond sports, and that gave the NHL a powerful entry point in a non-traditional market.
The Thrashers never found lasting footing.
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The club lasted 12 years before being sold in 2011 to the group that moved it north and brought NHL hockey back to Winnipeg.
The Atlanta move by Ted Turner that reshaped Winnipeg
That's the part of Turner's hockey legacy that sticks. He did not build a champion in Atlanta, but he helped set the chain in motion for one of the league's biggest market restorations.
Winnipeg had been without an NHL team since the original Jets moved to Arizona in 1996.
By 2011, the Thrashers gave the league the fast relocation path it needed.
That's why this story lands as more than a memorial.
It is also a reminder that franchise history is rarely clean, and sometimes one failed stop becomes another city's second chance.
Turner will be remembered first for CNN, broadcasting, and the 24-hour news cycle.
In hockey, his place is more indirect, but it is still stamped on the map.
No Turner, no Thrashers. No Thrashers, maybe no quick return for the NHL in Winnipeg.
That's a real part of the league's modern story, whether fans in Atlanta want to revisit it or not.
And that's what makes his passing worth noting in hockey circles.
Ted Turner didn't just touch the sport. He altered the path of a franchise that still skates today.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 6, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Josh Doan | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Ryan McLeod | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Zach Benson | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Bowen Byram | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Leo Carlsson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Kirby Dach | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jordan Greenway | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jansen Harkins | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Beckett Sennecke | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mark Stone | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nick Suzuki | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Zachary Bolduc | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ivan Demidov | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Chris Kreider | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ryan Poehling | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mattias Samuelsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Juraj Slafkovsky | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Troy Terry | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Shea Theodore | - | 1 | 1 | |
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