True North brings Manitoba Moose back to Winnipeg

The Manitoba Moose are back.

The Winnipeg Jets ownership group, True North Sports and Entertainment, announced Monday that the return of itsAmerican Hockey League affiliateto the city will also mark the return of the Moose name.

The team spent the past four years in St. John's,Newfoundland and Labrador, as the IceCaps.

It was announced in March this yearthat the team wouldrelocate to the Manitoba capital for the 2015-16 season.What wasn't known yet, was the team's name.

• Hamilton Bulldogs moving to St. John's,IceCapsto Winnipeg

Jets general manager KevinCheveldayoff said having the farm team so closewill helpplayers makethe shift to the NHL a little smoother.

True North executive chairmanMark Chipman said it will be rewarding to be "developing our own players in front of our own fans."

"It was remarkable, frankly, and I've said this beforewe wouldn't be in the NHL today but for those 15 years," Chipman said. "And I wouldn't give back any one of those years. It's in our DNA."

True North bought the Moose franchise and moved it to Winnipeg from Minnesotaafter the original NHL Jets left the city in 1996.

The Moose then shifted to St. John'swhen True North purchased and relocatedthe NHL's Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg in 2011.The Thrashers were renamed the Jets, while theMoose were renamed the IceCaps andbecame Jets' farm team.

In March, it was announced theMontreal Canadiens' AHL affiliate,the Hamilton Bulldogs, would be moving to St. John's, which opened the door for True North to bring the IceCapscloser to home.

Initially, the plan was for the team to move to Winnipeg while an arena was built in Thunder Bay. But plans for the arena and events centre in Thunder Bay collapsed when federal funding fell through.

• Thunder Bay event centre plan scrapped

On Monday, Chipmansaid theAHL team is expected to behere to stay for the foreseeable future, not for a brief,interim basis.

"It's absolutely our hope that this is long-term. I mean you can't say anything with absolute certainty other than we're going to give this our very best effort," he said.

"It's certainly Kevin [Cheveldayoff]and mine and our entire organizations' hope that this team will be here for a long, long time."

Cheveldayoffsaid both the Jets and Moosewill play their games at the MTS Centre in downtown Winnipeg.

The Moose brought back thesame snarling Moose logo they used the last time they were in the city but have changed their colours, dropping thegreen, black, bronze, and white andadoptingthe Jets' blue and white.

However, unlike the Jets, the Moose will wear white jerseys at home and dark (navy) jerseys on the road asper AHL rules.

Ticket prices

Going to a Moose game will be much more affordable than the Jets and fans can watch the NHL club's future stars before they get called up to the big show.

The average individual game ticket to see the Moose will be $19.63, which is actually cheaper than the $22 average back in 2011.

Prices vary depending on whether the seats are in the P1, P2 or P3 sections, ranging from $15 to $25. Game tickets for the Jets, in comparison, range from $100 to $140 for those same seats.

Season tickets will run from $570 to $950 for the Moose. The same season ticket seats command $4,600 to $6,400 for the Jets.

The Moose/IceCaps franchise has strong history of developing players for the NHL, some of whom includeMichael Hutchinson,Adam Lowry,Alexandre Burrows,Alexander Edler,Cory Schneider,Eddie Lack, Ryan Kesler, andKevin Bieksa.