The National Hockey League had only six franchises in the late 1960s, and today the sport has expanded to 32 teams across North America—including 7 franchises in Canada. For our second NHL Saturday miniseries, we’re going to look at all NHL organizations and highlight the best teams in those respective histories. Yes, the Seattle Kraken and the Vegas Golden Knights have little to choose from at this point, but that’s okay; we don’t want to wait five more years to do this miniseries!

Today we take on the Arizona Coyotes, who originated as the Winnipeg Jets in the 1979-1980 season. After spending 17 seasons north of the border, the Jets relocated to Phoenix and became the Coyotes. It’s hard to believe there has been hockey in the desert now for 26 years! This is an organization with just one appearance in the conference finals, overall, and no trips to the Stanley Cup Finals, so the list below is the best of the best with those considerations in mind.

No. 5: 1999-2000 Phoenix Coyotes

With just 90 points and a third-place finish in the Pacific Division, this is the fifth-best team in franchise history. It lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Colorado Avalanche in five games. Center Jeremy Roenick was the top scorer with just 78 points (34G, 44A) in 75 games. Only one other player tallied more than 50 points on the team (right wing Shane Doan with 51). Four different goaltenders got at least 7 decisions on the year, too, showing this was not a talented team at all.

In fact, the Coyotes outscored their opponents by just 4 goals on the season as a whole. Phoenix went 4-4-8 in overtime games, as ties were still a thing in this era of the NHL. In regulation matches, the ‘Yotes posted a 35-27 record, which is way above what the score-differential projection would suggest. Phoenix had to play a tight game with its weaknesses on both ends of the ice, and Head Coach Bobby Francis clearly got the most out of this talent with this squad.

No. 4: 2011-2012 Phoenix Coyotes

Not only is this the only team in franchise history to reach the conference finals, it’s also the only group in team history to win its division. These Coyotes posted 97 points in winning the Pacific Division by 1 point over the San Jose Sharks and 2 points over the eventual Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings. In fact, the latter team was the No. 8 seed in the postseason, as all five other playoff teams posted over 100 points during the regular season, so getting to the Western Conference Finals was a huge feat.

Team leaders included aging left wing Ray Whitney (24G, 53A) and journeyman goalie Mike Smith (38-18-19)—who turned in the season of his career. Whitney was 39 years old, and Smith was with his third team before age 30. But his 2.21 GAA, .930 save percentage, and 8 shutouts really helped Phoenix finished 7th in goals allowed on the season, propelling them to playoff success: the ‘Yotes knocked off the Chicago Blackhawks and the Nashville Predators before losing to the red-hot Kings.

No. 3: 2001-2002 Phoenix Coyotes

With 95 points, these guys finished second in the Pacific Division, before losing to the Sharks in the first round of the playoffs. With 40 victories, this Coyotes squad is just one of 7 teams in organizational history to reach that threshold, as well. Looking at the roster, though, it’s hard to imagine just how this team managed to win as many games as it did: only two skaters finished above 50 points, and neither of them had more than 62 points.

So, the team strength was in goaltending, right? Primary goalie Sean Burke played in a whopping 60 games, posting a 33-21-6 mark, with great peripherals (2.29 GAA, .920 S%). Strangely, the team was just 4-6-9 in overtime games, which seems to go against the notion that the low-scoring teams need to squeeze everything they can out of the extra session. Not so much in this case, which means Francis, once again, was better in regulation-only games (36-21).

No. 2: 2009-2010 Phoenix Coyotes

With 107 points, this squad set the organization record, compiling 50 wins in the process. Sadly, they lost the first-round playoff matchup to the two-time defending conference champion Detroit Red Wings in seven games. But Phoenix finished third overall in goals allowed, thanks to goalies Ilya Bryzgalov (42-20-6) and Jason LaBarbera (8-5-1). Combined, they surrendered just 2.26 goals per game as the skaters managed 2.74 goals per game themselves.

Leading the skaters was Doan (18G, 37A) along with center Matthew Lombardi (19G, 34A). They were the only two skaters to crack the 50-point barrier on this offensively challenged team. In fact, the Coyotes were 14-6 in shootouts, which means they really leaned heavily on the goalies to pull out victories for them, as the two goaltenders combined only lost 1 game in the overtime period itself. The shootout results may have artificially inflated the team record, but good goalies are good good goalies.

No. 1: 1984-1985 Winnipeg Jets

With a 43-27-10 record, this team finished second in its division before losing in the second round of the postseason to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Edmonton Oilers. Why is it the best team in organizational history? Well, with 358 goals scored, it finished third in the NHL for scoring, and the SOS was eighth in the league—including playing in the same division as those Oilers and having to face them oh-so-many times. This was the high-scoring era of the NHL, and it shows in the stats.

Two Jets finished with over 100 points: C Dale Hawerchuk (53G, 77A) and RW Paul MacLean (41G, 60A). Meanwhile, the goalies look terrible on paper: a team 4.01 GAA and an .872 S%. But again, it was the times, and even those scary numbers left the Jets a mere 15th in the league for scoring defense. In addition to the 10 ties, Winnipeg posted a 3-1 record in OT games that didn’t result in a tie, which is too small of a sample to draw conclusions from … but only one overtime loss all season? Wow.