Steven Gluckstern, a New York businessman, and Minnesota businessman Richard Burke bought the original Winnipeg Jets franchise from Barry Shenkarow. Gluckstern and Burke intended to relocate the financially woeful franchise to Minneapolis, Minnesota. After failing to reach a revenue sharing agreement to share the Target Center with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Gluckstern and Burke reached an agreement with Jerry Colangelo, the owner of the Phoenix Suns of the NBA, to share the America West Arena located in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1997 Gluckstern sold his stake in the franchise to Burke in order to acquire the New York Islanders from John Pickett, only to sell the franchise to Computer Associates executives Sanjay Kumar and Charles Wang in 2000.

The new ownership of the Islanders franchise led by the majority shareholder Gluckstern lasted only mere three seasons, but they managed to create controversy in their short reign on Long Island. The ownership group feuded with the management of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum over maintenance and arena safety and contemplated on the idea of playing home games in other arenas, including the Madison Square Garden, the home arena of the rival New York Rangers. The arena owner, the Nassau County, claimed the safety concerns raised by the ownership group was used to put pressure on the lease terms and to finance a new arena with public money. The ownership put further pressure on the arena issue by salary dumping, which saw core players, such as Bryan Berard, Trevor Linden, Rich Pilon and Zigmund Pálffy, being traded mainly for draft picks.