Arizona Coyotes players have been informed that the NHL club is expected to move to Salt Lake City, according to a person with knowledge of the meeting.
General manager Bill Armstrong traveled to Edmonton, Alberta, to brief players on the team’s potential move to Utah before the game against the Oilers, the person told The Associated Press under cover of anonymity Friday because the decision has not been announced.
Players and officials could travel to Salt Lake City next week, perhaps as soon as after the season finale Wednesday, which could be the final game at Tempe’s 5,000-seat Mullett Arena.
Coyotes players were unavailable after Friday night’s 3-2 overtime win over Edmonton and coach André Tourigny said he would only answer questions about the game.
“This team has been through a lot of adversity,” Tourigny said. “The first time the rumor came out, we didn’t handle it well and we shot ourselves in the foot and went on a 14-game losing streak. Our guys show how proud they are, how much they care about each other and how much they want to succeed with each other. It’s cool to feel that, cool to see them encouraging each other and pushing in the same direction like that.
The news comes as Ryan Smith, owner of the NBA’s Utah Jazz, is working on acquiring an NHL team, a move that could include the league purchasing Alex Meruelo’s Coyotes and turning them around.
Smith earlier this week name ideas requested for a possible team in Salt Lake City, and the league has been working on two different plans for the 2024-25 schedule depending on whether the franchise plays in Arizona or Utah.
Smith Entertainment Group said in January that it was interested in bringing a hockey team to Salt Lake City and had the immediate ability to facilitate that.
The team would play at the Delta Center until a new arena could be built. This announcement included the request to initiate an expansion process.
But it was also noticeably timed toward the middle of the season and without a long-term home for the Coyotes in Arizona.
Last year, an arena referendum in Tempe failed, and in recent weeks the team has said it is determined to win a land auction for a potential arena site in Phoenix .
Even if this auction is successful, it could send the NHL back into the wilderness later this decade.
NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh has repeatedly expressed concerns about the current situation, playing in a small arena on the campus of Arizona State, which was a possible home for the team until until a new building is built.
Now the team is heading to likely its third location since joining the league from the World Hockey Association in 1979.
Originally the Winnipeg Jets, the club was sold to a Phoenix-area ownership group led by Jerry Colangelo of the Suns in 1996, moved to Arizona and was renamed the Coyotes.
That group sold them in 2001 to promoter Steve Ellman, with Wayne Gretzky serving as part of the ownership group and head of hockey operations. In 2003, the Coyotes moved from Phoenix to nearby Glendale.
After experiencing significant financial difficulties, Ellman sold his company to trucking magnate Jerry Moyes in 2005.
The problems persisted for several years and the NHL moved from paying the team’s bills to taking operational control of the organization in 2008.
Moyes bankrupted the team and was stripped of his remaining ownership after it became known that he intended to sell to Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie of Blackberry fame, who planned to move the team to Hamilton, Ontario.
After bankruptcy litigation and several failed attempts to purchase the team over several years, a group of Canadian businessmen took over in 2013.
In 2014, that group agreed to sell its majority stake to Philadelphia hedge fund manager Andrew Barroway, who bought out the rest of the team’s shares in 2017.
Meruelo purchased a majority stake from Barroway in 2019 and owned the team before the sale to Smith Entertainment Group.
Officials in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the city’s bid for the 2034 Olympics have supported Smith’s attempt to bring hockey to the state.
“Utah has a long history with hockey, the nation’s strongest economy, a passionate sports fan base and the youngest, most active population,” Gov. Spencer Cox said in January. “These factors make Utah ripe for expansion of our sports and entertainment community.”
Smith said he and his group are “100% focused on making this happen as quickly as possible.” This now appears to be happening for the 2024-25 NHL season.
Salt Lake City gets the Coyotes over other options, like Houston, which has been speculated as a relocation possibility since the league announced in 2018 that it would move to the Central Division in 2021 with the addition of the expansion of the Seattle Kraken.
The success of the Kraken and Vegas Golden Knights, who won the Stanley Cup last year in their sixth season of existence, has sparked optimism about another hockey market in the Western United States .
New York Post
