Coyotes players informed of team’s expected move to Salt Lake City – source
Arizona Coyotes players have been informed that the NHL club is expected to relocate to Salt Lake City, according to a person with knowledge of the meeting.
General manager Bill Armstrong flew to Edmonton, Alberta, to tell players about the team’s possible move to Utah before the game against the Oilers, the person told the Associated Press on Friday on condition of anonymity because the decision has not been announced.
Players and officials could visit Salt Lake City next week, possibly as early as after the season finale Wednesday, which could be the final game at the 5,000-seat Mullett Arena in Tempe.
The news comes amid rumors that Ryan Smith, owner of the NBA’s Utah Jazz, has been working to acquire an NHL team, a move that could involve the league buying and turning around Alex Meruelo’s Coyotes. Smit earlier this week requested name ideas for a possible team in Salt Lake City, and the league has been working on two different versions of the 2024-2025 schedule, depending on whether the franchise plays in Arizona or Utah.
Smith Entertainment Group said in January 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. That announcement included the request to begin an expansion process.
But the game was also conspicuously mid-season and there was no long-term home for the Coyotes in Arizona. An arena referendum in Tempe failed last year, and in recent weeks the team said it was committed to winning a land auction for a potential arena site in Phoenix.
Even if that auction is successful, it could send the NHL back to the desert later this decade. Marty Walsh, executive director of the NHLPA, had repeatedly expressed concern about the current situation while playing in a small arena on Arizona State’s campus, which was a possible home for the team until a new building was constructed.
Now the team is likely headed to its third location since joining the World Hockey Association league in 1979. Originally the Winnipeg Jets, the club was sold to a Phoenix ownership group in 1996, led by Jerry Colangelo of the Suns, and moved to Arizona and was renamed the Coyotes.
She sold that group to developer Steve Ellman in 2001, with Wayne Gretzky part of the ownership group and head of hockey operations. The Coyotes moved from Phoenix to nearby Glendale in 2003.
After experiencing major financial problems, Ellman sold to trucking magnate Jerry Moyes in 2005. The problems persisted for several years, and the NHL went 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 was revealed he planned to sell it to Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie of Blackberry fame, who planned to move the team to Hamilton, Ontario. After bankruptcy proceedings and multiple failed bids to purchase the team over several years, a group of Canadian businessmen took over in 2013.
In 2014, that group agreed to sell a 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 has owned the team since before the sale. Smith Entertainment Group.
Officials from Salt Lake City, Utah and the city’s 2034 Olympic bid supported Smith’s effort 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 and most active population,” Gov. Spencer Cox said in January. “These factors make Utah ripe for the expansion of our sports and entertainment community.”
Smith said he and his group were “100% focused on making this happen as quickly as possible.” It now appears to be happening for the 2024-2025 NHL season.
Salt Lake City gets the Coyotes over other options like Houston, which had been speculated as a relocation possibility since the league announced in 2018 that they would move to the Central Division in 2021 with the addition of the expansion Seattle Kraken. The success of the Kraken and Vegas Golden Knights, who won the Stanley Cup in their sixth season of existence last year, has created optimism about a new hockey market in the western US.