Arizona Coyotes players have been informed that the NHL club is expected to relocate to Salt Lake City.
General manager Bill Armstrong flew to Edmonton, Alberta, to inform the players about the team’s possible move to Utah before the game against the Oilers.
Players and officials could visit Salt Lake City next week, possibly as soon as Wednesday’s season finale, which could be the last 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 include the league purchasing Alex Meruelo’s Coyotes and trading them.
Smith earlier this week requested name ideas for a potential team in Salt Lake City, and the league has been working on two different drafts of the 2024-25 schedule depending on whether the franchise plays in Arizona or Utah.
Arizona Coyotes players have been told the NHL club is expected to move to Salt Lake City
Ryan Smith, owner of the NBA’s Utah Jazz, is working on a deal to buy the Coyotes
In January, Smith Entertainment Group said it was interested in bringing a hockey team to Salt Lake City and had the immediate ability to facilitate it. 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 it also notably came near the middle of the season and without a long-term home for the Coyotes in Arizona. Last year, a stadium referendum in Tempe failed and in recent weeks the team said it was committed to winning a land auction for a potential stadium site in Phoenix.
Even if that auction is successful, it could send the NHL back into the wilderness later this decade. NHLPA CEO Marty Walsh had repeatedly expressed concern about the current situation, playing in a small stadium on Arizona State’s campus, which was a possible home for the team until a new building was constructed.
The team is now likely headed to 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 the Suns’ Jerry Colangelo in 1996, moved to Arizona and was renamed the Coyotes.
That group sold them in 2001 to developer Steve Ellman, with Wayne Gretzky as part of the ownership group and head of hockey operations. In 2003, the Coyotes moved from Phoenix to nearby Glendale.
After incurring significant financial difficulties, Ellman sold to transportation magnate Jerry Moyes in 2005. The problems continued for several years and the NHL moved from paying the team’s bills to assuming operational control of the organization in 2008.
Moyes drove the team into bankruptcy and was stripped of his remaining ownership after it emerged that he intended to sell it to Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie of Blackberry, who planned to move the team to Hamilton, Ontario.
After bankruptcy litigation and multiple failed bids to purchase the team over several years, a group of Canadian businessmen took control in 2013.
The team would play at the Delta Center until a new hockey-specific arena could be built.
In 2014, that group agreed to sell the majority stake to Philadelphia hedge fund manager Andrew Barroway, who bought the remainder of the team’s shares in 2017. Meruelo bought Barroway’s majority stake in 2019 and has owned the team since prior to sale to Smith Entertainment Group.
Officials in Salt Lake City, Utah and the city’s 2034 Olympic bid 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 the expansion of our sports and entertainment community.”
Smith said he and his group were “100 percent focused on making this happen as soon as possible.” It appears this is happening now for the 2024-25 NHL season.
Salt Lake City gets the Coyotes over other options, such as Houston, which has 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 the Vegas Golden Knights, who won the Stanley Cup last year in their sixth season of existence, has generated optimism about another hockey market in the western U.S.