The Coyotes tell the players that the team will be moving to Salt Lake City

NHL

From the Associated Press

Arizona Coyotes players have been informed the NHL club is expected to relocate to Salt Lake City, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

General manager Bill Armstrong flew to Edmonton, Alberta, to tell players about the team’s potential move to Utah before the game against the Oilers, the person told The Associated Press on Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the decision has not been announced.

Players and officials could visit Salt Lake City next week, possibly as soon as Wednesday’s season finale, which could be the final game at Tempe’s 5,000-seat Mullett Arena.

Coyotes players were unavailable after Friday night’s 3-2 win over Edmonton, and coach Andre Turini said he would only answer questions about the game.

“This team has been through a lot,” Turini said. “The first time the rumor came out, we didn’t do well and shot ourselves in the foot, went on a 14-game losing streak. Our boys show how proud they are, how much they care for each other and how much they want each other to succeed. It’s cool to feel that, it’s cool to see them cheering each other on and moving in the same direction.”

The news comes amid rumblings that Ryan Smith, owner of the NBA’s Utah Jazz, is working to acquire an NHL team, a move that could involve the league buying the Coyotes from Alex Meruelo and turning it around.

Smith earlier this week name ideas wanted for a possible team in Salt Lake City, and the league is working on two different drafts of the 2024-25 schedule based on whether the franchise plays in Arizona or Utah.

In January, Smith Entertainment Group said it was interested in bringing a hockey team to Salt Lake City and had an immediate opportunity to facilitate that.

The team will play at the Delta Center until a new arena is built. This announcement included the request to start the enlargement process.

But it was also an obvious time near the middle of the season and without a long-term home for the Coyotes in Arizona.

A referendum on an arena in Tempe failed last year, and in recent weeks the team said it was committed to winning a land bid for a potential arena site in Phoenix.

Even if that auction succeeds, it could send the NHL back into the wilderness later this decade.

NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh has repeatedly expressed concern about the current situation, playing in a small arena on Arizona State’s campus that was one possible home for the team until a new building was built.

The team is now likely heading for its third finish 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 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. The Coyotes in 2003 moved from Phoenix to nearby Glendale.

After running into major financial difficulties, Ellman sold to trucking magnate Jerry Moyes in 2005.

The problem continued 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 word emerged 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 multiple failed bids to buy the team over several years, a group of Canadian businessmen took over in 2013.

By 2014, that group agreed to sell a controlling stake to Philadelphia hedge fund manager Andrew Barroway, who bought out the rest of the team’s stock in 2017.

Meruelo purchased controlling interest from Barroway in 2019 and has owned the team since before the sale to Smith Entertainment Group.

Officials from Salt Lake City, Utah and the city’s bid for the 2034 Olympics supported Smith’s bid to bring hockey to the state.

“Utah has a long history with hockey, the strongest economy in the nation, 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 are “100 percent focused on making this happen as soon as possible.” It now appears to be happening 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 it 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 last year in their sixth season of existence, gave optimism for another hockey market in the western US