Coyotes, NHL have made 'significant progress' on Salt Lake City relocation

Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo.

In conjunction with the NHL, the Coyotes have made “significant progress” Wednesday on an agreement to relocate the team to Salt Lake City and sell the club to Smith Entertainment Group, owners of the NBA’s Utah Jazz, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reports. The league reportedly sent a memo to its Board of Governors after a report from Seravalli Wednesday morning said the NHL was preparing a contingency plan for a Coyotes relocation, including two distinct schedule matrices. A relocation is not final, but reports indicate the tide is turning that way.

Neither the Coyotes nor the league, who have routinely responded quickly to developments in their arena saga as they become public, have commented on Wednesday’s reports. Subsequent reporting from ESPN’s Emily Kaplan and Greg Wyshynski says the NHL would act as an intermediary between Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo and Ryan Smith’s SEG in a sale, purchasing the club from Meruelo for $1B before selling to SEG at an increased $1.3B. The $300K difference would be split among the league’s other 31 owners as a relocation fee, less than half of the $650M fee Seattle Kraken ownership paid for an expansion franchise in 2021.

Seravalli says that Coyotes players have possibly “been informed that something of a ’verbal’ agreement is in place to relocate to Salt Lake City” but have “received pushback on that characterization of talks.” Wyshynski reports that the team has not formally informed its players of any sale agreement and is following relocation developments through social media. Regardless, an official announcement on relocation is likely to come before the end of the month, per Kaplan and Wyshynski.

There is no indication that a Salt Lake City relocation would end Meruelo’s bid for a plot of land in north Phoenix that’s set to be awarded at a public auction on June 27. Kaplan, Seravalli and Wyshynski all report that “Meruelo would be first in line to purchase an NHL expansion team should the league decide to return to Arizona,” a decision that would be contingent on a suitably located arena to avoid the attendance issues that plagued the team when they operated out of Gila River Arena in Glendale from 2003 to 2022. Meruelo could also retain the branding and naming rights to the Coyotes franchise as part of this transaction, per Seravalli, which could be applied to an expansion franchise after the north Phoenix plot is developed.

Upon relocating to Salt Lake, the franchise formerly known as the Coyotes would play 2024-25 out of the Delta Center, which is shared with the Jazz. However, much like the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where the Islanders played from 2014 to 2020, the arena isn’t optimized for hockey and has significant sightline issues at either end of the rink. Kaplan and Wyshynski say that “NHL leadership has made it clear to Smith they would need hockey-specific renovations for the Delta Center to be a permanent NHL home,” which Smith has agreed to carry. Utah lawmakers have also approved the construction of a new downtown venue before the 2034 Winter Olympics, which will be optimized for use by both the Jazz and an NHL team, although it still needs to be approved by Utah Governor Spencer Cox.

Over the past few months, Smith has been quite forward and public about his desire to acquire an NHL franchise, including submitting a formal request to initiate an expansion process. Speaking over the All-Star break, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said that “the Utah expression of interest has been the most aggressive” among prospective new markets.

This looks to be the first relocation the NHL’s had in over a decade. The most recent was in 2011 when the Atlanta Thrashers were abruptly sold to True North Sports and Entertainment and became the second iteration of the Winnipeg Jets. The first relocated to Phoenix in 1996 to become the Coyotes in search of more optimal financial conditions. While financial instability and ownership concerns have continued to plague the Coyotes franchise, the NHL’s presence in the market has been an undeniable positive, helping develop Phoenix into an area with multiple elite youth hockey programs and spurring the growth of the sport in the southwest United States.

The Coyotes were initially a consistent playoff team after arriving in the desert, but they’ve made the postseason only four times since moving out of downtown Phoenix to Glendale. Three came consecutively between 2010 and 2012, culminating in a Western Conference Final loss to the Kings, the eventual Stanley Cup champion. It was the only time the Jets/Coyotes franchise had reached the “final four” rounds since being absorbed from the collapse of the WHA in 1979.

The franchise has played out of the 4,600-seat Mullett Arena on the Arizona State University campus in Tempe for the past two seasons. Meant as a temporary move after the City of Glendale opted not to renew their lease agreement in 2022, Meruelo planned to build an arena and entertainment district within Tempe city limits near Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. However, the proposal required a public vote, and a May 2023 referendum failed to green-light the project, leaving them back at square one.

The Yotes’ departure is likely coming as their on-ice performance has begun to improve after a years-long rebuild. They ended up far south of the playoff demarcation line but had a strong start to the season and were hovering around playoff position well into December. They’ve gotten strong offensive production from their current core of Clayton Keller, Matias Maccelli and Nick Schmaltz yet again, high-end goaltending from breakout performer Connor Ingram, and have high-end prospects on the way led by winger Dylan Guenther. In February, the Athletic’s Scott Wheeler ranked their prospect pool as the ninth-best in the league.

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