NHL Board of Governors approves sale of Coyotes and relocation to Salt Lake City (Mod warning post #157)

[viper0220]

This is the ATL thrashers becomes the WPG jets who previously become the Arizona coyotes all over again.


So does this mean the coyotes can come back as an expansion franchise? Or they get the Utah team back? I’m confused lol

They will get an expansion team, if they can get the arena issue sorted.

 

[tucker3434]

cannot believe how well Merulo is making off with this sale

Houston and Atlanta must have their checkbooks ready for the Yotes to sell for $1.2b. It’s a nonsense number for that team.

 

[viper0220]

The 2 concepts I saw that were really nice were the Yeti and Golden Eagles.

Utah Golden Eagles, also sounds nice.

 

[Viqsi]

Same as Americans that think in Canada we live in igloos and it’s freezing here 365 days of the year.

The only times comments like that come up for .ca teams is when folks are bagging on Winnipeg (or very occasionally Edmonton), and those come from fans on both sides of the border.

 

[hi]

Shane Doan, plays first year in WPG, team moves to Arizona

Josh Doan, plays first year in Arizona, team moves to Utah.

Are the Doans franchise killers?

 

[Bandit]

"even if it means starting next season without new nickname..." doesn't seem like starting off on the right foot.

Cool for Utah, sucks for the fans of the Coyotes.

 

[Neil Patrick Harris]

NHL doing to Meruelo the equivalent of Ricky paying Mr. Lahey $100 to **** off.

 

[Spawn]

Wonder what new Utah fans would prefer.

Taking on a team with all the players/propsects/staff already in place or starting from scratch with the new expansion rules.

 

[King Woodballs]

Welcome to the NHL the Utah Hatu’s!

 

[Golden_Jet]

Houston and Atlanta must have their checkbooks ready for the Yotes to sell for $1.2b. It’s a nonsense number for that team.

Huh, Yotes are off to Utah,
Hopefully Arizona can get a rink built in the next 5 years.

 

[robertmac43]

Sad for the Yotes, they deserved better. I'm really curious to see the branding of this new team though.

 

[SR]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I understand the condolences to the fans, including myself, thanks, but the reality of it is is we deserved this long ago. We were given more chances than any other major sports franchise history.

This shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone. It should have been done a long time ago. I am very thankful for the time we were able to have the team but no one in their right mind should have been given this many chances.

From one shitty ownership group to another, to unpaid bills, horrible marketing and coverage of the team. The yotes were the red headed stepchild in Arizona when it came to sports. There was no media support and certainly no local political support.

Arizona is a horrendous sports state. Bandwagon as it gets.

Here’s to a new start for this franchise in hopes to shed the dead skin of how bad it’s been for 25 years. Best of luck in Utah. I’ll still be apart of it.

I’ve tried to defend this group for a while now but it’s time to admit we absolutely deserve this, no fault to the fans but you can only be given so many chances.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Wonder what new Utah fans would prefer.

Taking on a team with all the players/propsects/staff already in place or starting from scratch with the new expansion rules.

Probably the Yotes, since they inherit so many draft picks.

 

[NYR94]

Utah Jazz

 

[Qurpiz]

I know they'll use Utah but Salt Lake Vultures was an awesome name I heard on a podcast

 

[BB79]

Utah Golden Eagles, also sounds nice.

Too close to "Golden Knights" who will probably become a close rival I'd imagine.

Probably shorten it to. Utah Eagles. For now, they're the Utah Something

 

[OurlordAndSaviorKuch]

Think we all knew it would be approved, But the way this has happened and been handled has been beyond awful.

 

[Five Alarm Fire]

Utah Jazz

Utah Buzz. Has a tie to the region and would confuse the hell out of everyone.

 

[SI90]

Wonder what new Utah fans would prefer.

Taking on a team with all the players/propsects/staff already in place or starting from scratch with the new expansion rules.

Depends on the expansion strategy you use. I’d go the George McPhee route over the Ron Francis route.

Coyotes have a lot of young prospects and good young players. Now they will have an arena and be situated in Utah so they can build around the team. There’s no more questions up in the air.

I wouldn’t mind starting with the current coyotes.

 

[Cas]

Weird scenario. Effectively it’s an expansion franchise without an expansion fee. Coyotes join a short list of NHL teams to achieve “inactive franchise” status. The NHL receives $1B from Utah in exchange for the Arizona roster and front office, and passes the money along to Arizona/Meruelo. If Meruelo ready in 5 years, he can return the $1B to the league and re-activate his franchise. Which presumably would be stocked by an expansion draft, even though it’s not an expansion scenario by that time. All the previous team records stay in Arizona.

The whole thing is oddly out of sync with how we’re used to thinking of these things. The “team” (roster and front office) is treated as a completely distinct asset from the franchise, except where team records are concerned. Utah is technically an expansion franchise, even though the team has existed for years. Future Arizona is technically not an expansion franchise, even though they will be a new team and need to be re-stocked by a draft. Meruelo breaks even and gets a new team even though he never lost his franchise. Smith gets an established team even though he’s getting an expansion franchise. The NHL gets $1B for creating a team, but not from the owners of that team, and not any time soon.

Honestly I think Utah should just be treated as the continuation of Arizona/Winnipeg. It's the same players and management, simply moving to a different city with different owners. There's a paper transaction taking place, but a future Arizona team is just going to be an entirely new team that happens to have been formed under the same license to operate (the "franchise").

The "records" staying with the inactive Arizona franchise is just nonsense, in my opinion. Records are just statistical accomplishments that we subsequently give context and meaning to. As far as I'm concerned, nobody "owns" them. You can't sell them - if Hockey Reference wants to keep continuity from Arizona to Utah, nothing is stopping them. I feel the same way about suggestions that Winnipeg or Cleveland or whoever should retain their records from previous teams - that's just nonsense that appeals to some people.

The actual intellectual property - the trademarks and logos and uniforms - is of course different. But as far as I'm concerned, it's the same team and will remain so, even if (a very big "if") the Arizona Coyotes come back in 2028 or 29.

 

[CupofOil]

Through all of this crap the last how ever many years, I was always rooting for the coyotes to come out staying in AZ. The team really got the shaft

They have nobody to blame but themselves. The NHL tried everything conceivably possible and then some to keep the team there.
Doesn't suck any less for Yotes fans but the franchise made their own bed and now it gets to sleep in another one.

 

[red devil]

Utah Jazz

Utah Rock

 

[kingsholygrail]

Reminder that it does actually snow in Utah.

 

[thekernel]

Having no name is lame. It's been a big pitfall to the PWHL's marketing, that everyone has been repping the same logo without any localized identity.

 

[CupofOil]

Utah Hockey Team.

With Pierre Dorion as GM. "We are a......team, a hockey team, The Utah Hockey Team"