Editorial

A New Era: NHL Approves Coyotes Sale And Salt Lake City Relocation

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Putting an end to the Arizona Coyotes, the NHL Board of Governors approved Utah getting a new franchise that will begin play in the 2024-25 campaign. [X/Screenshot/Public — @NHL]

[X/Screenshot/Public — @NHL]

Andrew Powell Sports and Entertainment Blogger
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It’s official: The Coyotes are moving to Salt Lake City (ew).

Putting an end to the Arizona Coyotes, the NHL Board of Governors approved Utah getting a new franchise that will begin play in the 2024-25 campaign.

“Effective at closing, the approved transactions will result in the Coyotes franchise transferring the totality of its existing hockey assets – including its full Reserve List, roster of Players and draft picks and its Hockey Operations Department – to the Utah franchise,” said the league in a statement. (RELATED: Arizona Fanbase Makes It Brutally Clear Where They Stand On Coyotes Relocating To Salt Lake City)

The entire operation of the Coyotes franchise will be relocated to Salt Lake City. There, Smith Entertainment Group’s Ryan and Ashley Smith will be taking over ownership. They currently own the Utah Jazz in the NBA.

Smith Entertainment Group purchased the organization, as well as its assets, from Alex Meruelo for a total of $1.2 billion, according to ESPN. Meruelo bought the team in 2019 for $300 million. Meruelo was aiming to find a long-term arena solution, however, the NHL eventually got impatient with Meruelo and made the decision to push for a sale.

With that being said, we could potentially see a return of the Arizona Coyotes down the road (and boy, I hope we do), and that could happen if a “new, state-of-the-art facility” was built and completed in five years. The NHL would reactivate the ‘Yotes, launching a new expansion team to do so.

Salt Lake City sucks, getting rid of the ‘Coyotes’ brand sucks, dumping the desert sucks, this whole thing just sucks.