The NHL owners officially approved the Arizona Coyotes moving to Salt Lake City Utah next season. Once upon a time ago, the original Winnipeg Jets ran into some financial troubles and sold the team to a group of American owners. In 1996, the Jets became the Coyotes and moved from the frozen wasteland of Winnipeg to the desert in Arizona. The last few years the Coyotes franchise has been playing musical chairs when it comes to their home games in different arenas in the state of Arizona. The Coyotes owner, Alex Meruelo, sold his team to Ryan and Ashley Smith who own the NBA team The Jazz. Utah has had only one professional franchise out of the 4 main sports and now have a professional hockey team.

Does Salt Lake City or the state of Utah even have any coyotes roaming around the mountains? The new owners of the Coyotes will not have to worry about keeping Arizona’s name. In the deal, Alex Meruelo will make 1.2 billion off the sale of his hockey team, but he will keep the Coyotes name and rights to all the trademarks, logo, etc etc. The NHL will give Arizona an expansion team in the next 5 years if Meruelo can find a way to build a new arena in the desert. Meruelo is looking at a plot of land North of Phoenix. If Meruelo is awarded an expansion team with the arena built, he plans to pay back 1 billion of the money he made in the sale. Meruelo will also retain the Tucson Roadrunners who are a minor league affiliate of the Coyotes who play in the AHL American Hockey league. The Roadrunners will most likely share Mullett Arena with Arizona State University. Like the Jets resurrected in Winnipeg in 2011, the Coyotes could be back on the ice with an all new team in few years. The bright side to getting an expansion team is you could turn out to be like the Vegas Golden Knights who won a cup already and they have not been around very long. Even the Seattle Kraken made the Stanley Cup playoffs in their second year of existence.

The old Coyote team will now play their home games at the Delta Center which is home of the Jazz in Salt Lake City. The Smiths along with the city of Salt Lake City and the state of Utah plan to build a new arena for their new to them hockey franchise in the next few years. The Utah Jazz has been around since 1979 as the states are really truly their only professional team. In 2018 Salt Lake City has had a Spring football team in the AAF (Alliance American Football.) The Stallions they were called and they played outside with mountains in the background which was cool looking.The AAF did not even last a full season. The state of Utah has had men’s and women’s teams in soccer, other football teams, baseball, rugby, and lacrosse but mostly minor league teams. The state loves their College teams the Aggies and the Utes. The state of Utah has been interested in landing the winter Olympics. They obviously love the game of Ice Hockey. The locals have come to watch the Grizzlies play in the ECHL which is another minor league hockey league. Now they have two professional teams which should make the locals very excited. Maybe the Fighting Mormons will be on their jerseys. Perhaps the Mormons will be asking for donations to help build the arena. When you host a hockey crowd, Salt Lake City better open up those bars in town longer. Sell some beer that has some kick to it instead of the low cal or low percentage booze nobody wants. Salt Lake City will be getting a franchise that has never won a Stanley Cup. The Jazz came close with John Stockton and the Mailman, Karl Malone. When your basketball team meets the best player ever in the 1990’s, Michael Jordan, you are not going to get that championship banner. The Coyotes have been around 27 seasons and have made the Stanley Cup playoffs 9 times. They have only won one division title. The Jets, then Coyotes, have been around for 44 years and made the playoffs 20 times. This year’s squad had a record of 36-41-5. The last ten years the Coyotes have won 38.7% of their games. They have made the playoffs once and have 1 post-season series win in the last ten seasons. Some Arizona fans of the NHL may see a potential reset button if they get an expansion team. Do the Morons think they can get more boots on the ground and form a bigger door bell campaign to buy some talent for this new Utah franchise? My vote is the Fighting Mormons with a logo of a Mormon eyeball looking into a door bell ring camera. I’d buy a shirt.