SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (KIFI) – According to multiple sources, including Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and ESPN, Arizona Coyotes players and staff were informed Friday the team will be moving to Salt Lake City next season.
Coyotes GM Bill Armstrong reportedly met with the team before their game Friday night in Edmonton.
An official announcement is not expected until next week, possibly after the Coyotes’ season ends Wednesday.
It’s a big boost for Utah sports and for Jazz owner Ryan Smith, who has been pushing to bring the NHL to Salt Lake City publicly since January.
This week, Smith put out a poll on his X page, formerly known as Twitter, saying “If an NHL team were to come to Utah, what should we name it?”
The Coyotes are expected to play their home games in the Delta Center with plans to build a new NBA/NHL arena for the hockey team and the Jazz in downtown Salt Lake City in the future.
The future of the team has been up in the air since they were evicted from Gila River Arena in Glendale in 2022 for unpaid bills.
The team has played their home games the last two seasons Mullett Arena at Arizona State University in Tempe, which only has a capacity of 4,600 fans, only 400 more fans than a sold-out Spud Kings game at the Mountain America Center in Idaho Falls.
The Coyotes had been trying to build a new arena since moving to Mullett Arena. However, those efforts took a major hit in 2023 when voters shut down a plan to build a permanent home at a former landfill in Tempe.
Arizona most recently was focused on land just west of the city of Scottsdale, but the team would need to win a land auction Jun. 27 to try and build an arena.
Even with relocation of the franchise to Salt Lake City, the current ownership group can still bid in that land auction to build a new arena.
The Coyotes’ last game of the season is Apr. 17 in Tempe against the Edmonton Oilers. The team will reportedly head to Salt Lake City after the season finale to check out the facilities and the city.
