Utah had little time to prepare: jerseys, logos, retrofit the arena to accommodate an NHL team, and… oh yeah, choose a new name. Ultimately, they settled on a temporary one: the Utah Hockey Club. So NHL’s newest, yet twice moved, four time renamed, expansion/not expansion team was born. 10/10
This means that Utah would get the players and however many coaches and staff they could bring over, but none of the history, thus making it an expansion type team. The Coyotes would officially be known as an “inactive franchise,” to be reactivated later. 9/10
In the sale contract there was a clause which gave Meruelo first crack at reactivating the Coyotes in Arizona, for a $1 billion expansion fee. Also:: all of the team’s intellectual property (including, name, logo, jerseys, franchise records, [both Arizona and Winnipeg]) remained with Meruelo. 8/10
The Phoenix failure lead to the team being sold to Ryan Smith owner of the NBA’s Utah Jazz and MLS’s Real Salt Lake. It’s here that things get even wilder (if that’s possible): 7/10
Alex Meruelo, was last owner of the team during its run in Arizona. He refused to pay rent on their arena, lost a public vote on whether to develop a literal landfill in Tempe into an arena & entertainment district & failed in a bid to purchase land in Phoenix to name a few major issues. 6/10
The Coyotes were, over their history, plagued by middling support and success, a name change (going from Phoenix Coyotes to Arizona Coyotes), arena issues (they only had one real NHL arena), being a financial black hole (losing $20 million per season on multiple occasions) and bad ownership. 5/10
After the merger, four teams joined the NHL: the Edmonton Oilers, Quebec Nordiques, Hartford Whalers and the Winnipeg Jets. The Jets ended up playing in Winnipeg as an NHL team from 1979 to 1996. Due to financial reasons they were bought and relocated to Phoenix, AZ and rebranded the Coyotes. 4/10
Enter exhibit 1: the Winnipeg Jets. The Jets were Manitoba’s first pro hockey team and one of the founding WHA teams ultimately winning 3 Avco World Trophies. The WHA had financial issues though and a merger was broached with the NHL. This merger was finalized in 1979. 3/10
But, a brief history: The WHA was competition to the NHL from 1971-1979. In short: In 1971, the World Hockey Association (WHA) came along and challenged the NHL’s dominance. The WHA tried to capitalize on the NHL’s lack of presence in major American cities and mid level Canadian cities. 2/10