Las Vegas Will Get An Expansion Team, Seattle Not Yet… Arizona Coyotes Staying Put
With the announcement that applications were accepted for potential expansion franchises from Las Vegas and Quebec, the rumors of the Arizona Coyotes re-locating SHOULD be crushed. BUT, will they? There are always those cynics who feel hockey doesn’t “belong” in the desert, and the franchise made a huge mistake moving from Phoenix to their present (for the time being) Glendale home of Gila River arena.
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- Arizona Coyotes sign Matias Maccelli to three-year deal
- Ivan Prosvetov signs one-year deal with Arizona Coyotes
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The team has certainly had it’s challenges from the very core of their existence, to endless rumors of moving them elsewhere, for whatever reason became handy. In all of that though, you have the super loyal fans of the Arizona Coyotes who don’t intend to give up their team, especially when a city government wants to pound it’s chest, and be defiant about meeting it’s obligations to a signed, legal document — known as a lease.
Speaking of the aforementioned lease, the city council held a closed executive session on Monday, and although executive session discussion topics are not released, we can all surmise what the discussion topic entailed.
Are both sides coming to their senses and actually sitting down and negotiating their issues? That would be good, since the Mayor of Glendale, and the city council have publically stated they want to keep the team in the arena; and the Arizona Coyotes ownership and management has stated they don’t intend to leave… the arena, OR the state.
The ill-stated article in the N.Y. Post that the NHL was “arranging” the sale of the Arizona Coyotes to Bill Foley, who would re-locate the team to Las Vegas has so many holes in it, that all credibility is lost. The author of the ridiculous article, Josh Kosman didn’t even have the application time period for teams to submit an application correct. He stated,
"“The NHL announced it was accepting applications for expansion franchises from July 6 until Aug. 10.”"
When in reality, the application deadline was this past Monday, July 20th. That is why we all know that Las Vegas and Quebec are the only two cities who filed an application with the NHL.
Even with the addition of Las Vegas and Quebec, the conferences will still be ill-balanced, with the East having 17, and the West 15. The Eastern conference teams are getting tired of not being able to qualify for the playoffs, since their odds are higher than the Western conference chances of making the cut.
In any case, I think the re-location talk is DEAD… as well it should be !
More from Howlin' Hockey
- How the Arizona Coyotes could line-up with Logan Cooley signed
- Report: Logan Cooley could be closer to signing Arizona Coyotes ELC
- Arizona Coyotes sign Matias Maccelli to three-year deal
- Ivan Prosvetov signs one-year deal with Arizona Coyotes
- Arizona Coyotes cut Galchenyuk after reported police incident