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Farewell, Yotes
The NHL Says "See Ya" To The Coyotes.... Kind Of.
The NHL is Saying Their Goodbye to Arizona….. Sort of.
Yesterday marked the end of an odd chapter in sports as the Arizona Coyotes played their last game in the NHL…. at least for now. In what I can only describe as an odd turn of events, the Coyotes own name and stats are staying with the former owner for five years while he tries to secure an arena for the team. This might sound like a positive thing if you were a fan of the Coyotes, but if you’ve not been under a rock you’ll know that the team has been playing in an Arizona university arena for two years…. So with that let’s take a look back at what can be at best described as an odd history for the Coyotes.
Relocation To The Desert
In March of 1995, Minnesota businessmen Steven Gluckstern and Richard Burked bought the team with plans to move it to the Minneapolis St-Paul (which had just lost the north stars to Dallas in 1993) region. However, they were unable to secure an arena deal (sound familiar?), so they opted to move the Jets to Phoenix instead…. and then Minnesota got an expansion team in 1997 anyway. Go figure.
Early Days
Sometimes we forget, but the team had a ton of star veterans playing for them in their early days. Keith Tkachuk, Rick Tocchet, and JR himself (Jeremy Roenick) all suited up to form a Dynamic 1-2-3 offensive punch. Adding to this young experienced squad, management snagged talent like Shane Doan, Oleg Tverdovsky, and, of course, “the Bulin Wall” Nikolai Khabibulin. The team looked poised to be a contender. They posted six consecutive seasons over .500, making the playoffs in every season but one. The one time they did miss the playoffs, they became the first team with ninety points to miss the playoffs (the 2000-01 season). To stack onto some odd misfortune, financial woes and more stadium trouble (i’m seeing a trend here…) began brewing. Burke bought out Gluckstern in 1998 but couldn’t garner more investors and eventually sold the team to Steve Ellman.
The Gretzky Era
What a strange chapter in the history of the Coyotes. In August of 2005, Brett Hull was signed (and given Bobby Hull’s #9). Two days later, Gretzky named himself head coach of the Coyotes replacing active coach Rick Bowness (current coach of the Jets who, ironically, the Coyotes used to be). Despite the fact he’d never coached at any level. The Yotes unveiled their ring of honor in October which oddly had the great one included on it (despite never suiting up for them once) and Bobby Hull. A week later, Brett Hull announced his retirement from the NHL (and then unforgettable Thomas Steen was added as the third member of the ring of honor) in April of 2006. The ‘07-’08 season was interesting with Martin Hanzal and Peter Mueller looking to make the team better. The ‘07 season was also when the Coyotes claimed Ducks goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov. Gretzky unceremoniously stepped down at the end of the ‘08 season.
Division Title
In 2012, the Coyotes finally (after some great coaching and solid play) returned to relevance. Making a few playoff runs and finally winning the Pacific Division in 2012. They were the 3rd seed in the West that year and had home ice advantage (only the 3rd time in team history they had that happen). They went on to beat the Hawks in six games, giving the Coyotes their first series win since 1987 (when they were the Jets, confusing, I know). They then went on to beat the Predators, but the Coyotes ultimately fell to the Kings in the Western Conference Finals (The Kings went on to win the Stanley cup that year).
What did they do next?
Why, they went bankrupt, of course.
The End (In Some Way)
The team went through a few odd and strange years in Phoenix for more then a decade. They were rebranded to the Arizona Coyotes from the city of Phoenix, they were owned by the league itself for a while, and the new ownership group has gone through a lot; Failed arena deals, whiffing entirely on draft picks, selling off talent to keep salary low, and taking on awful contracts to get to the floor, and then the least cool thing. The Coyotes were playing in a 5000 seat stadium. The team is now “inactive” while the ownership group does their best to find someone who actually wants this team to reside in Arizona. Hockey in the desert was never a huge, logical draw and a lot of fans in Canada are clamoring to know why Quebec City has never been revisited as a site, but here we go. Utah is up for grabs and only time will tell if this is finally when this team finds it’s forever home.
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