The Arizona Coyotes plan to play in Mullett Arena next season despite losing the vote on their arena project. Carol Schram looks at hockey's growth in Arizona.

The team with nine lives is staying put for now despite a devastating defeat of their arena project plans in a special election on Tuesday night.

By all reports, the Arizona Coyotes organization was shocked by the setback. But on Wednesday, the club and the league confirmed that the Coyotes will play out the 2023-24 season as originally planned, at Mullett Arena and its 4,600-seat NHL capacity on the campus of Arizona State University.

Craig Morgan from PHNX Sports has covered the Coyotes for decades and is as plugged in as anyone when it comes to unravelling the complex challenges that the franchise has faced from nearly the first day that it touched down in the desert in 1996. He reported Wednesday that, despite Tuesday's resounding 'no' vote from the residents of Tempe, there could still be a path for the Coyotes to stay in Arizona for the long term.

That'll take more time and money to sort out — as always, with no guarantee of success. But if the franchise can eventually find long-term stability in the Valley of the Sun, it'll help strengthen a development pipeline which has developed quite impressively over the last two decades.

USA Hockey's detailed membership registration reports are available dating back to 2002-03. That year, 4,949 players were registered in the state of Arizona.

By 2011-12, that number had actually dropped to 4,113. But one of those players was Auston Matthews — playing with the Phoenix Firebirds U-14 squad, where he had 22 points in nine games. 

Fast-forward another 10 years, and Arizona had 9,232 registered players in 2021-22. The state's youth hockey footprint more than doubled over a decade where nationwide numbers rose by only seven percent.

This spring, Phoenix-born Matthew Knies gave Maple Leafs fans every indication that he has what it takes to be an impact player in the NHL. He came up through the Phoenix Jr. Coyotes program.

So did Josh Doan, the 21-year-old son of Coyotes lifer Shane Doan, who currently serves as the franchise's chief hockey development officer. Josh was drafted 37th overall by the Coyotes in 2021. He then spent two years at Arizona State University, where he served as captain this season. On March 16, Doan signed his entry-level contract with the Coyotes and finished out his season by playing 14 games with the AHL Tucson Roadrunners.

This year, the 2023 draft prospect list features another former Jr. Coyote, forward Jaden Lipinski. He doesn't have hockey bloodlines, but the WHL's Vancouver Giants brought him into their organization after a scouting trip to see one of Lipinski's teammates — Daymond Langkow's son, Colton.  

Langkow also joined the Giants. He's 10 months older but went undrafted last June. In the 2023  final draft rankings from NHL Central Scouting, Lipinski sits 49th among North American skaters.

The Matthews effect hasn't been the only force helping to grow hockey in Arizona. The Coyotes' current home, Mullett Arena, wouldn't exist without the ascent of the Arizona State hockey program.

And while the Coyotes have spent decades trying to get a firm foothold in the region, it took just four months for ASU to execute the leap from club-level hockey to Div. I status in 2014 — backed up by $32 million from two donors, including the Mullett family.

In their eight seasons to date at the Div. I level, ASU has played in the national tournament once, losing in the regional semifinal in 2018-19.

In net for the Sun Devils that year — Joey Daccord. The 26-year-old is a legend to hockey fans in Arizona, and is currently in the midst of out-duelling AHL goalie of the year Dustin Wolf in the Calder Cup playoffs. 

Daccord's .942 save percentage and 1.88 goals-against average have kept the Coachella Valley Firebirds alive and can upset the Calgary Wranglers in a do-or-die Game 5 on Friday to advance to the Western Conference final in their debut season.

The more players with ties to Arizona succeed at the pro level, the stronger hockey's foothold becomes in the region. The long-term presence of an NHL team would further strengthen that anchor.

But Mullett Arena was always meant to be a stop-gap solution, and without a long-term plan in place, questions now loom for the hockey operations department, even if they know where they'll be playing their home games next season. 

Most immediately — what will happen with 2022 third-overall pick Logan Cooley? 

The 19-year-old was named a Hobey Baker finalist after an impressive freshman season at the University of Minnesota, along with his teammate Knies and eventual winner Adam Fantilli from Michigan. Will Cooley turn pro this summer or return to the Gophers to take another run at winning a national championship?

Last season's leading scorer, Clayton Keller, is locked up long-term after a breakout year that saw him score a career-high 37 goals. But right now, the Coyotes have just 13 players under contract for next season, along with four RFAs. How difficult will it be for them to fill out their roster with the questions about their future still swirling in the air? And is there any chance that Keller goes the route of Jakob Chychrun and asks to be moved to a more stable situation?

If there's one silver lining for Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo, it's the fact that franchise values across all major sports have exploded. Less than four years ago, Meruelo was reported to have paid $300 million for a majority share of the club. Certainly, it's still at the bottom of the NHL list, but Forbes pegged the franchise's value at $450 million in 2022, up 13 percent from a year earlier. 

The scuttlebutt that the Ottawa Senators, in a small Canadian market, could garner a selling price in the $1-billion range must be music to the ears of not just Meruelo but all NHL owners. And the wide-ranging interest in purchasing the Senators seems to have revealed some deep-pocketed suitors who have the desire and the wherewithal to join the NHL club — and some new potential markets, especially out west after the success of Vegas and Seattle.

For now, Meruelo seems determined to keep his hockey team and to keep it in Arizona.

If he changes his mind at some point, he should reap a very tidy return on his investment.