Arizona Sports’ John Gambadoro is reporting that a deal that will relocate the Coyotes to Salt Lake City could be finalized in the next 24-48 hours. There also may be a press conference with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo to announce the sale and relocation of the team on either Thursday or Friday according to Gambadoro. If this press conference does take place, it will be interesting to see what Meruelo has to say after really conveying a positive message for months about keeping the Coyotes in Arizona, just to be working on a deal to relocate them to Salt Lake City behind the scenes. A lot of diehard Coyotes’ fans are upset with Meruelo and deservingly so since he just ripped away a team that means so much to people while he most likely walks away with about $1 billion. Meruelo says that he is still committed to winning an auction on June 27 for land in northeast Phoenix in hopes to bring hockey back to Arizona in the future, but after all of this, it’s hard to really take him by his word. Bettman also may not be in good standing with hockey fans in the Valley. Despite praising Arizona as a hockey market and stating that the NHL isn’t interested in relocation, he too had to be a big part of orchestrating this potential deal that will send the Coyotes to Salt Lake City. 20240412_Tourigny_MorningSkate_FTP_ It just shows that the NHL is still a business and making business decisions unfortunately isn’t always fair to a wide range of people and is oftentimes ruthless. The Coyotes will play their season finale on Wednesday against the Edmonton Oilers at Mullett Arena in what could be the team’s last ever game in Arizona.
