The announcement stating that Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith formally asked the NHL to initiate the expansion process and bring a team to Salt Lake City brought some attention to the Arizona Coyotes. Smith claimed that Utah could host an NHL team starting next season which is concerning for the Coyotes since they are still searching for a new arena in Arizona. However, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman provided some more clarity to the situation and reassured everyone that Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo is still committed to finding a permanent home in the Valley. “There is nothing new,” Bettman said. “Alex Meruelo is focused on one piece of property and we are focused with him on what that timeline is and my guess it will be something that will be addressed in the next few weeks.” It’s unclear what Bettman meant by one specific property. It was reported by PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan back in December that the Coyotes are zeroing in on a parcel of land in northeast Phoenix, adjacent to Scottsdale, but there has been no traction or further update regarding this piece of information. Bettman elaborated further on his confidence level on if the Coyotes will be able to get an arena deal done. “Alex Meruelo as recently as last week told me he was certain that he was going to get this done and I don’t make it a practice of contradicting owners unless I have facts to the contrary,” Bettman said. “I’m both hopeful and reasonably confident he is going to do what he says.” Bettman’s choice of wording when he said ‘reasonably confident’ was interesting, but the fact that Meruelo assured the NHL that he will close out a deal has to be considered a positive sign. 240127_Tourigny_Postgame Now all eyes are on the Coyotes and Meruelo to see if they will truly be able to secure a new arena in the near future.
