Deserved: The Desertion of the Coyotes

After 28 years, the Arizona Coyotes were rendered “inactive” by the NHL. The hockey in the desert experience is over, for now. In the agreement for the NHL to move the franchise to Utah this upcoming season, Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo retained the “Right to reactivate [The Coyotes] within the next five years” given he can build a “state-of-the-art” arena. Being entirely honest, I hope that he doesn’t.

The Arizona Coyotes are what my generation would call a “poverty franchise.” Since leaving Winnipeg and rebranding from the Jets to the Coyotes for the 1996-97 season, the team made the playoffs 9 times. Five of those playoff runs happened within the Coyotes’ first six seasons. Wayne Gretzky—yes, that Wayne Gretzky—couldn’t even coach this team to a good record.

Only once did they ever pass the 100-point mark, and while they’ve been over 90 points 6 other times, they’ve had no playoff success. The team had only made it out of the first round of the playoffs twice, with their deepest playoff run going to the 2011-12 Western Conference Finals before being eliminated by the Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings.

In the 12 years since then, they’ve only made the playoffs once. That was in 2019-2020, when the Playoffs were expanded to include 24 of the then 31 NHL teams. In every other season, including the shortened 2012-13 and 2020-21 seasons, the Coyotes have not qualified for the playoffs.

Season	Record (Point Total)	Standings	Playoffs?
2011-12	42-27-13 (97)	1st of 5	Lost West Conf Finals to LAK (4-1)
2012-13*	21-18-9 (51)	4th of 5
2013-14	37-30-15 (89)	4th of 7
2014-15	24-50-8 (56)	7th of 7
2015-16	35-39-8 (78)	4th of 7
2016-17	30-42-10 (70)	6th of 7
2017-18	29-41-12 (70)	8th of 8
2018-19	39-35-8 (86)	4th of 8
2019-20*	33-29-8 (74)	5th of 8	Lost West QF to COL 4-1
2020-21*	24-26-6 (54)	5th of 8
2021-22	25-50-7 (57)	8th of 8
2022-23	28-50-14 (70)	7th of 8
2023-24	36-41-5 (77)	7th of 8

You couldn’t really blame Coyotes fans if they were apathetic towards team, but they weren’t. Coyotes’ fans still showed up wherever they played. So, what killed the Coyotes? 

I’m not going to pretend that I watch every game, pay attention to free agent signings or trades, or understand exactly what play has been drawn up. When I hear the “Arizona Coyotes” I don’t even think about the team’s success—or lack thereof—on the rink. I think about how the team has caused issues for themselves off the ice.

To be fair to the Coyotes, they needed to get out of the US Airways Arena. Built specifically for basketball, the hockey configurations left 25% of the arena’s seats with an obstructed view. In the era of modern arenas with “no bad seats,” having one of every four seats being obstructed is unacceptable. Unfortunately, this meant that they needed to leave downtown Phoenix.

The solution was the Gila River Arena. In the suburb of Glendale, the new arena allowed for the Coyotes to have a rink with no obstructed seats while remaining close to the fans that had supported them over the prior seven years. It was the perfect scenario. They were set for the next thirty years. 18 years later, the Coyotes were out of Gila River Arena.

This was no act of God. There was no natural disaster that took down the arena. There was no state-of-the-art arena for the Coyotes to move to. The Coyotes were forced out of the Gila River Arena. According to KJZZ—NPR’s radio affiliate in Arizona,

“Glendale accused the Coyotes of not paying their taxes on time and threatened to lock the team out of the city-owned arena. Frustrated with not being able to lock it into a long-term deal, Glendale then declined to renew the Coyotes lease after the 2021-22 Season.”  The Coyotes were officially a lame-duck. However, there was hope.

33 minutes from Glendale and 19 minutes from Phoenix, the Coyotes eyed up land in Tempe, Arizona. With the land rumored to be a “toxic waste dump,”  and the Coyotes willing to privately fund the arena, all they needed was the citizens to vote in favor of the land being developed into a sports and entertainment district.

Image from “SportsPro Media” showing the renderings of the “Tempe Arena” and Entertainment District for the Arizona Coyotes”  

Signs showed the two sides to the vote. With one sign in favor of the propositions saying “From Landfill to Landmark, Yes on 301, 302, 303.”  Juxtaposed was the sign against the propositions “No handouts for corrupt billionaires. Vote ‘No’ on 301, 302, 303.”

Voting signs from Tempe about propositions 301, 302, and 303. Image from: KJZZ 91.5.

With the campaign against the arena focusing on the Coyotes owner, the NHL could not ignore that he was the biggest issue for the Coyotes. While not paying taxes was the issue the citizens were focused on, Tempe, Arizona, and the NHL were forced to open their eyes to other questionable situations that took place under the management of majority owner Alex Meruelo.

Who could forget about the time the Arizona Coyotes drafted Mitchell Miller. The then Tri City Storm defenseman was talented enough to be a first-round pick, but he was still on the board when the Coyotes made the 111th pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. So how does someone that talented fall? To say Mitchell Miller had character issues would be an understatement.

Mitchell Miller playing for Team USA Junior Hockey (Image from CNN)

Miller was convicted in a juvenile court back in 2016 of bullying and abuse of an intellectually disabled classmate. The specifics of this bullying and abuse were horrific. From the hurling of racial slurs to forcing him to eat a piece of candy soaked in a urinal, the facts of this case saw multiple teams take Miller off their draft boards entirely. With the victim’s mother asserting that the family “never received an apology”, there was no chance Miller was going to play in the NHL.

The Coyotes were allegedly made aware of this case before drafting Miller, and renounced their rights to Miller’s services after this information became public knowledge.

Still, the story of Mitchell Miller pales in comparison to the Coyotes scandal in 2021.

The Athletic’s Katie Strang released an investigation titled “Arizona Coyotes Beset by Toxic Workplace, Financial Woes” in 2021 that shed light on the Coyotes toxic workplace under owner Alex Meruelo. According to the article, “Multiple employees detailed profanity-laced dressing-downs from Meruelo, whose vexation could be provoked by such commonplace behaviors such as loss projections or mentions of how other teams around the league do business.”

Other issues mentioned included the team having outstanding balances with vendors, not paying signing bonuses on time, and multiple employees reaching out to a Chicago-based law firm to ask about “financial irregularities, workplace culture, and at least one case of alleged sexual assault.”  

I was not able to find any article or statement that confirmed that the claims against Meruelo were investigated by the National Hockey League.

When voting day finally came, the citizens of Tempe made their voices heard, voting “No” to each of the three propositions. It was the deathblow for the Coyotes and for Alex Meruelo.  With no plan in place, no light at the end of the tunnel, the Coyotes were destined to spend an unknown amount of time playing at Arizona State’s 5,000 seat Mullett Arena.

Image from Mullettarena.com, home of the Arizona State Sun Devils and the most recent home of the Arizona Coyotes.

With no end in sight, the decision was agreed upon that the Arizona Coyotes could no longer operate under the current conditions. A 5,000-seat arena with amenities not meant for the NHL was not sustainable. Hence why the rights to the players and front office staff were sold to Utah Jazz owners, the Smith Entertainment Group (SEG). It was announced shortly after that Meruelo retained the name, branding, and logos of the Coyotes, meaning that a new expansion franchise would be started in Utah. Thus, ending the Coyotes run in the NHL, for now.

It’s a shame for fans of the Coyotes. The team has a young nucleus including Clayton Keller, Joshua Doan, Logan Cooley, and Dylan Guenther, and I believe a return to the playoffs is right around the corner. While leaving the desert was necessary, it was undoubtedly the worst possible time for Arizona to lose their hockey team.

In my article “For Baseball in Montreal” I mentioned how the Major League Baseball should award Montreal with a baseball team when the league decides to expand. I think the same for Arizona.

However, it should not be this version of the Arizona Coyotes. Alex Meruelo is bad for the game. He has shown himself to be a public relations liability. The citizens of Arizona have rejected him, and this is not an instance where absence will make the heart grow fonder.

While the team will continue to push towards a playoff spot, they’ll play under a new name, in a new city with the hope for a new arena, with a new ownership group. It’s a new beginning, and hopefully the end to Alex Meruelo in the NHL.