The players on the Arizona Coyotes roster have been told that they'll be relocating to Salt Lake City in Utah, effective next season.
Emily Kaplan at ESPN.com:
Arizona Coyotes players were informed Friday that the team is relocating to Utah, sources told ESPN, confirming a report by PHNX Sports.
Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong met with the players ahead of their game against the Edmonton Oilers to confirm what had been rumored all week: that the NHL is working to facilitate a sale to Ryan and Ashley Smith, owners of the Utah Jazz. The Coyotes will begin playing there next season.
The NHL and Smith's group have been working on a deal, but sources told ESPN on Friday night that nothing was done yet, and there was plenty of work to go before the deal was finalized.
An announcement is expected next week, at the conclusion of the NHL regular season, sources told ESPN.
The weirdest part of the deal is that the NHL will be basically laundering a franchise in order to facilitate the move:
"The NHL would purchase the Coyotes from Meruelo in a deal believed to be worth around $1 billion. This would mark the second time the NHL would have owned the Coyotes, buying the franchise from owner Jerry Moyes in 2009 after he filed for bankruptcy. The league owned and operated the Coyotes until 2013.
The league source said that after purchasing the team, the NHL would then sell the Coyotes to Smith at a price that could be as high as $1.3 billion -- much higher than the $650 million expansion fee that the Seattle Kraken's owners paid in 2021 to join the league. The source said the NHL's other 31 owners would split $300 million as part of the sale."
https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/39915208/coyotes-relocate-salt-lake-city-part-nhl-plan
