The National Hockey League (NHL) is currently in a strong place regarding its competitiveness and balance across all 32 teams.
Despite the parity across the league when it comes to star power on each team and the ability to generate excitement around every franchise, the NHL, under commissioner Gary Bettman, is in preliminary talks to expand to 33 teams, and soon after 34.
The state that is the front-runner to be home to the 33rd team right now is Utah. With billionaire Ryan Smith – the owner of the NBA’s Utah Jazz – looking to bring hockey to the state of Utah, many are wondering where the team would play. The NBA team plays out of Salt Lake City and has ranked top 50 per cent in the NBA over the last number of years, showing they have a passion for professional sports.
With the rich history of hockey in Salt Lake City – home of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games with the story of the Lucky Loonie – Ryan Smith believes that they would be able to provide “premium sports and entertainment experiences for the people of Utah and visitors from around the world.”
The NHL may also be looking to relocate short-term to Utah with all of the talk surrounding the Arizona Coyotes. The Coyotes have been playing out of Arizona State University (ASU) for the past two seasons. This stadium is located in Tempe, Arizona which is close to downtown Phoenix and in a better location than their previous rink in Glendale. Unfortunately, the rink was made for NCAA hockey, meaning it only holds 5,000 fans. To put that into perspective, their old arena in Glendale, Arizona held 19,000 fans and the next smallest arena in the NHL currently is the Canadian Life Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba which holds 15,321 fans.
Edmonton Oiler Zach Hyman, has been outspoken about the Arizona Coyotes home arena. “It’s fine to play once or twice but to play a 41-game season here, it’s not ideal,” Zach Hyman told media members before their game against Arizona on Feb. 19. “LeBron James doesn’t play in front of 5,000 people. So why should Connor McDavid, you know? It’s kind of crazy, right? We want to be in the same realm as the NFL or NBA or MLB. Come on.”
The Coyotes have been trying to find a new arena to play in for the past two years but have been able to find a piece of land that would be affordable to build on. Bettman is starting to get fed up with how long it is taking for Arizona to find an arena but is also adamant that hockey “can work in the desert”.
“We’re in a better position to resist moving than maybe we were 20 or 30 years ago,” Bettman said. But why? When the Winnipeg Jets and Atlanta Thrashers were struggling with attendance years ago Bettmann did not give them a second chance to show that hockey could work in that market. Arizona is on its third building in the past twenty years and has been losing the NHL money for much of those two decades. Why is he so persistent that hockey will work in the desert when it has not for so many years?
Either way, we will likely see a team in Salt Lake City in the near future. Whether that be through expansion or the relocation of the Arizona Coyotes is yet to be known.
