Arizona (Phoenix) Coyotes 1996-2024

[Llewzaher]

Don Hay in 98 or something. Game 7 against the blues. If we don't win, I resign.

Coyotes lose. Don Hay, steps down. Never sees an NHL game again. some will wonder what if Arizona wins the lottery in 2015. but who knows?

If Matthew’s had only been born a few days earlier we would have had him. I believe Eichel was rated as higher and would have went to still went to Buf.

However maybe we still would have drafted Strome , and leafs would have gotten him anyway, just not Marner

 

[blueandgoldguy]

Bad franchises tend to beget bad owners unfortunately and here we are.

The franchise was plagued with bad decisions by ownership before they had even decided to move to desert the year prior when the deal to move to Minnesota fell through (see the owners' order given to the Winnipeg Jets to trade Selanne as they felt they couldn't afford to keep both him and Tkachuk). The Coyotes were also terrible at drafting from the very beginning drafting only 1 player of note in their first 6 years of existence before Gretzky even became involved in any meaningful way. In fact, I don't think you can name a franchise worse than the Coyotes when it comes to draft and development over the past 28 years. This may have played the most significant role in their demise. They essentially went their last 12 or so years without qualifying for the REAL playoffs (2020 was only the result of a COVID and allowing for additional playoff teams).

I think the city will eventually have another team although I think it will be much further down the road than 5 years from now. I can't see Mereulo providing the funds for a team and a real estate development and (part of) an arena. Good riddance though as he would be a terrible owner anyways.

 

[BLNY]

Don Hay in 98 or something. Game 7 against the blues. If we don't win, I resign.

Coyotes lose. Don Hay, steps down. Never sees an NHL game again. some will wonder what if Arizona wins the lottery in 2015. but who knows?

1996-97. He was an assistant coach with the Ducks in 97-98. Then back to HC the Flames for 68 games in 2000-01. Was a fixture in the WHL after up to 2022-23 after that.

 

[mattihp]

I will miss seeing the jersey I grew up watching Numminen, Tkachuk and Roenick in.

 

[LemmyUlanov55]

Always had a soft spot for the Coyotes, still have a Phoenix katchina home jersey from the 90's. JR & Tkachuk, Numminen, Lumme & Khabibulin, fond memories of childhood hockey heroes.
Their fans certainly didn't deserve all of this drag around the franchise, hope they'll get another team in the future.

 

[Ace Card Bedard]

 

[mattihp]

 

[StreetHawk]

Bad franchises tend to beget bad owners unfortunately and here we are.

The franchise was plagued with bad decisions by ownership before they had even decided to move to desert the year prior when the deal to move to Minnesota fell through (see the owners' order given to the Winnipeg Jets to trade Selanne as they felt they couldn't afford to keep both him and Tkachuk). The Coyotes were also terrible at drafting from the very beginning drafting only 1 player of note in their first 6 years of existence before Gretzky even became involved in any meaningful way. In fact, I don't think you can name a franchise worse than the Coyotes when it comes to draft and development over the past 28 years. This may have played the most significant role in their demise. They essentially went their last 12 or so years without qualifying for the REAL playoffs (2020 was only the result of a COVID and allowing for additional playoff teams).

I think the city will eventually have another team although I think it will be much further down the road than 5 years from now. I can't see Mereulo providing the funds for a team and a real estate development and (part of) an arena. Good riddance though as he would be a terrible owner anyways.

Who knows which way it is but the coyotes never had a good owner which you can legitimately ask why not? Especially given how big the market is it’s more than a fair question.

 

[KevinFinnerty]

where do the players go

 

[snoop88]

I wasn’t old enough to really experience the Tkachuk, Roenick days when it seemed like they were a rocking franchise.

For most of my life they’ve just been kind of boring and irrelevant. I guess there was that flukey 2012 WCF run. Not a lot of excitement or star power otherwise. Fans deserved better.

 

[Senor Catface]

where do the players go

You remember that old Plymouth we just couldn't fix?

 

[hui43210]

where do the players go

Utah.

 

[The Flying Octopus]

When they first came into the league and were successful, they had some epic battles w the team I root for, Detroit. The white out, Bulin wall, etc, was a tough place to win a hockey game. Too bad it couldn’t last. Not sure what happened, don’t really care, as running a team shouldn’t be that hard, (see 95% of all sports teams,lol) and I hope Utah can bring that energy again for this organization.

 

[KevinFinnerty]

You remember that old Plymouth we just couldn't fix?

yeah the one you charged $500 for the fuel pump?

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Yeah it's sad for the fans etc. etc. but who can say they didn't get a fair chance. The Coyotes came into being after the NHL gave up on Winnipeg Jets 1.0 after 16 years in the NHL. Hell, the WHL gave up on the Winnipeg ICE after four seasons, one of which was a half-assed pandemic bubble.

Meanwhile Phoenix had 28 YEARS to get things right. At a certain point you have to cut bait and move on. Is it possible that the people who said Phoenix was a questionable location for a NHL team may have been right all along?

Oilers nearly moved to Houston.

In order to qualify for the league's small-market welfare program we needed to sell 12,000 season tickets annually during one of the worst economic recessions in our history.

Not an excuse for Oilers fans to be acting so shitty, but older fans were clearly irritated at how vehemently Bettman forced the NHL to stay in Arizona given the threshold we needed to meet for a welfare handout.

After meeting a LOT of Coyotes fans, who explained the entire arena/traffic fiasco to me, I definitely have sympathy for you guys. A lot of great fans are being orphaned.