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One of many intriguing comments from NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly at the NHL’s latest media tour concerned the prospects of Arizona getting another NHL team. And if Daly’s comments are any indication, Arizona hockey fans should be expecting to get a new franchise in the next 4-5 years.
“(O)bviously, (NHL commissioner) Gary (Bettman) and I like to joke that we’ve spent the last 20 years trying to preserve hockey in Arizona and ultimately we were unsuccessful with this iteration,” Daly told THN director of digital media Michael Traikos. “It doesn’t mean the next one won’t be successful. Given the right circumstances, it can be very successful.”
Did you catch that? “The next one”? This isn’t some flippant observation. This isn’t the league floating out some far-fetched notion. This is the NHL’s second-in-command executive talking about what will happen down the line. And Daly wasn’t done there.
Indeed, Daly talked about the process of giving another team to Arizona – something that was spelled out in writing when the Coyotes became an inactive franchise and the organization was packed up and sold to Utah Hockey Club owners Ryan and Ashley Smith. The league told former Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo he’d have the opportunity to land what would be an expansion team if he located and built a new NHL arena within five years.
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That means, by 2029, the league is prepared to expand to at least 33 teams – and to even things out in the two conferences, a 34th team would likely be created as well. And Daly told Traikos that the hurdles any new Arizona team owner would have to go through – including the land purchase and construction of an NHL-caliber arena – would be the same as the process of expansion we’ve seen in Seattle and Las Vegas in recent years.
“I think the process is kind of the same as Alex Meruelo would have had to deal with anyway,” Daly said. “Having said that, it is a gating factor to go back to that market until we have definitive plans and progress on a state-of-the-art arena, because right now that market doesn’t have one that can house a hockey team. Whether that involves a renovation of an existing arena, I suppose that’s always possible. I would say if you’re writing on a clean slate you’d love to have a hockey-specific arena that’s designed predominantly for hockey. So we’ll see how it plays out.”
Yes, we certainly will. We’re very confident more NHL expansion is coming, and the only real questions are exactly how soon that process will happen and which two cities are going to get those teams. We still believe Houston is the No. 1 choice for NHL owners, but after Daly’s comments, you have to imagine Arizona is a close second. The league isn’t giving up on elite hockey in the Phoenix area, and Daly’s remarks only underscore that fact.
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News Summary:
- Opinion: As Per NHL Executive Bill Daly, It Seems Like Arizona Will Soon Land An Expansion Team
- Check all news and articles from the latest NHL updates.