{"id":451262,"date":"2026-02-08T15:05:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T15:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/451262\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T15:05:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T15:05:20","slug":"arizona-coyotes-moving-utah-hockey-club-history-notable-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/451262\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona Coyotes | Moving, Utah Hockey Club, History, & Notable Players"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tTable of Contents<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tTable of Contents<\/p>\n

Ask Anything<\/p>\n

\n Top Questions\n <\/p>\n

What is the Arizona Coyotes ice-hockey team?<\/p>\n

In which league do the Arizona Coyotes play?<\/p>\n

Where are the Arizona Coyotes based?<\/p>\n

Who are some famous players who have played for the Arizona Coyotes?<\/p>\n

What challenges and achievements has the Arizona Coyotes team experienced in their history?<\/p>\n

\tShow more<\/p>\n

\t Show less<\/p>\n

Arizona Coyotes, American professional ice hockey<\/a> team that was based in Arizona<\/a> from 1996 to 2024 and played in the Western Conference<\/a> of the National Hockey League<\/a> (NHL). The Coyotes had been previously known as the Winnipeg Jets, which had won three World Hockey Association (WHA) titles (1976, 1978, and 1979) before moving to Phoenix<\/a>. In 2024 the Coyotes\u2019 assets were sold to an ownership group that established the Utah Hockey Club<\/a>, a new NHL franchise based in Salt Lake City<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From the WHA to the NHL in Winnipeg <\/p>\n

The franchise, a founding member of the WHA, was originally based in Winnipeg<\/a>, Manitoba, Canada<\/a>, and began play in 1972 as the Jets. In its inaugural season the team made headlines before it played a single game, when it signed superstar Bobby Hull<\/a> away from the NHL\u2019s Chicago Black Hawks<\/a>. The landmark acquisition<\/a> gave instant credibility to the fledgling league and subsequently led to larger salaries for all professional hockey players, as NHL teams were forced to increase their pay to avoid having their players poached by WHA franchises.<\/p>\n

With Hull the Jets proved to be one of the WHA\u2019s best teams, appearing in the Avco Cup (league championship) finals in five of the seven WHA seasons and winning three titles (1976, 1978, and 1979). The financially floundering WHA was forced to merge with the NHL before the 1979\u201380 season, and the Jets were one of four WHA franchises to move to the NHL.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Serena<\/p>\n

Britannica Quiz<\/p>\n

Great Moments in Sports Quiz<\/p>\n

<\/a> <\/p>\n

The Jets\u2019 dominance did not extend to their new league, as the team failed to post a winning record in any of its first five NHL seasons. Center Dale Hawerchuk led the team to winning seasons and first-round playoff victories (and second-round losses to the eventual champion Edmonton Oilers<\/a>) in both 1984\u201385 and 1986\u201387, but the Jets failed to advance any farther in the postseason during the remainder of their time in Winnipeg.<\/p>\n

Move to Phoenix <\/p>\n

As player salaries and other expenses continued to grow through the 1980s and \u201990s, the small-market Jets struggled financially, and it was announced in 1995 that the team would be sold to a group of Phoenix-area investors; the NHL formally approved the sale in January 1996. The franchise relocated to Arizona before the 1996\u201397 season and became the Phoenix Coyotes.<\/p>\n

Led by the play of Keith Tkachuk, Jeremy Roenick, Shane Doan, and Teppo Numminen, the renamed Coyotes qualified for the postseason in each of their first four seasons in Phoenix, losing in the first round on each occasion. Hockey legend<\/a> Wayne Gretzky<\/a> became a minority owner of the team in 2000 and became the Coyotes\u2019 head coach in 2005. The team failed to finish any higher than second-to-last in its division during Gretzky\u2019s tenure<\/a>, and he stepped down in September 2009 soon after the Coyotes\u2014who continued to lose money after their move to Phoenix\u2014had filed for bankruptcy protection. Two months later the bankrupt team was purchased by the NHL.<\/p>\n

Despite this turmoil, the Coyotes won 50 games during the 2009\u201310 season (the team\u2019s highest win total since joining the NHL 30 years earlier) to end a six-year playoff drought. In 2011\u201312 the Coyotes won their first division title in franchise history. The team followed that feat by beating the Blackhawks in a thrilling first-round playoff series, in which five of the six games were decided in overtime to claim the franchise\u2019s first postseason series victory since its relocation from Winnipeg. The Coyotes won another playoff series before ultimately being eliminated by the Los Angeles Kings<\/a> in the Western Conference finals.<\/p>\n

In 2013 the NHL sold the team to an ownership group that vowed to keep the Coyotes in Arizona. To reflect the fact that it was based outside Phoenix, in Glendale<\/a>, and in an effort to further appeal to hockey fans across the state, the franchise changed its name to the Arizona Coyotes in 2014. The team finished the 2014\u201315 season last in its division. Between the 2015\u201316 and 2023\u201324 seasons, the Coyotes made it to the playoffs only once, in 2020, when the team lost to the Colorado Avalanche<\/a> in the first round.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tQuick Facts<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDate:
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1996 – 2024<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(Show\u00a0more)<\/p>\n

\t\t A new team in Utah <\/p>\n

Though the franchise developed a dedicated, if small, fan base, its failed efforts to establish a permanent home arena in Arizona meant that, beginning in 2022, the Coyotes played in Tempe<\/a> at Arizona State University<\/a>\u2019s Mullett Arena. As a multiyear agreement with the university was approaching its end, in April 2024 the NHL brokered a deal that involved the sale of the franchise\u2019s \u201chockey assets\u201d to an ownership group in Utah, while classing the Coyotes as an \u201cinactive\u201d franchise still under the control of its Arizona-based owner, Alex Meruelo. Several months later Meruelo relinquished<\/a> his rights to the Coyotes name and history to the NHL. The Utah Hockey Club began play in the 2024\u201325 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Table of Contents Table of Contents Ask Anything Top Questions What is the Arizona Coyotes ice-hockey team? In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[1695,301,5213,5212,5211,5,4,51,5290,232,5291,5289],"class_list":["post-451262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-utah-hockey-club","tag-arizona-coyotes","tag-article","tag-britannica","tag-encyclopeadia","tag-encyclopedia","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-utah","tag-utah-hc","tag-utah-hockey-club","tag-utahhc","tag-utahhockeyclub"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116035632032080687","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}