PHOENIX \u2014 When viewers tuned into the 2026 NCAA Men\u2019s Frozen Four last weekend, they were greeted by an aerial view of Las Vegas. T-Mobile Arena, home of the NHL\u2019s Vegas Golden Knights, was the host site for the coveted hockey event for the first time, signifying the growth of hockey in the Southwest.<\/p>\n
As Wisconsin, North Dakota, Denver and Michigan made the trek to Las Vegas, a majority of the skaters may not have been accustomed to the sunny, 80-degree weather. Two of North Dakota\u2019s players, junior defenseman Jake Livanavage and senior goaltender Gibson Homer, felt right at home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gibson spent three seasons at Arizona State. Livanavage, a Gilbert native, was just a five-hour drive from home, the easiest trip his family made all year to one of his games outside of North Dakota\u2019s road series at ASU.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of my family came out,\u201d said Livanavage, now with the NHL\u2019s Pittsburgh Penguins. \u201cWhether it\u2019s my aunts and uncles, grandparents, parents, my brother, they all came out. Past coaches and friends were in the arena, too, so it\u2019s always fun getting to go back home and be there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The presence of both players was a reminder that hockey is still thriving in Arizona, but it was also a reminder of what the state recently lost when the Arizona Coyotes relocated to Salt Lake City following the 2023-24 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fortunately for Coyotes fans, when the team left and was rebranded as the Utah Mammoth, many hockey fans in the Valley were able to shift their attention to Arizona State\u2019s men\u2019s hockey team. It\u2019s been a boon for the program, as the Sun Devils have consistently packed Mullett Arena, averaging 5,023 per game in the 5,000-seat arena over the past two years, with ticket prices also rising significantly over the past few seasons.<\/p>\n
As an example, goal line tickets rose from $425 in 2022-23 to $600 in 2025-26 under the program’s loyalty pricing noted on the official website.<\/p>\n
During that span, ASU also became a member of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, which has produced eight of the past 10 national champions. The Sun Devils\u2019 popularity and the presence of Arizona-bred players on the national stage have filled the Valley hockey community with hope that the NHL will eventually return to the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cArizona State is really picking up the torch and is the driver of high-level hockey in the state,\u201d Phoenix Jr. Coyotes director of hockey operations Mike DeAngelis said. \u201cEverybody loves going to those games and seeing them be successful. (ASU coach) Greg Powers has done a great job with the program, and the Sun Devil brand is huge.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great to continue pushing hockey in the Valley until hopefully someday soon, we\u2019ll get another NHL franchise back.\u201d<\/p>\n
With college athletes now allowed to earn money based on their name, image and likeness, ASU is forced to fight an uphill battle as the only member of the conference that also has a Power Four football team. A majority of the NCHC programs treat hockey as their largest sport in terms of the funding they receive, forcing the Sun Devils to base more of their recruitment tactics on ASU\u2019s surroundings: it\u2019s sunny and warm year round, with a greater metro population of over 5.2 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved all the support that the team received when I played in Arizona,\u201d said Homer, who spent three years as a goaltender at ASU before transferring to North Dakota. \u201cJust seeing a new tradition in the sport grow the way it did was great.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, it\u2019s exploded in ways that weren\u2019t there at the start of the program\u2019s history, or even my freshman year. I loved being a part of the growth of that tradition in the Southwest.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200bDespite the departure of the Coyotes, hockey in the desert has continued to thrive. In the 2024-25 season, USA Hockey recorded 9,534 registered hockey players in Arizona, an increase from the 2018-19 season, when the Valley had just 8,983 registered players. Youth hockey is still developing through programs such as DeAngelis\u2019 Jr. Coyotes, who compete at the AAA level.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While Arizona no longer has an NHL team, high-level talent is still making its mark on the younger generation who dream of turning pro. But as long as an NHL vacancy remains, the likelihood of the next generation losing interest in the sport increases. With former Coyotes such as Michael Grabner and Zbyn\u011bk Mich\u00e1lek supporting the move to lure a professional team to Arizona by coaching at the youth level, those who love the sport are doing their best to maintain a high interest level.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of former players are coaching in our program,\u201d DeAngelis said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t seen any dropoff yet, but I\u2019m sure it may dip a little unless we get some good news about another NHL franchise coming back. Right now, we\u2019re full with all our hockey programs all the way up to U18, so we\u2019ve done real well with it and we continue to drive forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
A major aspect of the community\u2019s support has come from the Arizona Kachinas, a program devoted to the growth and development of girls’ hockey. While the Coyotes were key to events such as Skatin\u2019 for Leighton in remembrance of former Kachinas player Leighton Accardo, who died of cancer when she was 9 in 2020, the Kachinas have received support from the larger hockey community to continue the event for the past three years despite the Coyotes\u2019 absence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the thing that was never broken here,\u201d said Kachinas president Lyndsey Fry, a member of the 2014 US women\u2019s Olympic hockey team at the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia. \u201cYou can talk about all the arena challenges and all the things that made it so the team ended up getting relocated, but the connection between the players and the fans and the hockey community in general was never the challenge. That part was easy, that part was fun, and I think we\u2019re seeing that now.\u201d<\/p>\n
There has never been a shortage of talent in the desert, either. Several NHL stars began their careers in Arizona, including Toronto Maple Leafs captain and 2022 Hart Trophy winner Auston Matthews. A Scottsdale native, Matthews is living proof to youth hockey players that succeeding in the desert is more than possible; they can thrive.<\/p>\n
Along with Matthews, his teammate Matthew Knies, as well as Buffalo Sabres forward Josh Doan, son of former Coyotes captain Shane Doan, have been poster children for hockey in the Valley. While they may have been at a slight disadvantage in terms of resources and support from the community compared to other hockey towns, their determination to live out their dreams in the NHL has younger players wanting to follow in their footsteps.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAuston Matthews was a huge torchbearer,\u201d DeAngelis said. \u201cHis ability in the NHL to do what he\u2019s done and being from Arizona has just been enormous. The players are there and they\u2019re still showing the rest of the country that Arizona is a location for high-level hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of Arizona\u2019s greatest arguments to reinstate an NHL team is the recent success of hockey teams in the southern part of the U.S. Five of the past six Stanley Cups have been won by the Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers and Vegas Golden Knights \u2014 three cities known for sunshine, not snow. Given the NHL\u2019s desire to expand south in the past three decades, the Valley receiving a second chance at a franchise seems a real possibility.<\/p>\n
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly has noted that while other major pro sports leagues in North America have largely saturated the U.S. market, the NHL resides in only 25 U.S. markets, with seven teams playing in Canadian cities. That leaves room for expansion to cities such as Phoenix and Houston.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s certainly clear that the sunbelt, sunny markets in the U.S. have had a lot of success,\u201d DeAngelis said. \u201cWe\u2019re just a bit frustrated that a city the size of Phoenix needs to have an NHL franchise back here. We hope that there can be some good news on the horizon.\u201d<\/p>\n
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman isn\u2019t worried about support if he were to bring a team back to Arizona \u2014 even NHL players voted Arizona as the third-most preferred destination for an expansion team in an anonymous poll<\/a> posted by The Athletic.\u00a0<\/p>\n