Pierre LeBrun: (Early evening last night) “At the moment, sources saying Salt Lake group (SEG) communicating directly with the NHL on the possibility of being a solution on the Coyotes front; No direct talks between SEG and Coyotes ownership, all flowing through the NHL. Source close to it says lots of work to be done, but could move quickly if it indeed happens.
Again, no one involved ready to confirm re-location happening for sure.
Pierre LeBrun: NHL Deputy commissioner Bill Daly on the situation: “The League is continuing to work on a solution to what has been a challenging and difficult situation. But we are not in a position to comment beyond that.”
Pierre LeBrun: The Board of Governors received a memo from the NHL yesterday after all the media speculation was being reported about the Coyotes and a potential re-location.
Sources who read the memo said there are still lots of moving parts and nothing is done. There is at least the possibility that it could happen soon.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet: “Multiple sources indicate a real scenario is Meruelo being paid $1 billion for the team, and Smith paying $1.2 billion to purchase. But the real key is what the NHL will promise Meruelo to avoid this ending up in court.
Those same sources indicate he could be offered a five-year exclusive window to “bring back” the Coyotes as an expansion franchise — although there would be certain language stating what would need to be accomplished for him to return.”
PHNX Coyotes: Elliotte Friedman on the around-the-clock work that is being done that could potentially see the Arizona Coyotes relocating to Salt Lake City.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Craig Morgan: “We’ll just start there. What are you hearing?”
Friedman: “Well, I think this is moving in a direction. There’s, there’s no question about that. And everybody’s trying to be careful because there’s a lot of work that needs to get done. And in though in the world of where things like this occur until the lawyers sign off on everything, nothing is done until it’s done.
So, but I think they’re basically working around-the-clock to try to get this done by next week. I think there’s a real desire to get, to have it put together before the players break off and go their separate ways. I do think that’s a very big part of this equation.
I think also that they want to get it over with so that, you know people can have some certainty about where there’s, where this is going and what the answers are gonna be for the future and for people’s own careers, not necessarily players, but people, you know, who have regular, do regular work inside the coyotes organization.
But we’re moving in this direction and everybody’s trying to see if it can happen and get it done. And we’ll see where we are next Thursday.
“They are working around the clock to get this done by next week. There is a real desire to have it put together before the players break off.” @FriedgeHNIC says a deal to relocate the Coyotes to Salt Lake City is rapidly approaching. pic.twitter.com/YErSVhAFLA
— PHNX Coyotes (@PHNX_Coyotes) April 10, 2024
Brendan Batchelor: Former Coyotes coach and current Canucks coach Rick Tocchet on the situation: “It’s too bad it’s been so unstable. I think people are tired of the instability. What better place to sell hockey? The players love it. It’s a great lifestyle. They have great fans there. It would suck if they left. It can be a really good hockey market.”
