Newly elected officials in Phoenix meet with Gary Bettman to bring back the Coyotes!

This is a place where we think hockey works,” says the NHL commissioner.

Thomas Galvin, the newly elected chairman of Arizona’s Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, held his first meeting of 2025 today where he laid out his strategy to bring NHL hockey back to the city of Phoenix.

“I think of Wayne Gretzky’s quote, ‘You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take,’” Galvin said. “So, I’m forming an advisory committee of visionary leaders dedicated to bringing NHL hockey back to the Valley. I’ve had several meetings with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, and he looks forward to working with us to identify an owner and best location for a world-class building.”

Galvin says that losing the team was a “low point” for the county and that he’ll do everything he can to bring during his tenure to bring NHL hockey back to Arizona.

Có thể là hình ảnh của 1 người đang chơi khúc côn cầu và văn bản

The Coyotes, of course, left the Arizona desert for Salt Lake City, Utah after 27 tumultuous years in Phoenix, Glendale and Tempe. Former owner Alex Mureulo failed to secure a new arena for the team after getting booted from their home in Glendale for unpaid bills. He failed to gain public support for a new arena in Tempe and then had his plans for a public auction from the state go up in smoke. That’s when he ultimately gave up hope for the team’s future in Arizona and he sold the team to Salt Lake City billionaire Ryan Smith.

Bettman, for what it’s worth, still thinks there’s a future for NHL hockey in Arizona.

“This is a place where we think hockey works” and “We’re still standing by this market and believe a team belongs here and we need a new arena,” Gary Bettman said when the team was sold.

Haven’t we seen this movie before? Like a dozen times at this point…

Give it up… the Coyotes had nearly 30 years to make things work and they failed miserably year after year after year. Terrible on the ice, terrible off the ice. It just never worked no matter how you looked at things. To me, this entire situation reeks of a politician simply trying to buy some positive public sentiment. A story as old as time.