General NHL Talk 2023-2024

[Vegas Halo Fan]

13 hours ago, arch stanton said:

They got themselves evicted from their arena for non-payment and now they're waiting for some state or municipal taxpayers to bail them out with land and a building. Bettman really wants a team in Arizona and it should be working but they (ownership) refuse to act like top professionals. Even if they end up moving a new expansion will end up in Phoenix but it will be same old shit until they force these clowns to sell

Thanks for the background. I haven't really dug into it, other than hearing others remark about the unsuitability of their current arena situation. They apparently have a decent core group of fans, but it's hard for them to grow it when they are moving around and are fielding bad teams.

Edited March 16 by Vegas Halo Fan

[gotbeer]

LOL. What an absolute train wreck.

 

[gotbeer]

Hahaha.  It keeps getting better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyuiILgDaTs&ab_channel=BrodieBrazil 

[gotbeer]

Celebrini Wins Hobey Baker Award

 

[Vegas Halo Fan]

ESPN and others are reporting that Arizona Coyotes players have been informed of an imminent relocation of the team to Salt Lake City. A team trip to SLC has been scheduled immediately after the Coyotes' final home game on April 17. Word is that the Coyotes name and logo are being left in Arizona, and the current team ownership is being given five years to complete significant steps toward overcoming previous obstacles (including a permanent arena), which would allow the Coyotes to return, this time as an expansion franchise.

What a total freaking mess.

Edited April 13 by Vegas Halo Fan

[arch stanton]

Ever since they got tossed out of Glendale it's been pretty obvious they weren't getting a rink any time soon. The Coyotes players might not be thrilled about moving but they should be over the moon about getting away from that ownership group. If they actually get awarded an expansion team the players union should go on work stoppage

[Vegas Halo Fan]

If they can afford $68 million + for the land auction and billions for development of the site, why on Earth did they not pay the rent in Glendale? None of it makes any sense. Just a week ago, ownership publicized grandiose plans for a sports/entertainment/commercial district in Scottsdale, complete with renderings.

Edited April 13 by Vegas Halo Fan

[gotbeer]

5 hours ago, Vegas Halo Fan said:

If they can afford $68 million + for the land auction and billions for development of the site, why on Earth did they not pay the rent in Glendale? None of it makes any sense. Just a week ago, ownership publicized grandiose plans for a sports/entertainment/commercial district in Scottsdale, complete with renderings.

One article I read is that Glendale wasn't about non-payment, but a major difference in term. Not sure who wanted what, but considering the coyotes got crap attendance in Glendale, I'm thinking Glendale wanted a long term deal and the coyotes might have already been looking at a new stadium. Either way, there are $900 million reasons why salt Lake is a preferable move.

[gotbeer]

Just sounds inevitable now with all the rumors coming out.

Report: NHL to buy Coyotes, sell to Utah ownership for $1.2B

And the reason why I think they are going this route, is so the Utah ownership doesn't get the double whammy of buying a team, and having to pay the relocation fee.  And Meruelo is making out well, he bought the Yotes for $425 million in 2019.  

[Vegas Halo Fan]

They aren't rumors. This comes straight from the NHL office. 

[gotbeer]

Great thing about this year's playoffs. One of the leafs or bruins will be put on suicide watch after the first round elimination.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

16 hours ago, gotbeer said:

Great thing about this year's playoffs. One of the leafs or bruins will be put on suicide watch after the first round elimination.

My money's on Toronto, although the Bruins got bounced by Florida a year ago.

[arch stanton]

Bruins win that series then almost immediately the Leafs announce Keefe is fired 

[Tank]

the coyotes have applied for copyright on five names for the new team in salt lake.

among the five are Salt Lake Venom, Salt Lake Hockey Club, and Salt Lake HC. Hard to contain my excitement over these choices. 

[Tank]

Jeff Carter has decided to retire. 

He'll go down as one of all time favorite players. Great skater, great hands, great shot. Came up big in the Stanley Cup Finals in '12 and '14. We don't win either Cup without him.

Thank you, Jeff.

[Kevin]

7 hours ago, Tank said:

the coyotes have applied for copyright on five names for the new team in salt lake.

among the five are Salt Lake Venom, Salt Lake Hockey Club, and Salt Lake HC. Hard to contain my excitement over these choices. 

As a Kings fan living in Utah, I’m willing to adopt them as my second team. But any good vibes I had were kind of killed by this. I’m hoping there is more to the story and these names aren’t serious.

https://www.sltrib.com/sports/2024/04/18/utahs-new-nhl-team-only-has-half/#
 

“It will 100 percent be ‘Utah,’ and then it will be ‘Utah Something,’ obviously,” Smith told NHL.com. “I don’t think given this timeline that we’re going to have time — or nor should we rush with everything else that’s going on — to go force what that is in the next three months.”

[gotbeer]

8 hours ago, Tank said:

the coyotes have applied for copyright on five names for the new team in salt lake.

among the five are Salt Lake Venom, Salt Lake Hockey Club, and Salt Lake HC. Hard to contain my excitement over these choices. 

Salt Lake Hockey Club makes sense.  Probably their official team or company name.  Like the Anaheim Ducks Hockey Club is the official name of the LLC that holds the Ducks.  

 

22 minutes ago, Kevin said:

As a Kings fan living in Utah, I’m willing to adopt them as my second team. But any good vibes I had were kind of killed by this. I’m hoping there is more to the story and these names aren’t serious.

https://www.sltrib.com/sports/2024/04/18/utahs-new-nhl-team-only-has-half/#
 

“It will 100 percent be ‘Utah,’ and then it will be ‘Utah Something,’ obviously,” Smith told NHL.com. “I don’t think given this timeline that we’re going to have time — or nor should we rush with everything else that’s going on — to go force what that is in the next three months.”

 

But if it's going to be Utah.  Then those names don't make sense.  But they could be placeholders, especially the Salt Lake Hockey Club.  It's 5 months till September, when training camps begin.  By then season ticket and individual tickets have to be sold.  Plus jersey's and all promotional stuff have to be made. So really they probably have 2-3 months at most.  So while they may say they will take their time on the team name, they really don't have much time.  Unlike an expansion team that has a few years to plan.  I think Vegas had 3 years, and the Kraken had 2, Salt Lake has little to no time.  I think it's a really high chance that the team in year 1 is named the Salt Lake Hockey Club.  

[Tank]

it seems to me that if you're putting together a financial package to buy a pro team, you also already have colors, logo, uniform design, and team name issues already worked out. 

saw something on twitter today that said it was likely they would just go with salt lake HC for a year. if this new ownership group doesn't already have this stuff figured out, it makes me think they might be no better than the group they just bought the team from. 

[Vegas Halo Fan]

The whole thing is incredibly disorganized. 

As far as team name,  logo, etc. is concerned, this group was seeking an expansion team.  They can't be totally in the dark - can they?

Edited April 22 by Vegas Halo Fan

[gotbeer]

41 minutes ago, Vegas Halo Fan said:

The whole thing has incredibly disorganized. 

As far as team name,  logo, etc. is concerned, this group was seeking an expansion team.  They can't be totally in the dark - can they?

I think they could.  Before this move, even in expansion, Salt Lake was a longshot.  Houston and Atlanta were considered frontrunners.  Especially Houston.  So it could very well be they didn't spend the extra millions on a pipe dream that may never happen.  

[arch stanton]

Yeah I don't see a need to rush it. With a 10 thousand seat arena for the next few years they need to get the branding just right

[gotbeer]

Utah author says she was stunned by one of the trademarked Utah NHL hockey team names

[deepdrive]

On 4/18/2024 at 8:56 PM, arch stanton said:

Bruins win that series then almost immediately the Leafs announce Keefe is fired 

Winner, winner chicken dinner ?

Or, still too early to call ?

[Vegas Halo Fan]

17 hours ago, gotbeer said:

Utah author says she was stunned by one of the trademarked Utah NHL hockey team names

Incredible story.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

9 hours ago, deepdrive said:

Winner, winner chicken dinner ?

Or, still too early to call ?

Toronto wasn't even competitive in game 1 after the first period. I could maybe see it if they were coming out of a seven game series, but this was the first game of the playoffs.