The Arizona Coyotes saga took a big turn yesterday. Reports surfaced that the NHL is deep in contingency plans if the Coyotes group does not win the land auction in Phoenix scheduled for June, a necessary step to keep the current iteration of the Coyotes in Arizona.
As most know, the Coyotes have been playing out of an inadequate college hockey arena after they were kicked out of Glendale a couple years ago. The franchise has been a disaster for years, and the NHL has said that without the land to secure a new arena in Phoenix, they would have to pursue other options.
Well, that other option is relocating the Coyotes to Salt Lake City, Utah.
We learned yesterday that the NHL has already prepared a version of the 2024–25 NHL schedule that has the Coyotes playing out of Utah, the Utah ownership group has polled fans on what they think the name for a potential new team could be, and all signs are pointing to the NHL being extremely serious about this relocation plan.
How could Coyotes relocation affect the Oilers?
Whenever new teams are added to the league, be it by expansion or relocation, the quest of division alignment comes into play.
Of course, the easiest solution is to simply swap the Salt Lake City team for the Coyotes, keep them in the Central, and call it a day. That’s probably what does end up happening when all is said and done. But as we saw when the Thrashers moved to become the Jets 2.0, and because the schedule isn’t finalized yet, it might be best to consider other options. And it appears the NHL may be doing just that.
Many are speculating that the NHL would try very hard to keep the trio of Vegas, Colorado, and Salt Lake City together in the same division for historical, geographical, and rivalry purposes. However, it’s not very easy to make that happen as the Coyotes and Avalanche are in the Central Division, and the Golden Knights are in the Pacific.
Moving the Golden Knights to the Central is the first option, but that leaves them disconnected from the extremely close Southern California teams, and a question mark on which team would move into their place. It doesn’t make sense to shift the Stars, the Jets, or anyone else due to where they’re situated in the USA.
The prevailing thought is that if the NHL does want to prioritize keeping those three teams together, Colorado and Salt Lake City would shift into the Pacific Division, and the Flames and Oilers would shift into the Central.
Travis Yost of TSN sent this on Twitter yesterday:
Separately, Adrian Dater formerly of the Denver Post sent this:
What would this division alignment look like?
It’s a bit odd, to say the least.
When you consider the NHL’s motivations, it makes sense, but removing Vancouver from the Alberta teams’ division would definitely be a shift. Nobody would complain about not having to play Vegas or Colorado though, but in return, the Oilers would get the Jets and Stars.
This is a map of what it would look like:
What do you think, Oilers fans? Would you embrace a division realignment like this?
As long as Garee is happy, right?