Johnston: Coyotes players faced with ‘mental warfare,’ uncertainty as potential relocation looms

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Johnston: Coyotes players faced with ‘mental warfare,’ uncertainty as potential relocation looms

What had already been a long, punishing season for members of the Arizona Coyotes turned downright cruel on Wednesday when the floodgates opened on news of the NHL’s ongoing discussions to potentially relocate the team to Salt Lake City.

The news broke hours before Game 79 of a campaign that has been incredibly trying on Coyotes players and staff. Not only have they continued to play out of a spartan college facility where they aren’t the primary tenant, but they’ve done so amid a swirl of different reports and rumors about the future of the franchise.

The weight of that had already been crashing down on players over the past several months, according to former teammate Matt Dumba, who was traded from the Coyotes to the Tampa Bay Lightning on March 8.

“It’s definitely being felt,” Dumba told The Athletic. “It’s being felt every day you step into the Mullett (Arena). It’s not easy for those guys. I feel for them. The uncertainty of what’s going to happen ahead — I mean, it can just linger, you know? When stuff doesn’t go good, it’s a little more prevalent.

“It’s a bit of mental warfare for those guys.”

The Coyotes’ future still hasn’t been settled — players have been told they could remain at the 4,600-seat Mullett Arena in Tempe next season if the current talks about relocating to Utah break down, according to multiple sources close to the situation — and so it couldn’t have been easy for them to take the ice in Vancouver on Wednesday night with the topic now an open public conversation.

Still, they won 4-3 in overtime and left all of their talking on the ice: The team’s public-relations staff told reporters that players would not be talking about “relocation rumors.”

When asked after the game if the dressing room was open in accordance with NHL regulations, Coyotes PR pointed reporters to an adjacent backdrop, according to The Athletic’s Thomas Drance. The only player who appeared there was Logan Cooley, and he took questions exclusively from the team’s TV reporter before the scrum was abruptly cut off.

Arizona didn’t hold a practice in Edmonton on Thursday and will face the Oilers there on Friday.

Speculation around a possible Coyotes move intensified in late January after the Smith Entertainment Group submitted a formal request to the NHL asking the league to open an expansion process so that it could bring a team to Utah. It noted that they could accommodate a NHL team as soon as the 2024-25 season, using the Delta Center on an interim basis while a new arena is constructed.

A week later, NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh teed off on Arizona’s inability to make progress on a new arena of its own while speaking to reporters during the NHL’s All-Star Weekend: “The next deadline for me is tomorrow. It’s now. It’s right now.”

All of that coincided with the start of a stretch that sunk the Coyotes’ season. Dumba believes the Coyotes played some good hockey during that 0-12-2 run from Jan. 24 to Feb. 29 but were hampered by the growing number of off-ice distractions.

“Just the uncertainty. Not knowing,” said Dumba. “I don’t think anyone knows. It’s tough for guys with families or guys who have been down there a long time and have their houses.

“You just never know when that can be pulled out from under you.”

That hasn’t happened to an NHL team since news broke on May 31, 2011, that the Atlanta Thrashers were being sold and relocated to Winnipeg for the following season.

That offseason move came almost entirely out of the blue for players, according to then-Thrasher Evander Kane. He recalls hearing some rumblings as they entered that summer, but he and his teammates figured they were safe because the NHL appeared to be dealing with a more crucial franchise situation.

“Everybody thought if anybody was going to go first, it was Arizona,” Kane told The Athletic. “And they’re still here today looking for a home.”

As a player with just two years of NHL experience and no deep roots planted in Atlanta, the inconvenience for Kane at that point was relatively minor. He was renting an apartment and had to break a lease as part of his scrambled move north.

“I had just turned 20,” said Kane. “Single, no kids. For me, going from Atlanta to Winnipeg — that’s a big change, but I can’t even imagine if you had a wife or a girlfriend and kids, like today. That would not be ideal.

“The uncertainty is what kills you, too, right?”

While the growing possibility of a move out of Arizona could arguably benefit the players as a whole — a Utah-based franchise would almost certainly generate higher revenues than a team playing out of a college facility — it wasn’t received as welcome news by many on an individual basis.

That includes those who have made long-term homes in the region and love the lifestyle. You can also count the growing number of NHL players raised in Arizona who were drawn to the sport because of the Coyotes.

“I hope they can stay there, but it’s out of my control,” said Maple Leafs forward Matthew Knies, who grew up in Phoenix. “Not really too happy about the situation, but it is what it is.”

The Coyotes’ inability to secure a proper arena setup is ultimately what brought the organization to this point.

Before moving to Mullet Arena ahead of the 2022-23 season, the team constructed dressing rooms in adjacent buildings that require a lengthy walk to the ice surface. The crowds are obviously small by NHL standards and have often been tilted in favor of visiting teams in terms of support. And even when the Coyotes practice at the Ice Den in Scottsdale, the players change in a area that’s far enough away that some are brought over to the rink in golf carts.

“Hey, look, they’ve done the best with what they have available,” said Kane. “But there’s an expectation of the NHL and what it is and what the standard is, and that’s definitely not it.”

Dumba actually chose the Coyotes over multiple other interested suitors as a free agent last summer. He owned an investment property in Arizona after falling in love with the area earlier in his career.

“If the rink was figured out and everything else, it would be one of the best places in the (NHL) to play,” said Dumba. “If you could figure that out, you’d be bagging guys in free agency. It would be pretty easy.

“I don’t think you’d have to twist too many guys’ arms to go live in AZ.”

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(Photo: Norm Hall / NHLI via Getty Images)