The Arizona Coyotes relocation news went from zero to 100 quickly. The news slowed and seemingly got more complicated over the weekend.
Even if it seems all but determined the franchise will move to Salt Lake City for next season, there are still a lot of moving parts confusing until we get clarification and an official announcement from the NHL themselves.
One of those factors is the rumored agreement the league has with current Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo on an expansion franchise.
If Meruelo is successful in building a new home for an NHL franchise, the NHL would award him an expansion franchise to take the Coyotes' place while the current Coyotes move to Salt Lake City.
A similar agreement was made in the mid-1990s when the Cleveland Browns relocated to become the Baltimore Ravens.
If the plan is successful Arizona would join a handful of teams to regain an NHL franchise after losing them in the league’s modern era.
Let’s take a look at how those previous examples turned out. We’re only looking at examples from the NHL’s post-1967 expansion era, so cities such as Seattle and Pittsburgh aren’t on this list.
Teams that had and lost a WHA franchise and gained an NHL franchise, such as Calgary, aren’t included either. Although Ohio lost the Cleveland Barons but regained the Columbus Blue Jackets we didn’t include them since they are two separate media markets.
We also aren’t counting any potential playoff appearances this year when we list playoff appearances of current franchises since the playoffs haven’t started yet.