NHL working on two schedules including one with relocation of Arizona

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Cooper Godin
April 10, 2024 (11:49)

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The Arizona Coyotes' future in the desert doesn't look great and with the team having one last effort at finding a new permanent home, the NHL is already working on a plan for next season if they need to be relocated.

According to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, the National Hockey League is working on two schedules for the 2024-25 season, one which has the Coyotes remaining in Arizona and the other seeing them relocate to Salt Lake City, Utah.

The NHL is concurrently drafting two versions of a league schedule matrix for the 2024-25 season, one with the Arizona Coyotes and another with the Coyotes franchise playing in Salt Lake City in the event of relocation, multiple sources told Daily Faceoff."

While relocation needs to be on the table at this point, the Coyotes aren't giving up hope of remaining in Arizona. Last week, the Coyotes announced their intention to win a land auction in North Phoenix, but it's unclear how many other bidders will be involved and the odds of them winning.

Salt Lake City is probably the most likely landing spot for Arizona if they need to relocate. For starters, they have an arena ready to go that holds up to 17,000 for hockey and the National Hockey League wouldn't need to have realignment in order to make it work.

It'll be interesting to see how things play out in the coming months and if the Coyotes win their land auction in June. With the auction not until June and relocation potentially on the table for the 2024-25 season, there's a possibility that the Coyotes will play their last game in Arizona on Wednesday, April 17th against the Edmonton Oilers.