‘We’re back in the NHL again.’ Utah already feels like home for ex-Coyotes

The crowd roared, and Nick Schmaltz revved them up again when he led a chant of “Spi-cy Tu-na.” A love affair was born between city and team, like watching the scene in Step Brothers when they look at each other and ask: “Did we just become best friends?”

As one player messaged Daily Faceoff following the festivities: “It feels like we’re back in the NHL again.”

The hair-raising event capped a whirlwind day for a group of players who just one week prior were playing the final game in Coyotes franchise history at Mullett Arena against the Edmonton Oilers. They arrived in Salt Lake earlier on Wednesday, disembarking at the hangar to a throng of 500-plus local youth hockey players equipped with signs and jerseys of every NHL denomination.

There has been no shortage of emotions over the last number of months for this team. Coach Andre Tourigny referred to them as “battle scars,” and hinted that next year’s version in Utah will be a lot closer and stronger as a result. There has been fear of the unknown, both in who would be moving with the team, and in what it would be like.

“Everybody wants certainty, and that emotion is running through your body,” GM Bill Armstrong said.

But stepping off the plane into that crisp mountain air, there was also a feeling of a fresh start. Fair or unfair, these very Coyotes have carried around two decades’ worth of baggage, all of the losing and toxic energy, most of which was the sins of previous owners and stewards.

“It was a clean slate for them,” Armstrong said. “You could see the joy in their faces when they saw the kids. I don’t know if the kids will ever understand how much that meant to the players. I almost had a tear in my eye coming down [the air stairs], just seeing those kids chanting. I know our players were overwhelmed with emotion and that clean slate we talked about.”

Tourigny said he’s spent seven years working in the NHL and he told his wife: “This is my best day in the NHL so far.”

The group once again met with new owners Ryan and Ashley Smith and received tours of both the Jazz practice facility and Delta Center. The plan is for Smith Entertainment Group to massively overhaul the basketball-first arena to the tune of $700-plus million, a from-the-foundation renovation that will put it on par with every other NHL arena at 17,000 seats.

There are still a million logistical hurdles to overcome. Where will Utah practice? How will their games be broadcast and consumed? Will they have a logo or nickname when the puck drops in October? Smith said only on Wednesday that their jerseys this season will say “Utah,” and it sounds like the plan is still for fans to choose the team name by bracket-style voting.

But one thing is no longer a question: Will Utah show up and support hockey?

The season-ticket waiting list is now north of 29,000 deposits received – for an arena that will only seat 12,000 to start. Rabid hockey fans were flocking to merchandise stands to buy gear that quite literally only has an NHL shield and “Utah” written on it. Yes, you read that correctly. They are passionate, proud and hungry for another major professional sport to call their own.

“My first impression when I walk in this building,” Tourigny said, “is being sad that I have to wait four or five months to get back. I cannot wait to get on the ice.”

You know, they’re a lot of W’s on Bettman’s scorecard since becoming commissioner in 1993. There is the salary cap and cost certainty, the 2013 lockout which has resulted in a $4.3 billion transfer of wealth from players to owners in the decade since, and home run expansion entrees into Vegas and Seattle. But whenever his reign ends, this move from Arizona to Utah might go down as his most savvy heist.

Bettman convinced a headstrong, incompetent and litigious owner in Alex Meruelo to relinquish control of his baby in exchange for $1 billion and a seemingly flimsy option (dare?) to get a franchise back somehow, someday. And he flipped a problem child, by far the weakest link in a 32-team chain, into a burgeoning and affluent market in the hands of a young and energetic billionaire owner. This isn’t just going to work. It’s as sure as a Karl Malone rebound. To be there on Wednesday, to see it and feel it, is to believe it.

Yes. Utah, this is the place. At long last, and what a long, strange trip it has been. With faith, the Coyotes kept going until they reached the Great Salt Lake.