Phoenix Coyotes Franchise History

While the Winnipeg Jets were the WHA's most successful team, they were never able to translate that into the NHL, and despite strong fan support, the money simply wasn't there, with operating costs and player salaries growing so rapidly. The team was sold to out-of-town interests, and in 1996, the Winnipeg Jets moved to Arizona and became the Phoenix Coyotes.

In the summer that the move took place, the franchise saw the exit of Jets stars like Teemu Selanne and Alexei Zhamnov, while the team added established superstar Jeremy Roenick who teamed up with power wings Keith Tkachuk and Rick Tocchet to form a dynamic 1-2-3 offensive punch that led the Coyotes through their first years in Arizona. Also impressive were young players like Shane Doan(the last remaining original Coyote), Oleg Tverdovsky and goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin, arguably the most popular player in Coyotes history whom the fans nicknamed the "Bulin Wall".

After arriving in Phoenix, the team posted six consecutive .500 or better seasons, though they have yet to surpass the first round of the playoffs. The closest they came to advancing was the 1999 Playoffs where they lost a heatbreaking Game 7 to the St. Louis Blues. The Jets/Coyotes franchise is currently the oldest NHL team to have never appeared in the Stanley Cup Finals. Since 2002, the Coyotes, due to lack of ownership stability and poor personnel strategies, have fallen to the cellar of the NHL and attendance levels have dropped, worrying many NHL executives.

The Coyotes were a hot ticket in Phoenix in the late '90s, and had superb attendance, but America West Arena, originally built for basketball, had to be radically altered for hockey, including a stretch of the upper deck that actually hung over the ice, obstructing the views of around 3,000 spectators. After a failed plans to renovate America West and/or build an arena in Scottsdale, the Coyotes began to build Glendale Arena, which they moved into in 2003. Simultaneously, the Coyotes changed their logo and uniforms, heeding to hockey purists, but disappointing many Coyotes fans.

In August 2005, two months before the start of the new hockey season, the Coyotes announced that Wayne Gretzky would be the new coach of the team, replacing interim coach Rick Bowness. That month, the team signed aging superstar Brett Hull, son of former Jets great Bobby Hull, and unretired the elder Hull's number for the younger to wear. Hull only lasted a few games before finding that the increased speed of the NHL under the new rule set was too late for him. In another rather unusual move, the Coyotes re-honoured another Jets great, Thomas Steen, in 2006, despite the fact that his number had been retired by the Jets some years earlier.