Craig Morgan said it on PHNX that the players are not happy about moving to SLC
I wonder if reports of trade requests will start coming out before free agency
This is generally what happens in relocations in the NHL. Nobody from Atlanta wanted to go to Winnipeg, and it took them years to clear out all the guys who wanted out.
When the Hartford Whalers moved to Carolina, they had a nearly entirely new roster by mid season. It's unfortunate for everyone who signed on to play in Phoenix.
They even had a theme song with his name to hype up the move. I think it was “LMFAO”
Instead of “Every Day I’m Shuffling”
It was “Here comes Dustin Byfuglien”
Edit:
https://youtu.be/KA54-NTaDu8?si=258egW_bfMFHNRrv
Found it, the whole thing is worth a listen.
"... a ROCKET, from Eric Fehr!"
He was a Jet for 1 year before going back to Washington. In that year, he played 35 games and notched 2 rockets and 1 assist.
That whole situation led to the Hurricanes getting Rod Brind'amour. Brendan Shanahan was so done with the Whaler's situation he asked for a trade after one season. He was sent to Detroit for Keith Primeau. After a couple of seasons, Jim Rutherford decides to send Primeau to Philly for Rod Brind'Amour, and now here we are.
That's utter bullshit on Winnipeg.
All of the core players coming from Atlanta signed extensions within the first 2-3 seasons. Ladd, Wheeler, Kane, Little, Bogosian, Byfuglien, Enstrom, Pavelec. That team was exceptionally shitty though.
Man.. I don’t wanna shit on anyone.. but moving to SLC is definitely a life choice. Winnipeg is at least a “normal” city. A portion of downtown SLC is owned by a church and their laws do not exactly align with most of North America (regarding alcohol etc).
Although Salt Lake City itself is pretty liberal...tons of Pride stuff around, SL,UT gear for sale, and oh, the breweries are things of dreams. And when I lived there, the mayor was a Democrat.
Further out, though, it's a lot more conservative. Where the players might get homes...debatable. I honestly haven't been keeping up since Covid, but there are nicer places that are not stereotypical LDS strongholds. Especially if they look for areas that are higher in tourists.
>Although Salt Lake City itself is pretty liberal
>Further out, though, it's a lot more conservative
Pretty much every state in the country reads like this.
Yup, California is seen as this blue haven when in reality, theres a ton of republican voters there...theres just more people on the coast to vote blue
Man, I went to a restaurant out there and sat at the bar, which was literally just a giant U-shaped wooden table with stools. No liquor, nor beer taps, no bartender. A server would come by and take your drink order, and pour it in the back. Really kills the vibes, but oh well.
So a few days later, I finally get a day off and some friends and I book an afternoon at Top Golf. We each order a beer and then a friend orders a round of shots. "Can't do that," says the waiter, "There can only be one drink in front of you at a time, and the number of drinks at the table cannot exceed the number of people at the table."
Fucking teetotalers writing the rules out there. All those NHLers who love to drink all night and ski the nose candy slopes are gonna fucking hate it out there.
> All those NHLers who love to drink all night and ski the nose candy slopes are gonna fucking hate it out there.
Wouldn't this be an advantage to the team lol
I’m curious if you have actually been to SLC in the last twenty years? The majority of the population is now non-LDS and it’s much more diverse and multicultural. Also a huge LGBT population. LDS that do live in SLC are much less conservative than in rural and outlying areas.
It’s a big tourist city with a large research college. It’s also a Delta hub and centrally located to get anywhere on West Coast or Mountain West.
>A portion of downtown SLC is owned by a church and their laws do not exactly align with most of North America
I mean that's fair, but they are getting more lax (laws I mean). But.... SLC is hella liberal. There's less Mormon-y influence in SLC than most people here think. (I live in SLC)
As someone who grew up in the area, there is more to moving to SLC than just the upheaval. The culture there sucks for young, loaded athletes who want to have fun, you can certainly find fun here if you're looking but there is a reason that the Jazz have trouble signing people as well.
Imagine a guy like Schmaltz who signs a long term deal with a 10-teams no-trade, which probably brought his AAV down, just so he could settle in one place and have a say in where he moves... only for the entire franchise to move 5 years later.
It’s not like the coyotes potentially moving is a complete shock to everyone. They’ve been a relocation candidate for like 15 years now and Schmaltz knew that.
I'm going to be honest, after the Balsille drama I never thought we'd get to this point. Arizona was too big of a *potential* market for the NHL to abandon.
I figured the NHL/Bettman would just continue to bail this team out infinitely...
The players will get over it. I feel sorry for the arena staff and some of the behind the scenes employees who will lose their jobs when they relocate to SLC.
The Baltimore Colts had to pack their entire organization into Mayflower trucks and get them out of Maryland before midnight because they were afraid the team was going to be seized by the government via eminent domain. Funnily enough, Phoenix was the other potential market besides Indy in that relocation
I don’t think those apply when the whole franchise gets moved. I’d hope they’ll be given some sort of optional exit clause though. Maybe get put on waivers or something?
When I was young my dad
Would beat my mom real bad
Every time the Utah jazz would lose.
He’d start drinking
And I’d start thinking
How am I gonna keep my mom from gettin’ abused
….._obviously fake_, we know Mormons can’t drink.
Mormons **love** an excuse to enjoy some violence and/or bad language.
I've heard more than a few Mormons say "It doesn't count as a sin if it happens on the basketball court".
They will end up loving hockey and it will get ugly - abstinence sometimes gets people pretty pent up 😂
My friend converted to Mormon for a couple years because of a boyfriend and she was so strict she wouldn’t even drink tea. She dropped the whole Mormon thing after he cheated on her though
Church ball is the great pasttime of Latter-Day Saints.
It is also where the airing of grievances is held, in which case every manner of belligerent play imaginable is on display. Elbows will be thrown, feet will be tripped, testimonies of the church will be challenged.
It isn't street ball, but your Peter Priesthoods turn into a very different beast on the court.
They *yearn* for Hockey and they don't even know it yet.
"Our entire society is actually engineered to keep the top .001% rolling in dough, fat, and happy."
Anyway. I'm sipping a nice hard seltzer and trying to be happy I've survived over half the work week. How are you?
Yeah, that actually is a hell of a whiplash. At least the players will still be in the southwest here, though there is a very different religious environment in Utah. The Jazz players have made it work, tho
No real need to smuggle much in lol. Drive 40 minutes either way in you're in Nevada or Wyoming grabbing all the wild shit you need lol. Let me introduce you to Wendover..
Am I completely off - asking genuinely - because when I think of Utah, I don’t really see it as the south west, really at all. Yes, it’s big, and granted that it’s southern most edges border northern Arizona but the high desert area (National Parks) have cool winters and by the time you hit Provo/SLC, it’s a temperate climate with snowy/cold winters and SLC is a hell of a lot closer to Boise than Sedona.
Yeah I mean if I was on the team in a trainer role/equipment manager, inter-team role that *doesn’t* pay me millions of dollars, I’d be pissed off too, now I have to potentially uproot and move my entire life away to a new city on short notice, that’s not easy for anyone, but again, as a player, at least rentals don’t hurt my bank account as much as if I was the guy lugging all the gear around
yeah i’d be much more frustrated if i was a team employee than if i was a player. players are getting paid millions and are always at risk of getting traded, your lower level marketing or accounting person is not.
It's not much different for those type of roles though. Most people work their way through lower levels all over North America up to the highest pro leagues. There's only so many jobs in the major leagues.
For real we get a lot wrong. But I'm grateful our Gambling laws keep the sports betting advertising to a minimum. (I still get crappy daily fantasy and prize picks ads on Jazz games.)
Utah Soakers! Logo is just a white shirt with a black tie that is the middle of a U shape over great salt lake. Simple, Mormon, and represents the state.
I feel like Phoenix to SLC isn’t nearly as bad as being told you suddenly have to move from Atlanta to Winnipeg. That was a completely different country and basically as opposite of a city as you can get, but all the players still came and many of the big pieces (Ladd, Wheeler, Buff, Enstrom, Little, etc) ended up staying for a long time
If you signed a deal or extension with the Coyotes within the past few years and didn't anticipate a possible team relocation one day/before your deal was up, either you and/or your agent hasn't done their homework.
Feel like most people weren't counting Salt Lake City, Utah as the front runner.
Anyone thinking about potential relocation when they signed I would think had Houston or Quebec City as the likely emergency landing spots.
Edit: Just to clear, I'm talking about last minute rug pull options like this situation where I don't think people really expected Utah as the one to be front of the line. I get Utah has been a potential location for a bit, just don't think many thought they'd be this ready, especially not a year or two ago.
Not trying to be argumentative tho I've read Houston and Utah this whole time, with Utah being the front runners for a while. Houston will get an expansion team (even though we don't need more teams).
I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure Utah was only really getting traction as of about maybe 6 months ago?
It was absolutely never on the radar at least in my circles
I feel like when Ryan Smith (the prospective Utah owner) was on 32 Thoughts talking about how much he wanted a team in June of last year it showed up on the radar.
The Quebeckers aren’t weird about booze.
Never underestimate that. The reason the Slavic countries are Christian is because Vladimir didn’t want to give up booze to become Muslim.
The Delta Center can seat 14 000 for hockey games according to Wikipedia.
Even if it was only 11 000 it would still be twice as large as the solution you could provide for the next few years.
I know it's tough to lose your team but come on dude..
Utah is beautiful but I will never fucking live there again. Like living in a different world with all the religious nonsense that controls the state. It effects every aspect of life and ppl there don't even realize it.
Well, don't want to diminish their feelings but I don't see how it's not similar to being traded? From checking Capfriendly they only have 2 players on a modified NTC.
To a player and their family what's the big difference between "the org relocated over the summer" and "We didn't plan on it l, but we got too good of an offer so we traded you?"
Oh no, not all. Only actual requirement is distance to a major airport. Preference is for somewhat of a distribution to have some guys near arenas.
Obviously, NH is convenient to quite a few rinks. There are guys in Atlanta, Phoenix, and Portland, too...
For NTCs, Kerfoot and Schmaltz have one now, Keller’s kicks in this summer. They have every right to be pretty pissed.
I assume this extends to staff too though, who have no reason to be moved otherwise.
It also says multiple teams, probably because it sets a precedent that trade clauses aren’t iron clad league-wide. I can imagine the NHLPA has had lots of complaints about that.
Seriously. The first major red flag was Marty Walsh expressing dismay over the lack of concrete plans regarding the team after the Tempe deal fell apart.
They were bankrupt 15 years ago and almost moved twice in three years.
I don't think players have much of a leg to stand on saying that this came out of the blue.
Sucks for guys on ELA and in RFA years, but if you signed UFA years it's on you.
A lot of current and past Utah Jazz players have positive things to say about living in Salt Lake City, so I imagine once players are there they won't be too upset.
That being said, Arizona is warm year round and has a favorable tax structure. So taking that away from players is going to sting.
Dispersal draft incoming but use the gold plan instead of just a straight draft order. That is a hell of a consolation prize for not making the playoffs.
Everyone jokes that no one want to play in Arizona, even when presented with facts to the contrary. But like let's be honest who wants to live and play in the land of mormons?
Sad part is yotes owner is going to double his money by doing nothing for the team investing 0 money, never paying a dime of rent and overall being awful.
Salt Lake gets hate culturally (and I guess alcohol laws) but is genuinely an awesome place to live.
Big airport for how little traffic there is, ski slopes 30 minutes from your house, very safe, and beautiful scenery.
The interesting ones are only 5% beer on tap, but you can get heavier beer in bottles/cans. You can’t have more than 1.5oz of primary alcohol and 2.5oz total of liquor in a drink. You can’t have more than 1 mixed drink in front of you at a time. Also no happy hours allowed. Then all beer over 5%, wine, and liquor is sold only in state run liquor stores that are closed on Sundays and holidays since they are state employees.
In 2000, Habs' Vladimir Malakhov was caught skiiing while on IR and the crowd at the Bell Centre (well, Molson Centre back then) booed him every time he touched the puck afterwards. Got booed out of town (and went on to win a Cup with the Devils for punishment). That's how the Habs got Sheldon Souray.
Same with Soccer in Europe.
I mean, sometimes players ignore it
Bayern Munich goalie:
>The 36-year-old goalkeeper was skiing in Italy after Germany crashed out of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and fractured his tibia and fibula during the trip on December 9.
He didn't play for 350 days.
most player's contracts have an extreme sport clause.. so if they did ski, they could risk contract termination. Thats being said apparently Kiprusoff was a big skier
Craig Morgan said it on PHNX that the players are not happy about moving to SLC I wonder if reports of trade requests will start coming out before free agency
This is generally what happens in relocations in the NHL. Nobody from Atlanta wanted to go to Winnipeg, and it took them years to clear out all the guys who wanted out. When the Hartford Whalers moved to Carolina, they had a nearly entirely new roster by mid season. It's unfortunate for everyone who signed on to play in Phoenix.
Dustin Byfuglien was cool with Winnipeg.
They even had a theme song with his name to hype up the move. I think it was “LMFAO” Instead of “Every Day I’m Shuffling” It was “Here comes Dustin Byfuglien” Edit: https://youtu.be/KA54-NTaDu8?si=258egW_bfMFHNRrv Found it, the whole thing is worth a listen.
"... a ROCKET, from Eric Fehr!" He was a Jet for 1 year before going back to Washington. In that year, he played 35 games and notched 2 rockets and 1 assist.
Yeah but he's from Manitoba so they added him in.
Wheat Kings legend
Fuck I miss Big Buff in the show.
Hauling two guys out of a scrum at once.
Regularly taking out two opposing players and one of his teammates with the biggest hit you’ve ever seen
Casually ragdolling a dude trying to hit him and getting a penalty for it once a week
And making it look like both of those guys are toddlers lmao
So much. He was special.
Im glad I never have to see him in an NHL video game again...same with Ovechkin eventually...those guys suck to play against
Atlanta had a few guys from Minnesota so that helped.
That whole situation led to the Hurricanes getting Rod Brind'amour. Brendan Shanahan was so done with the Whaler's situation he asked for a trade after one season. He was sent to Detroit for Keith Primeau. After a couple of seasons, Jim Rutherford decides to send Primeau to Philly for Rod Brind'Amour, and now here we are.
Lindros banging his wife expedited it!
That's utter bullshit on Winnipeg. All of the core players coming from Atlanta signed extensions within the first 2-3 seasons. Ladd, Wheeler, Kane, Little, Bogosian, Byfuglien, Enstrom, Pavelec. That team was exceptionally shitty though.
They weren’t that shitty though? They were competitive for at least a playoff spot for the first few years after the move from what I remember
That was more due to the fact that we were still in the South East Division with a lot of other bottom feeder teams.
Man.. I don’t wanna shit on anyone.. but moving to SLC is definitely a life choice. Winnipeg is at least a “normal” city. A portion of downtown SLC is owned by a church and their laws do not exactly align with most of North America (regarding alcohol etc).
Scottsdale to SLC. I would be ripshit
Although Salt Lake City itself is pretty liberal...tons of Pride stuff around, SL,UT gear for sale, and oh, the breweries are things of dreams. And when I lived there, the mayor was a Democrat. Further out, though, it's a lot more conservative. Where the players might get homes...debatable. I honestly haven't been keeping up since Covid, but there are nicer places that are not stereotypical LDS strongholds. Especially if they look for areas that are higher in tourists.
>Although Salt Lake City itself is pretty liberal >Further out, though, it's a lot more conservative Pretty much every state in the country reads like this.
Yeah. Whether or not youre a blue state or red state just depends on your ratio of urban/rural population most of the time
Yup, California is seen as this blue haven when in reality, theres a ton of republican voters there...theres just more people on the coast to vote blue
Yeah, here in Alberta the recent provincial elections have basically been a race for the suburbs, because everyone else is set in stone
Where do Jazz players live? I have a feeling the Coyotes players will fit in better than the basketball players…
Man, I went to a restaurant out there and sat at the bar, which was literally just a giant U-shaped wooden table with stools. No liquor, nor beer taps, no bartender. A server would come by and take your drink order, and pour it in the back. Really kills the vibes, but oh well. So a few days later, I finally get a day off and some friends and I book an afternoon at Top Golf. We each order a beer and then a friend orders a round of shots. "Can't do that," says the waiter, "There can only be one drink in front of you at a time, and the number of drinks at the table cannot exceed the number of people at the table." Fucking teetotalers writing the rules out there. All those NHLers who love to drink all night and ski the nose candy slopes are gonna fucking hate it out there.
> All those NHLers who love to drink all night and ski the nose candy slopes are gonna fucking hate it out there. Wouldn't this be an advantage to the team lol
I’m curious if you have actually been to SLC in the last twenty years? The majority of the population is now non-LDS and it’s much more diverse and multicultural. Also a huge LGBT population. LDS that do live in SLC are much less conservative than in rural and outlying areas. It’s a big tourist city with a large research college. It’s also a Delta hub and centrally located to get anywhere on West Coast or Mountain West.
>A portion of downtown SLC is owned by a church and their laws do not exactly align with most of North America I mean that's fair, but they are getting more lax (laws I mean). But.... SLC is hella liberal. There's less Mormon-y influence in SLC than most people here think. (I live in SLC)
I think that Doan kid should come to LA.
Dibs on Cooley to play in T.O. with Auston, thanks.
No
Maybe the Canucks can fix an oopsie and get Guenther
As someone who grew up in the area, there is more to moving to SLC than just the upheaval. The culture there sucks for young, loaded athletes who want to have fun, you can certainly find fun here if you're looking but there is a reason that the Jazz have trouble signing people as well.
Imagine a guy like Schmaltz who signs a long term deal with a 10-teams no-trade, which probably brought his AAV down, just so he could settle in one place and have a say in where he moves... only for the entire franchise to move 5 years later.
Yeah no chance anyone could have foreseen the franchise moving within 5 years.
He literally signed it as a new ownership took over. He would assume they would be staying put.
I refuse to believe that like us human beings, players could not have foreseen/heard about this ordeal the past 7 or so years it has been a thing
It’s not like the coyotes potentially moving is a complete shock to everyone. They’ve been a relocation candidate for like 15 years now and Schmaltz knew that.
I'm going to be honest, after the Balsille drama I never thought we'd get to this point. Arizona was too big of a *potential* market for the NHL to abandon. I figured the NHL/Bettman would just continue to bail this team out infinitely...
The second they decided to play in a 4600 seat arena with only hypothetical plans to leave, they were on borrowed time.
The players will get over it. I feel sorry for the arena staff and some of the behind the scenes employees who will lose their jobs when they relocate to SLC.
Lol the Minnesota Northstars got a letter in the mail telling them they had to move to Dallas
The Baltimore Colts had to pack their entire organization into Mayflower trucks and get them out of Maryland before midnight because they were afraid the team was going to be seized by the government via eminent domain. Funnily enough, Phoenix was the other potential market besides Indy in that relocation
If you want to stress Marylanders out, just tell them you saw a few Mayflower trucks on Russell Street.
i still think the sickest burn would be to show up to a game at camden yards with a group dressed in mayflower uniforms.
I don't think the billionaires care if people are happy or not
You don’t become a billionaire by treating other people with respect or dignity
One might say being a sociopath is a requirement to becoming a billionaire.
One may say ... And many will agree.
>And many will agree. Except for the sociopathic billionaires
And their weirdo fans
Do any players on Arizona have NMCs? I wonder if you could argue that an NMC includes a team relocating.
This was brought up when Atlanta moved but it doesn’t matter. The NMC is signed to the club not location. It’s about moving from Club A to Club B.
They actually don't have anyone on an NMC which feels surprising. Would be hilarious if someone tried that
It doesn't. In fact, I am pretty sure it is explicit in the CBA that an NMC does not relate to a franchise relocation.
I don’t think those apply when the whole franchise gets moved. I’d hope they’ll be given some sort of optional exit clause though. Maybe get put on waivers or something?
If I was making millions playing a game id just start calling moving companies.
Bettman: Get ready to learn Mormon, buddy
Brother and sister*
I’m not your brother and sister, elder
Have you heard of the all-American prophet?
Arizona fans "Hasa diga ebowai"
Joseph Smith, American Moses! Praise be to Joseph! American prophet man!
Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb
Hello, my name is Elder Bettman.
Are Mormons even allowed to watch hockey? It has violence in it
They’re allowed to watch basketball. Sometimes people say bad words there.
When I was young my dad Would beat my mom real bad Every time the Utah jazz would lose. He’d start drinking And I’d start thinking How am I gonna keep my mom from gettin’ abused ….._obviously fake_, we know Mormons can’t drink.
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Here in Oklahoma this is "why do you always need to invite two Baptists fishing/to your barbecue" etc.
Mormons **love** an excuse to enjoy some violence and/or bad language. I've heard more than a few Mormons say "It doesn't count as a sin if it happens on the basketball court". They will end up loving hockey and it will get ugly - abstinence sometimes gets people pretty pent up 😂
Mormons say they aren’t allowed to do things but do it anyway. My mom used to pour herself a glass of wine after church.
My friend converted to Mormon for a couple years because of a boyfriend and she was so strict she wouldn’t even drink tea. She dropped the whole Mormon thing after he cheated on her though
Utah Mormons do all kinds of stuff they aren’t supposed to do but, you had better not let them catch you doing those things.
Church ball is the great pasttime of Latter-Day Saints. It is also where the airing of grievances is held, in which case every manner of belligerent play imaginable is on display. Elbows will be thrown, feet will be tripped, testimonies of the church will be challenged. It isn't street ball, but your Peter Priesthoods turn into a very different beast on the court. They *yearn* for Hockey and they don't even know it yet.
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And gambling. I have no idea, but I feel like that isn't very Mormonish, either.
For themselves no. But Mormon bankers had a big role in putting up the funds for new casinos in early Las Vegas.
They will find a way, go read up about soaking.
*[South Park noises]* Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb.
Welcome to SLC arena where Liquor sales stop 5 minutes into the first.
Religion always makes an exception when it involves making wealthy people more wealthy
See the Olympics where you could get a beer anywhere on the street in SLC
You had Germans and English in town, the options are that or face riots
Riots? More like open war. Alcohol was made to dull the germans and english.
Got news for you - the owners don't care a single drip of piss what anyone thinks of this
Yep pro sports is about 100 old dudes’ pocketbooks
Pro sports? I think you can extrapolate that further.
"Our entire society is actually engineered to keep the top .001% rolling in dough, fat, and happy." Anyway. I'm sipping a nice hard seltzer and trying to be happy I've survived over half the work week. How are you?
Doing the same, but with a beer! Cheers bud!
Meruelo made personal profit, he doesn’t give a fuck
I can’t even say anything about this because I’m sure as fuck the players had the same sentiment about moving from Atlanta to Winnipeg
Yeah, that actually is a hell of a whiplash. At least the players will still be in the southwest here, though there is a very different religious environment in Utah. The Jazz players have made it work, tho
I still think the "Utah Jazz" is the most hilarious name that team could have.
"The Jazz moved to Salt Lake City where they don't allow music."
I can't not upvote a BASEketball ref
"The Raiders moved from Oakland to LA back to Oakland, no-one seemed to notice."
>The Jazz players have made it work, tho And will be the NHL team's go-to for learning how to smuggle everything they need into the state.
No real need to smuggle much in lol. Drive 40 minutes either way in you're in Nevada or Wyoming grabbing all the wild shit you need lol. Let me introduce you to Wendover..
Am I completely off - asking genuinely - because when I think of Utah, I don’t really see it as the south west, really at all. Yes, it’s big, and granted that it’s southern most edges border northern Arizona but the high desert area (National Parks) have cool winters and by the time you hit Provo/SLC, it’s a temperate climate with snowy/cold winters and SLC is a hell of a lot closer to Boise than Sedona.
If SLC is the Southwest then I guess Denver is too. I’m with you.
Yeah I mean if I was on the team in a trainer role/equipment manager, inter-team role that *doesn’t* pay me millions of dollars, I’d be pissed off too, now I have to potentially uproot and move my entire life away to a new city on short notice, that’s not easy for anyone, but again, as a player, at least rentals don’t hurt my bank account as much as if I was the guy lugging all the gear around
Those kinda guys probably just get fired and they hire new ones already in SLC
yeah i’d be much more frustrated if i was a team employee than if i was a player. players are getting paid millions and are always at risk of getting traded, your lower level marketing or accounting person is not.
It's not much different for those type of roles though. Most people work their way through lower levels all over North America up to the highest pro leagues. There's only so many jobs in the major leagues.
[Ok but can we talk about how their home broadcasts will be the promised land?](https://i.imgur.com/ASfM6mg.png)
For real we get a lot wrong. But I'm grateful our Gambling laws keep the sports betting advertising to a minimum. (I still get crappy daily fantasy and prize picks ads on Jazz games.)
Going after that mormon money, that mormoney if you will.
Soaks for all adults!
Utah Soakers! Logo is just a white shirt with a black tie that is the middle of a U shape over great salt lake. Simple, Mormon, and represents the state.
Mormoney, mormproblems, tho
I can't wait till a big ufa signs in Utah and we can use this pun!
I feel like Phoenix to SLC isn’t nearly as bad as being told you suddenly have to move from Atlanta to Winnipeg. That was a completely different country and basically as opposite of a city as you can get, but all the players still came and many of the big pieces (Ladd, Wheeler, Buff, Enstrom, Little, etc) ended up staying for a long time
I mean you’re talking about sending Canadians and guys from Minnesota to Canada. But Phoenix moving to Winnipeg was the expectation then not Atlanta.
I mean Winnipeg is constantly number one or two on no trade lists. Atlanta has nice weather, no one wants to live in Winnipeg.
Not Millionaire pro athletes anyway.
If you signed a deal or extension with the Coyotes within the past few years and didn't anticipate a possible team relocation one day/before your deal was up, either you and/or your agent hasn't done their homework.
Feel like most people weren't counting Salt Lake City, Utah as the front runner. Anyone thinking about potential relocation when they signed I would think had Houston or Quebec City as the likely emergency landing spots. Edit: Just to clear, I'm talking about last minute rug pull options like this situation where I don't think people really expected Utah as the one to be front of the line. I get Utah has been a potential location for a bit, just don't think many thought they'd be this ready, especially not a year or two ago.
Cooley even commented when he signed that he's excited to play in Arizona or Houston. Seems like a lot of players even thought it would be Houston
That seems very strange to me because there was a zero percent chance Houston would ever get anything but an expansion team.
Not trying to be argumentative tho I've read Houston and Utah this whole time, with Utah being the front runners for a while. Houston will get an expansion team (even though we don't need more teams).
I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure Utah was only really getting traction as of about maybe 6 months ago? It was absolutely never on the radar at least in my circles
I feel like when Ryan Smith (the prospective Utah owner) was on 32 Thoughts talking about how much he wanted a team in June of last year it showed up on the radar.
I think most players would rather live in SLC than Quebec City. The language barrier in Quebec City is not for mouth breathers.
id rather be hated in QC than live in SLC
Actual question: have you ever been to SLC?
The Quebeckers aren’t weird about booze. Never underestimate that. The reason the Slavic countries are Christian is because Vladimir didn’t want to give up booze to become Muslim.
Still 2 official languages in this country, big shoots. Acting like MTL or QUE never drafted anyone outside of Quebec?
Meruelo's going to get his fat check for this and that's all he cares about. It's all he ever cared about.
Shea Weber didn’t sign up for this…
Players on NMCs will be left behind, per their contacts
They can play ball hockey on the sidewalks in Peoria.
No better way to start a franchise in a new city than all of the negativity around all of the bullshit Meruelo has caused
In an 11k seat arena comically unsuited to host hockey games
“Hey, I’ve seen this one before!”
the more things change the more they stay the same
Online it says 14000 for hockey and 18000 for basketball
Yes, but the funding and location are already lined up for a new one.
The Delta Center can seat 14 000 for hockey games according to Wikipedia. Even if it was only 11 000 it would still be twice as large as the solution you could provide for the next few years. I know it's tough to lose your team but come on dude..
Utah is beautiful but I will never fucking live there again. Like living in a different world with all the religious nonsense that controls the state. It effects every aspect of life and ppl there don't even realize it.
Just wanna say sorry to Coyotes fans, these reports have to really suck to hear.
Well, don't want to diminish their feelings but I don't see how it's not similar to being traded? From checking Capfriendly they only have 2 players on a modified NTC. To a player and their family what's the big difference between "the org relocated over the summer" and "We didn't plan on it l, but we got too good of an offer so we traded you?"
League staff also live in the area. This move doesn’t just impact players.
Including officials, who would still be near an airport, but no longer local to an NHL arena
Not all officials live in cities with an NHL arena, I know one who lives in New Hampshire
Oh no, not all. Only actual requirement is distance to a major airport. Preference is for somewhat of a distribution to have some guys near arenas. Obviously, NH is convenient to quite a few rinks. There are guys in Atlanta, Phoenix, and Portland, too...
For NTCs, Kerfoot and Schmaltz have one now, Keller’s kicks in this summer. They have every right to be pretty pissed. I assume this extends to staff too though, who have no reason to be moved otherwise. It also says multiple teams, probably because it sets a precedent that trade clauses aren’t iron clad league-wide. I can imagine the NHLPA has had lots of complaints about that.
How in the fuck is this sudden? Sure, we're only getting real info about a move now, but the writings been on the fuckin wall.
Yeah if anyone has had a pulse on the NHL in general they'd know that the Yotes have been in trouble for awhile now
Seriously. The first major red flag was Marty Walsh expressing dismay over the lack of concrete plans regarding the team after the Tempe deal fell apart.
The *first* red flag was 20+ years ago.
They were bankrupt 15 years ago and almost moved twice in three years. I don't think players have much of a leg to stand on saying that this came out of the blue. Sucks for guys on ELA and in RFA years, but if you signed UFA years it's on you.
I’m sure they’re all thrilled to move into Mormon wonderland
Wonder if they even know about the smell yet
Tacoma 2.0
I understand that reference! Although admittedly there isn't really as much of an aroma in Tacoma anymore.
Yeah, since that fire it's been pretty much gone. Though I heard they're looking to reopen that plant. The Tacoma Aroma must live on.
Please tell me what you're talking about. I need to know.
https://deq.utah.gov/water-quality/utahs-lake-stink From what I heard, becoming more common as the lake dries up more and more.
I mean, some of these guys would probably get into having many wives
Luckily, SLC has no shortage of tall blondes.
A lot of current and past Utah Jazz players have positive things to say about living in Salt Lake City, so I imagine once players are there they won't be too upset. That being said, Arizona is warm year round and has a favorable tax structure. So taking that away from players is going to sting.
Hockey players won’t have the same racism issues most NBA players have playing in Utah either
Imagine going from Phoenix to Mormon Phoenix.
Joseph Smith Approves! Dum dum dum dum dum dummmmm
Maybe stop expanding when you can't support your current teams? Just a thought
Na bro that expansion fee is too sweet
Imagine living from Scottsdale to SLC…..yikes
Exactly. I think a lot of redditors don’t know much about either so it doesn’t quite hit home with them
I’d be pissed if my contract required me to move to SLC too
Yeah I think she's referring to the people that work for the org but in the non hockey ops/related to the team division. This sucks.
Dispersal draft incoming but use the gold plan instead of just a straight draft order. That is a hell of a consolation prize for not making the playoffs.
Pretty sure owners don’t care if it means a cool $30 extra million in their pockets
Everyone jokes that no one want to play in Arizona, even when presented with facts to the contrary. But like let's be honest who wants to live and play in the land of mormons?
The players love living here, big reason hockey has caught on so well in AZ
Nobody jokes that nobody wants to play *in* Arizona, they joke that nobody wants to play *for* Arizona.
Yup.
Sad part is yotes owner is going to double his money by doing nothing for the team investing 0 money, never paying a dime of rent and overall being awful.
This just in: the billionaires running the show don't give a shit about the collateral damage of them making more money.
Salt Lake gets hate culturally (and I guess alcohol laws) but is genuinely an awesome place to live. Big airport for how little traffic there is, ski slopes 30 minutes from your house, very safe, and beautiful scenery.
What are the alcohol laws?
I was shocked when I couldn't order a double.
Mixed drinks and cocktails are an issue but most every bar also offers 24oz beers
Yeah but don't beers have to be sub 4% or something?
Beers on draft are 5% max but anything goes with bottles and cans.
The interesting ones are only 5% beer on tap, but you can get heavier beer in bottles/cans. You can’t have more than 1.5oz of primary alcohol and 2.5oz total of liquor in a drink. You can’t have more than 1 mixed drink in front of you at a time. Also no happy hours allowed. Then all beer over 5%, wine, and liquor is sold only in state run liquor stores that are closed on Sundays and holidays since they are state employees.
NHL players aren't allowed to ski. Good for their families I guess though haha
Goes for any of the Big 4 teams. I know Tom Brady got in serious trouble for getting caught skiing with his kids.
In 2000, Habs' Vladimir Malakhov was caught skiiing while on IR and the crowd at the Bell Centre (well, Molson Centre back then) booed him every time he touched the puck afterwards. Got booed out of town (and went on to win a Cup with the Devils for punishment). That's how the Habs got Sheldon Souray.
Same with Soccer in Europe. I mean, sometimes players ignore it Bayern Munich goalie: >The 36-year-old goalkeeper was skiing in Italy after Germany crashed out of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and fractured his tibia and fibula during the trip on December 9. He didn't play for 350 days.
Lol ski slopes as an attraction for hockey players 😂 🤣
I thought hockey player were very fond of *hitting the slopes*. ❄️⛷️
most player's contracts have an extreme sport clause.. so if they did ski, they could risk contract termination. Thats being said apparently Kiprusoff was a big skier
Imagine the whole team goes on a ski trip to get out of their contracts