Phoenix Coyotes

The Phoenix Coyotes are a professional ice hockey team currently based in Glendale, Arizona, just outside of Phoenix. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). They play their home games at Jobing.com Arena.

The Coyotes were founded in 1972 as the Winnipeg Jets of the World Hockey Association (WHA), joining the NHL in 1979 and moving to Phoenix in 1996. Their home ice was at the US Airways Center (then known as America West Arena) for seven years until 2003, when Jobing.com Arena opened.

On May 5, 2009, the Coyotes filed for bankruptcy. The team is now owned by the NHL.

Winnipeg (1972-1996)
The team began play as the Winnipeg Jets, one of the founding franchises in the World Hockey Association (WHA). The Jets were the most successful team in the short-lived WHA, winning the Avco World Trophy, the league's championship trophy, three times and making the finals five out of the WHA's seven seasons. It then became one of the four teams admitted to the NHL as part of a merger that saw the financially-struggling WHA fold in 1979.

However, the club was never able to translate that success into the NHL after the merger. As part of the terms under which the former WHA teams joined the NHL, the established NHL teams were allowed to reclaim most of the players that jumped to the upstart league. The Jets lost most of their best players in the ensuing reclamation draft. As a result, they finished last in the NHL during their first two seasons, including a nine-win season in 1980–81 that is still the worst in franchise history. They recovered fairly quickly, however, making the playoffs 11 times in the next 15 seasons. However, they only won two playoff series largely due to being in the same division as the powerful Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames. Because of the way the playoffs were structured for much of their Winnipeg run, they were all but assured of having to defeat either the Oilers or the Flames (or both) to reach the Conference Finals. In 1984–85, for instance, they finished with the fifth-best record in the league, only to be bounced by the Oilers in the division finals.

The Jets ran into financial trouble when player salaries began spiraling up in the 1990s; this hit the Canadian teams particularly hard. Winnipeg was the second-smallest market in the NHL for most of the Jets' existence, and after the Quebec Nordiques moved to Denver in 1995 to become the Colorado Avalanche, it became the smallest market. In addition, the Jets' home arena, Winnipeg Arena, was one of the smallest in the league. Despite strong fan support, several attempts to keep the team in Winnipeg ultimately fell through. In December 1995, Jerry Colangelo, owner of the NBA's Phoenix Suns and MLB's Arizona Diamondbacks, along with Phoenix businessmen Steven Gluckstern and Richard Burke and a local investor group bought the team with plans to move it to Phoenix for the 1996–97 season. A name-the-team contest yielded the nickname "Coyotes."

The early Phoenix years (1996–2005)
In the summer that the move took place, the franchise saw the exit of Jets star Alexei Zhamnov, while the team added established superstar Jeremy Roenick from the Chicago Blackhawks. Roenick teamed up with power wingers 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 (as of the current season the last remaining Coyote dating to the team's days in Winnipeg), Oleg Tverdovsky, and goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin, whom the fans nicknamed the "Bulin Wall."

Another key addition to the squad was veteran forward Mike Gartner, who had come over from the Toronto Maple Leafs. Despite his experience and scoring his 700th career goal on December 15, 1997, Gartner battled injuries in the latter half of the 1997-98 season. The Coyotes did not renew his contract, and he retired at the end of the season.

After arriving in Phoenix, the team posted six consecutive .500 or better seasons, making the playoffs in every year but one. The one time they didn't make the playoffs, in 2000-01, they became the first team to earn 90 points and miss the playoffs. They were tremendously popular, in part because of the large number of Northern transplants in the Phoenix area.

However, the Coyotes' home during their first eight years in Phoenix, America West Arena, was completely inadequate for hockey. Although considered a state-of-the-art arena when it was built for the Phoenix Suns basketball team, the floor was just barely large enough to fit a standard NHL rink. The building was hastily re-engineered to accommodate the 200 foot rink, and the configuration left a portion of one end of the upper deck hanging over the boards and ice, obscuring almost a third of the rink and one goal from several sections. As a result, listed capacity had to be cut down to just over 16,000 — the second-smallest in the league at the time — after the first season.

Burke bought out Gluckstern in 1998, but was unable to attract more investors to alleviate the team's financial woes (see below). Finally, in 2001, Burke sold the team to Phoenix-area developer Steve Ellman, with Wayne Gretzky as a part-owner and head of hockey operations.

As of the 2009-2010 season; however, the Coyotes have never made it out of the first round of the playoffs. The franchise has not won a playoff series since 1987, when it was still in Winnipeg. The closest that they came to advancing past the first round was during the 1999 playoffs, when they lost a heartbreaking Game 7 to the St. Louis Blues. In 2002, the Coyotes posted 95 points, one point behind their best total as an NHL team, but made a rather meek first-round exit from the playoffs, being eliminated in five games by the San Jose Sharks.

From then until the 2007–08 season, the Coyotes were barely competitive and managed to break the 80–point barrier only once during that time. Attendance levels dropped considerably, worrying many league executives. In addition, an unfavorable lease with the city of Phoenix (owner of America West Arena) had the team running massive losses (as much as $40 million a year at one point ); the Coyotes have never really recovered from the resulting financial problems.

In 2003, the team opened Glendale Arena, now known as Jobing.com Arena, and moved there in 2003. Ellman had committed to building the new arena after numerous proposals to improve the hockey sight lines in America West Arena came to nothing. Simultaneously, the team changed its logo and uniforms, moving from the previous multi-colored kit to a more streamlined look.

In 2005, Ellman sold the Coyotes, the National Lacrosse League's Arizona Sting and the lease to Jobing.com Arena to trucking magnate Jerry Moyes, who is also a part-owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Gretzky era (2005–2009)


On August 6, 2005, Brett Hull, son of former Jet Bobby Hull, was signed and promptly assigned the elder Hull's #9 retired. Two days later, Gretzky named himself head coach, replacing Rick Bowness, despite the fact that he had never coached at any level of hockey. The Coyotes 'Ring of Honor' was unveiled on October 8, inducting Gretzky (who had never played for the organization) and Bobby Hull. Only a week later, Brett Hull announced his retirement. On January 21, 2006, Jets great Thomas Steen was the third inductee to the 'Ring of Honor.'

Another moment in a series of bad luck: The Coyotes were planning to host the 2006 NHL All-Star Game, but the event was canceled because of the 2006 Winter Olympics.

The team returned to Winnipeg on September 17, 2006, to play a pre-season game against the Edmonton Oilers, but were shut-out 5–0 before a sellout crowd of 15,015.

On April 11, 2007, CEO Jeff Shumway announced that general manager Michael Barnett (Gretzky's agent for over 20 years), senior executive vice president of hockey operations Cliff Fletcher, and San Antonio Rampage's general manager and Coyotes' assistant general manager Laurence Gilman "have been relieved of their duties." The Coyotes finished the 2006–2007 season 31–46–5, its worst record since relocating to Phoenix.

On May 29, 2007, Jeff Shumway announced that Don Maloney had agreed to a multi-year contract to become General Manager of the Coyotes. As per club policy, terms of the contract were not disclosed. However, as has been the case with all general managers since 2001, Maloney serves in an advisory role to Gretzky.

The 2007–08 season was something of a resurgence for the Coyotes. After their disastrous 2006–07 campaign, the Coyotes looked to rebuild the team by relying on their drafted talent such as Peter Mueller and Martin Hanzal to make the team successful as opposed to using free agency. The Coyotes also acquired Radim Vrbata from the Chicago Blackhawks for Kevyn Adams in an effort to provide the team with more offense. The team signed both Alex Auld and David Aebischer to compete for the starting goaltender position with Mikael Tellqvist acting as the backup goaltender. Neither Auld or Aebischer were able to hold on to the starting position, leaving the Coyotes to turn to the waiver wire for assistance. On November 17, 2007, the Coyotes were able to claim Ilya Bryzgalov off waivers from the Anaheim Ducks. Bryzgalov responded by not only starting in goal the day he was acquired, but posting a shutout in his Coyotes debut against the Los Angeles Kings. Bryzgalov was soon given a 3–year contract extension because of his high level of play. Despite predictions of another disastrous season, the Coyotes played competitive hockey for most of the season. However, they finished eight points short of the last playoff spot, with 83 points.

2009 Bankruptcy
In December 2008, the media became aware that the Phoenix Coyotes were losing money at a high rate and were being funded by the NHL directly. The media reports were minimized by the NHL president Gary Bettman and vice-president Bill Daly, but secretly the NHL had taken over operations of the Coyotes. In May 2009, the owner of the team Jerry Moyes put the team into bankruptcy hours before receiving Bettman who was to present a potential offer to purchase. Moyes intended to sell the team to Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie who intended to purchase the team out of bankruptcy and move it to Hamilton, Ontario.

From May until September 2009, hearings were held in Phoenix bankruptcy court to determine the fate of the Coyotes and the holding company. Two potential bidders for the team surfaced, Jerry Reinsdorf and Ice Edge Holdings, Inc. but they did not submit a bid for the team at the bankruptcy hearing. Instead, the NHL put in the only rival bid to Balsillie for the team, while they fought Moyes's plan to sell the team and move it to Hamilton against the NHL rules. Ultimately, the Phoenix court ruled that the team could not be sold to Balsillie, as the judge held that bankruptcy could not be used to subvert the league's rules. The NHL's initial bid was also declared insufficient but the judge left the window open to an improved bid. Moyes and the NHL settled, with the NHL buying the team and assuming all debts. The NHL negotiated a temporary lease with Jobing.com Arena owner, the City of Glendale, Arizona.

Meanwhile, on September 24, 2009, Dave Tippett took over coaching duties of the Phoenix Coyotes after Wayne Gretzky stepped down hours before. In just 61 games, Tippett led the Coyotes to more wins in their 2009-10 regular season (37) than their previous season (36), en route to the first 50-win season in the franchise's history.

The NHL then proceeded to work with the two potential bidders of Jerry Reinsdorf and Ice Edge to work out a deal with Glendale. Ice Edge signed a letter of intent to buy the team from the NHL, while Reinsdorf has won the approval of the City of Glendale. The NHL has yet to deal with the purchase. On Friday, May 7, 2010, ESPN.com reported that Reinsdorf bid had fallen apart, and the City of Glendale was working with Ice Edge group to buy the team in a last ditch effort to keep them in Phoenix. The National Post criticized both bids, as both were conditional on municipal taxpayers to cover any losses that the Coyotes might incur, and suggested that keeping the team in Phoenix was never economically viable.

In July 2010, the Ice Edge bid collapsed as it did not satisfy Glendale's financial conditions. Ice Edge decided to concentrate on an effort to buy a minor league team. The City of Glendale had to step in and guarantee the team's losses for 2010–11 as a precondition of the NHL not transferring the franchise. , Glendale and the NHL are working to finalize a sale to a consortium of investors led by Chicago investor Matt Hulsizer. The NHL has set a December 31, 2010 deadline for the sale or it will seek to transfer the franchise to another city. Glendale made a deal with Matt Hulsizer who will buy the team from the NHL and become the Owner of the Phoenix Coyotes.

Return to the Playoffs (2010)
On March 27, 2010, the Coyotes clinched a playoff spot, their first playoff spot since the 2001-2002 season, and in the process, reached the 100 point mark for the first time in franchise history. Their first round opponent in the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs was the Detroit Red Wings. Game one of the series was the first NHL playoff game to be played in Jobing.com Arena. The Red Wings won the series four games to three. An injury to Captain Shane Doan kept him from playing most of the games in the series.

Jerseys
Upon their arrival in Phoenix in 1996, the team adopted a look with a strong Southwestern flavor. The primary logo was a stylized hockey stick-wielding coyote in a kachina-inspired style. The jerseys featured pointed green shoulders with brick red trim over a white (home) or black (road) body, and non-traditional striping patterns. These uniforms remained in place until 2003. A third jersey, primarily green with a nighttime desert landscape wrapped around the bottom and the cuffs of the sleeves, was introduced in 1998, and retired in 2003.

As the NHL switched home and road jerseys beginning in the 2003-04 season, and coinciding with the team's move from America West to the newly-completed Glendale Arena, the Coyotes redesigned their look completely, adopting the current howling coyote head logo, while dropping several colors from the team's palette. Sedona red and white became the primary colors, with desert sand and black remaining as logo trim colors. The uniform's simplified two-color scheme with three stripes on each sleeve and the tail bears some resemblance to later versions of the Montreal Maroons sweaters. The team also changed its shoulder patch, taking the form of the outline of the state of Arizona, with an homage to the state flag and the abbreviation "PHX". This logo was worn on the right shoulder only, with the left shoulder now bare.

The Coyotes updated their jerseys for the 2007–08 season, along with all NHL teams, as part of the switchover to Rbk Edge jerseys. The changes made were adding an NHL crest just below the neck opening, removing the stripes that were previously just above the lower hem, and moving the "PHX" patch from the right to the left shoulder. The white jersey also gained red shoulder coloring and laces at the collar. The three-stripe pattern is applied to the side of the pants.

The Coyotes also added a third jersey for the 2008-2009 season. It is primarily black and features a new alternate coyote logo on the front, with the primary logo (coyote head) patch on the right shoulder, and the "Official Seal" on the left. Since white does not appear on the alternate, solid red pant shells are worn with this jersey.

Mascot
Howler is the coyote-suited mascot of the Phoenix Coyotes. He was introduced on October 15, 2005. Howler has his own website dedicated to his Kids Club -. Howler wears number 96 on his jersey, because the Coyotes moved from Winnipeg in 1996.

Season-by-season record
''This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by the Coyotes. For the full season-by-season history, see List of Phoenix Coyotes seasons''

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes

Records as of April 13, 2009.

Hall of Famers

 * Mike Gartner, RW, 1996–1998, inducted 2001
 * Brett Hull, RW, 2005, inducted 2009

Retired numbers

 * 9 Bobby Hull, LW, 1972–80, number retired by Winnipeg on February 19, 1989; Hull's #9 was unretired briefly upon his request at the beginning of the 2005–06 season for his son, Brett, before he retired five games into the season.
 * 10 Dale Hawerchuk, C, 1981–90, number retired by Phoenix on April 5, 2007.
 * 25 Thomas Steen, RW, 1981–95, number retired by Winnipeg on May 6, 1995.
 * 27 Teppo Numminen, D, 1988–2003, number retired by Phoenix on January 30, 2010.
 * 99 Wayne Gretzky, number retired league-wide February 6, 2000 (not displayed in the Ring of Honor).

''The Coyotes continue to honor the retired numbers of the Winnipeg Jets franchise, and are the only relocated WHA team to do so. When the franchise initially relocated, the banners for Hull and Steen at the then-America West Arena were in the Jets' blue, white and red; when the franchise moved into the now Jobing.com Arena, the banners (along with that of Hawerchuk) were replaced by lettering in Coyotes' typeface in the Coyotes' Ring of Honor at the west end of the arena. Furthermore, Hull, Hawerchuk, and Steen, all played for Winnipeg long before the move to Arizona. Numminen is the only player with a number retired by the Jets/Coyotes to play for both the Jets and the Coyotes (and the only one to have played for the latter).''

First-round draft picks
Note: This list does not include selections of the Winnipeg Jets. * The 1996 NHL Draft took place on June 22, and the Jets did not become the Coyotes until July 1, making Focht and Briere the two final first round selections of the Winnipeg Jets.
 * 1996: Dan Focht (11th overall) & Daniel Brière (24th overall)*
 * 1997: None
 * 1998: Patrick DesRochers (14th overall)
 * 1999: Scott Kelman (15th overall) & Kirill Safronov (19th overall)
 * 2000: Krystofer Kolanos (19th overall)
 * 2001: Fredrik Sjostrom (11th overall)
 * 2002: Jakub Koreis (19th overall) & Ben Eager (23rd overall)
 * 2003: None
 * 2004: Blake Wheeler (5th overall)
 * 2005: Martin Hanzal (17th overall)
 * 2006: Peter Mueller (8th overall) & Chris Summers (29th overall)
 * 2007: Kyle Turris (3rd overall) & Nick Ross (30th overall)
 * 2008: Mikkel Bodker (8th overall) & Viktor Tikhonov (28th Overall)
 * 2009: Oliver Ekman-Larsson (6th overall)
 * 2010: Brandon Gormley (13th overall) & Mark Visentin (27th overall)

Franchise scoring leaders
These are the top-ten point-scorers in franchise (Winnipeg and Phoenix) history. Figures are updated after each completed NHL regular season, last updated 2009/10.

Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games Played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game; * = current Coyotes player

NHL awards and trophies
Jack Adams Award
 * Bob Francis: 2001–02
 * Dave Tippett: 2009–10

Individual

 * Most goals in a season: Teemu Selanne, 76 (1992–93).
 * Most assists in a season: Phil Housley, 79 (1992–93).
 * Most points in a season: Teemu Selanne, 132 (1992–93).
 * Most penalty minutes in a season: Tie Domi, 347 (1993–94).
 * Most points in a season, defenseman: Phil Housley, 97 (1992–93).
 * Most points in a season, rookie: Teemu Selanne, 132 (1992–93).
 * Most wins in a season: Ilya Bryzgalov, 42 (2009–10).

Team captains
In the NHL, each team may select a captain. Along with the two alternate captains, they have the "privilege of discussing with the referee any questions relating to interpretation of rules which may arise during the progress of a game". Captains are required to wear the letter "C" on their uniform for identification, which is 3 in high.

Note: This list does not include captains from the Winnipeg Jets (NHL & WHA).
 * Keith Tkachuk, 1996–2001
 * Teppo Numminen, 2001–03
 * Shane Doan, 2003– present