Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia raises hopes of hockey fans to bring NHL back to Arizona following Coyotes exit

Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia is looking to bring back hockey to Arizona. The Coyotes' assets were transferred to Utah after the team couldn't find an arena to host them.

Hockey in Arizona is something the NHL has wanted to do, but the previous owner couldn't get the land needed. Alex Meruelo walked away from the franchise despite having the chance to reactivate it in five years.

With Meruelo no longer in the picture, Ishbia told Sportico he is hoping to bring the NHL back to Arizona.

“I’m definitely going to be part of the community, and if I can help bring hockey back, I’ll look at that,” Ishbia said. “It’s definitely something I’m interested in. It’s a four-sport town. I’m disappointed we don’t have a hockey team, but I understand what happened, and we’re going to try to fix that one day.”

Ishbia would be able to host the new NHL team in the same arena as the Suns, which would make logical sense.

“I’m disappointed we don’t have a hockey team here. That’s what I’ll say,” Ishbia added. “Phoenix is a four-sport town. Maybe five if you want to include soccer, but it’s a four-sports town. Baseball, football, basketball and hockey. And I hope that one day we’ll be able to get hockey back.”

Gary Bettman says NHL will return to Arizona

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is confident the league will have a team in Arizona again soon.

“From a league perspective over the last three decades, the NHL’s support for hockey in the desert has been unwavering, to say the least,” Bettman said at a press conference (via DailyFaceoff).

“There have been countless times that we could have made another decision, but we didn’t. I hope everybody understands that this is a place we believe where hockey works. We shall return.”

Arizona has had an NHL team from 1996 until 2024.