Suns Owner Seems To Voice Interest In Bringing NHL Back To Phoenix

For the time being, the Arizona Coyotes are dead in the water. Technically, they're inactive, but after former owner Alex Meruelo threw up his hands after another failed attempt at building them a new barn that would allow the team to return to the NHL, there doesn't seem to be much hope for the team.

However, a new potential owner may have just popped up and that's Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia.

"I’m definitely going to be part of the community, and if I can help bring hockey back, I’ll look at that," he told Sportico. "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."

Well, there you go.

Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia appeared to express interest in NHL hockey back to Arizona. (Photo by Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty Images)

Ishbia said in the same interview that he has already been in conversation with the NHL on this topic.

I mean, an NBA owner wanting to add an NHL team to their sports ownership portfolio is far from unheard of. It's exactly how the NHL's newest owner Ryan Smith managed to buy the Coyotes' hockey assets to start the Utah Hockey Club (which is considered a completely new franchise by the NHL).

Unsurprisingly, the NHL's biggest concern with any new iteration of the 'Yotes appears to be the same concern it had for the last version: a proper barn.

That was the roadblock that led to the Coyotes hockey assets being sold to Smith and relocated to Utah. As great of a college hockey arena as it is, Mullett Arena — which seats about 5,000 people and is where the Coyotes spent their last two seasons in the desert — isn't an NHL arena.

So a new building is in order, and Ishbia knows it.

"I think our arena (Footprint Center) is first-class right now. I love our arena," Ishbia said. "But at some point we’re going to have to get a new arena."

If that happens, that would satisfy one of the major conditions the NHL put in place to revive the Coyotes.

Sure, it was just a bit of spitballing in an interview, but it seems like the Coyotes — and how to bring them back — is on peoples' minds.