PHOENIX – Thirty years ago, the idea of staging hockey – a game played on ice – in the desert sounded ridiculous. 

The Winnipeg Jets had just completed their final season in Manitoba after U.S. businessmen Richard Burke and Steven Gluckstern bought the team from Barry Shenkarow for $65 million in December 1995. 

The goal was to move the franchise to Minnesota, but when that plan fell through, Burke pitched the idea of Phoenix to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and the Phoenix Coyotes were born. On Oct. 10, 1996 – 30 years ago Saturday – the franchise hosted its first game at America West Arena, starting the first of 27 seasons of professional hockey in the Valley.

Three decades after that initial game in the Valley, the Coyotes no longer call Arizona home, having relocated to Salt Lake City after the 2023-24 season. But for the fans, families and former players who wore the Coyotes jersey with pride, the franchise’s legacy lives on and the community that developed around it still thrives, even if the sting of loss remains.

“It’s emotional because it’s not here anymore,” former Coyotes defenseman Jason Demers said. 

“When you’re here, you’re like, ‘Hockey should be here. Professional hockey should be here.’ You see the youth sports market here is thriving.”

Longtime Coyotes captain Shane Doan has had a firsthand look at the growth of the sport in the Valley. Doan’s son, Josh, played youth hockey for the Jr. Coyotes, the then-fledgling Arizona State Division I program and eventually the Coyotes before they departed for Utah.

Shane Doan, who was drafted before the franchise’s final season in Winnipeg, later became captain of the Coyotes in 2003, and maintained that title until he retired 14 years later in 2017.

“I loved my time in Winnipeg,” Doan said. “I’m from western Canada which was really special to play my first year in Winnipeg as a Western Canadian kid.”

Like many, Doan remembers the feeling of “going from a place, there’s a lot of ice and a lot of water to a place there’s no water, let alone ice.” Arizona had never crossed the minds of most people in the NHL world, but Doan, like many others, came to view Arizona as home. 

Coming from western Canada, Doan had a love of horses. His parents, Bernie and Bernice Doan, own and operate a ranch in his hometown of Halkirk, Alberta.

“That’s one of the big things of the city that I fell in love with is the western theme,” Doan said of Phoenix.  

From early Whiteout games to an emotional finale at Mullett Arena, the team made a lot of memories after they arrived. 

There was Jeremy Roenick playing with his jaw wired shut in Game 7 of the team’s first-round playoff series against the St. Louis Blues in 1999.

There was Brian Boucher’s shutout streak of 332 minutes and one second which remains the modern NHL record for the longest individual shutout streak.

There were two Jack Adams awards for coach of the year, a single-season goal-scoring title and the wooing of the game’s greatest icon. There were seven ownership groups, there were three home arenas and there was the constant threat of relocation. 

And there was one miraculous Western Conference Final run that included the franchise’s first playoff series win – in six games over the vaunted Chicago Blackhawks – that helped the Coyotes build a small but faithful fan base.

Doan was there for most of those moments, including Boucher’s iconic shutout streak from December 31, 2003, to January 11, 2004 in an otherwise forgettable season in which the team went 22-36-18-6.

“That’s a pretty cool moment and the fact that no one really saw it coming,” Doan said.

When the team arrived in 1996, Roenick and Keith Tkachuk quickly established themselves as franchise icons. Tkachuk was the team’s first captain and earned a reputation as one of the league’s toughest and most dangerous scorers long before Doan became the face of the franchise.

During the team’s first season in Arizona, Tkachuk led the NHL with 52 goals but his big personality and business-first approach made him the perfect counter to Roenick’s media savvy and fan-friendly persona that earned JR the nickname PR. 

While Tkachuk eschewed the spotlight, inside the dressing room he was the unquestioned leader. He demanded he be called “Big Walt” so often that the team bought him a white bathrobe and longtime trainer Stan Wilson embroidered that moniker on it.  

Tkachuk will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Nov. 9 in Toronto.

Demers remembers the impact Tkachuk had on him when the two played together in St. Louis after the Coyotes dealt Tkachuk at the 2001 trade deadline.

“You want to talk about a guy who taught me about being a pro, about how you treat people, how you treat trainers,” Demers said. “The competitive level that he had, how he played every single night … he epitomized all about being a captain.”

Demers and former defenseman Zbyněk Michálek were among those who came to the Coyotes after starting with another team. 

“For me, this was a place where I got to live my dream, become an NHL player full time,” said Michálek, who came from the Minnesota Wild in a 2005 trade.

When Michálek arrived in Glendale, the area surrounding the arena was undeveloped and empty – a location he affectionately referred to as “cow pastures.”

“A few years later, everything was built around there,” Michálek added. “It was always a good place to play.”

Even today, with no NHL team in Arizona, Michálek stays connected to the game through the Coyotes alumni and his involvement with youth hockey as a coach for the Jr. Coyotes. 

“The hockey locker room is a special place and you make good friends for life. And it’s nice just even though the team left, that the alumni, we have a good alumni group,” Michálek said. “Guys that run it do a great job making sure everyone is included, even guys who maybe didn’t play for Coyotes.”

The alumni group holds events such as weekly skates, golf tournaments and exhibition games for the retired players. Michálek said the relationships created through the game continue long after the professional competition ends. 

“At this age, we are all retired and we get together once a week to play and it gets very heated,” he said. “Everyone’s still competitive and wants to win.” 

The community and connections made from hockey are a major part of what former players see when they look at the Valley. There is a long list of former NHL players who live in the area and stay involved in the sport.

“Watching the history of the game evolve here and a lot of the ex-guys that played for years, it’s one of their favorite places to play,” Demers said. “You can see it by all the alumni that live here full-time now. There are so many ex-NHL players who are coaching youth hockey.”

The growth of hockey in the Valley is further reflected in the current NHL talent that came from the Valley, including Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews, Columbus Blue Jackets forward Matthew Knies, St. Louis Blues center Tage Thompson and Boston Bruins center Mark Kastelic. There are also the sons of former Coyotes such as Josh Doan  and Tkachuk’s boys, Matthew and Brady, who were both born in Scottsdale and now play for the Florida Panthers

“To see the players that have had success in the NHL that are directly connected to the Valley is really something special,” Doan said. “That probably gets me the most excited.”

Doan had the unique opportunity to watch his son play for the organization with which he spent his entire career. In 2021, the Coyotes drafted Josh in the second round and he played with the team in its final season in Arizona before the franchise moved to Utah, scoring two goals in his first NHL game before a home crowd at Mullett Arena. Josh Doan now plays for the Buffalo Sabres.

“I don’t think I can even explain how special that was to watch him play,” Shane Doan said. “To watch my kids all do so well … it doesn’t get much better than that.”

The end of the Coyotes time in the Valley came in 2024 due to its inability to secure a permanent arena solution. Ryan and Ashley Smith bought the team from Alex Meruelo and moved it to Utah ahead of the 2024-25 season, becoming the Utah Hockey Club and eventually the Utah Mammoth.

For the fans, families, players, coaches and staff who spent decades in Arizona with the Coyotes, the ending was difficult. 

But hockey in Arizona didn’t end with the Coyotes’ departure. Demers said the game is alive and well. Between kids filling local rinks, former players coaching the youth teams and the alumni gathering every week and putting on events, “hockey is deserved here,” Demers said.

Demers said Arizona hasn’t received the “fairest of a shake” to prove it’s an NHL market, but even with the Coyotes gone, the players, coaches, fans, families and young athletes who built their lives around the sport choose to remain in the Valley. 

Every week when Coyote alumni gather for their weekly skate that competitive spark is rekindled, but so is the camaraderie within the Arizona hockey community. 

“Wherever you go, they become family,” former Coyote Tyson Nash said.

Thirty years after hockey first arrived in the desert, that family is still growing and the connection stays strong while everyone hopes for the NHL’s return.

This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.