The sale and relocation of the Coyotes is negatively impacting the Valley of the Sun in myriad ways. Lyndsey Fry wants to make sure that it doesn’t impact youth hockey.

The Arizona Kachinas president and co-founder has established the Matt Shott Arizona Hockey Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit that honors the former Coyotes director of hockey development, who died in December 2021. The goal of the foundation is to support all youth hockey programs — boys and girls — at every level across the Phoenix metropolitan area.

“It’s a little bit of a wordy title,” Fry said, laughing, “but every one of the words has meaning. One of the things on Matt’s bucket list before he died was he wanted to leave a legacy.  The fact that it was even in question for him is crazy to me when you look at all he did to help grow the game here in Arizona, but for me, the word foundation is also representative of what the Coyotes have meant for the last 28 years.

“It’s the building block. It’s the bottom of the pyramid. It’s the learn-to-play programs. It’s the continue-to-play programs. It’s the school programs. It’s the PE curriculum. It’s everything at the very bottom of the pyramid that funnels up to everything else. We want to make sure all of those opportunities still exist.”

While the NHL existed in the Valley, the league supported youth hockey to the tune of about $500,000 annually through the industry growth fund (IGF). Finding sources to replace that money isn’t the only concern for youth hockey leaders in the Valley.

“For the last decade, the rinks haven’t had to worry about bringing kids into their buildings because the Coyotes have been running learn-to-play and the NHL has been supporting and funding that program,” said Fry, who also serves as the Coyotes’ hockey ambassador. “That’s huge. That brings 700 hockey players into the rinks every single year.

“People have asked me, ‘What would happen if the Coyotes left? What is the impact?’ Well, you might see things like learn-to-play shut down. And if you lose 700 kids a year, maybe the rinks don’t feel it in year one or year two, but eventually that’s going to start adding up.”

In a news conference to announce the sale and relocation of the team to Salt Lake City, Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo said the dormant franchise would continue to support youth hockey. Fry hopes the Coyotes are able to help mitigate the loss of the NHL, but she believes youth hockey leaders must step up as well.

“Nothing in what we’re trying to build with the foundation is a knock on the Coyotes. If anything, I see it as being supplementary or additive,” Fry said. “But if the true cost of learning to play is $500, that’s a lot for a kid to just try out a new sport. The NHL has been able to get it down to $250. With the NHL gone, my goal is to eventually create an endowment of $10 million that, with interest, will spit back $450,000 to $500,000 a year to help to support youth hockey across the Valley.

“We will run those programs. We will keep those programs alive and the target goal is to be able to do that at a $500,000 subsidy that’s either subsidizing programs or granting to the local rinks and the local programs for different growth initiatives that they have.

“If we can build the endowment more than that, awesome, but the goal is to get it to a place where it’s sustainable. And then shut your eyes and fast forward five to 10 years. An NHL team comes back and this endowment already exists. You know that you’ve got a half a million dollar budget to fund youth hockey growth already in place in the state. My goal is to make sure that no matter what happens, we are continuing to accelerate the growth.”

Fry is joined by in the foundation by former Coyotes Jason Demers, Greg Adams, Darcy Hordichuk and Michael Grabner. She has also enlisted numerous business and community leaders, including Carly Accardo, mother of the late Leighton Accardo, and Shott’s mother, Shelley, and brother, Trevor. There are more names associated with the foundation that will remain private for now.

“I have been approaching a lot of people and my ask of them is not money,” Fry said. “This is not Lindsey Fry up on her high horse saying, ‘This is what we’re gonna do. I need a million dollars from you.’ I just want these people on my team and I strongly believe that if we build the right team — some of whom will potentially be investors, but some just have awesome connections or bring a certain skill set — we can create momentum and keep this thing rolling.”

Youth hockey is personal for the Chandler native and 2014 Olympian. She wasn’t quite four years old when the Coyotes arrived in the Valley in 1996.

“Everything good that I’ve ever had in my life has come through this sport,” she said. “If the Coyotes had not come here, I don’t believe Chandler [Polar Ice at the time] would have been built. I probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity to play and my life would have looked very, very different.

“I want to ensure that we’re giving that opportunity to other people — not just girls, but everybody. If you look at when Matt started with the coyotes, the growth and the trajectory changed when he got involved. It’s mind blowing. Until I started working on this, I’d never really put two and two together, but I know firsthand how much he sacrificed and poured into growing this hockey community. He was literally in the hospital, still responding to emails. I am going to protect what he built.”

In early May, Fry will start promoting the foundation and publicize ways to support it. You can find more information here.

Top photo via Getty Images

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