It was an emotional moment when the players of the former Arizona Coyotes walked out onto their new ice in their new home in the delta centre to see over 12,000 fans cheering them on and giving them an extremely warm Utah welcome. During the ceremony, Utah general manager Bill Armstrong gave a heartfelt message to the fans expressing how they felt about their support and how they will pay them back.
It's been a turbulent past few weeks for the former coyotes players as the team was quietly sold between former owner Alex Meruelo, the NHL and new owners Ryan Ashley Smith of SEG Group. During their opening press conference, it became clear that this sale was expedited and that the Smith family decided to take on the challenge while learning to figure out how to make it all work.
During the opening 24 hours of operations, it was told at 22,000 season ticket deposits were purchased and that the arena will need to be renovated to accommodate more seats as they only have 14,000 available now.
It will be fascinating to see how this franchise develops especially under the circumstances it was sold. With the speed that needs to be pushed to make everything work along with the renovations and putting the hockey operations together, the Smith group will have their work cut out for them, but it appears they are ready for the challenge.
