Shane Doan could help Phoenix land a new NHL team, but 2 other cities have first dibs

Maricopa County Supervisor Tom Galvin last year announced his plans to try to bring hockey back to the Valley, after the Arizona Coyotes left town for Salt Lake City in 2024.

Last fall, he named Andrea Doan the chair of an advisory committee to get professional hockey to come back to town. She’s the wife of longtime Coyote, Shane Doan.

Craig Morgan chatted with Shane Doan recently, both about his future in hockey and the possibility of having another National Hockey League team in the Valley.

Morgan is a longtime Coyotes beat writer and an Arizona State University journalism professor; he also writes a Substack about hockey.

Full conversation

MARK BRODIE: Good morning, Craig.

CRAIG MORGAN: Good morning, Mark, how are you?

MARK BRODIE: I’m doing all right, thanks. So Shane Doan had been working with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and he is no longer doing that. So, like what is his plans now?

CRAIG MORGAN: Well, he has wanted to remain involved in hockey in some capacity, and I know he was having conversations with multiple NHL clubs about various roles. I don’t think he’s going to be doing anything immediately, but he’s leaving that open. In the meantime, of course, he has never stopped trying to help bring the NHL back to Arizona.

MARK BRODIE: Yeah, so he he, it sounds like he is working with his wife and with this advisory committee. Did he have any kind of update on where that might stand?

CRAIG MORGAN: With with his own role or with where the efforts are to bring the team back?

MARK BRODIE: Mostly with where the efforts are to bring a team back to the Valley.

CRAIG MORGAN: Yeah. I think everyone is in agreement at this place, at this point, that there’s been progress made. I’ve spoken to Tom Galvin as well. Tom, in the most recent conversation I had with him, and I wrote about this, suggested that there was a lot more political support than there was previously. We know that has been an issue here in the past, and part of that was probably tied to the problematic ownership groups of the Coyotes.

So he feels that there’s a lot more political will to bring the team back. He also as a land-use attorney and as a member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, has a lot of expertise in identifying sites — and he does think that there are viable sites. So they feel that they’ve made progress.

The issue, of course, Mark, is finding the backers. NHL expansion seems to get more expensive by the day. The most recently quoted figure from (NHL Commissioner) Gary Bettman for the expansion fee alone was $2 billion. I’ve heard from some people that it’s even risen a little bit beyond that. And then you have to add in the cost of building an arena. So this is a major undertaking.

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MARK BRODIE: Does it seem as though the NHL has interest in potentially coming back to the Valley? I mean you mentioned Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner. He was very bullish on Phoenix, kept the team here longer than a lot of people thought that the Coyotes would stay here, given some of their ownership and arena struggles.

Are they still interested in coming back here? And will they have to have a stable ownership group and an arena for that to happen?

CRAIG MORGAN: They are absolutely interested, they have stated that repeatedly. I’ve spoken to both Gary Bettman and Bill Daly, the deputy commissioner. They believe this is a good market if the situation is right, and that has to do, of course, with the two things that you mentioned: stable ownership and the arena in the right part of town. Not in Glendale namely — they will not go back to Glendale.

So yes, when you ask the question, do they need those two pieces before the NHL is to return? Absolutely. Gary Bettman told me that in no uncertain terms. They have to have the ownership group locked down, and they can’t just have an arena plan. They really have to have this well down the road before the NHL explores it.

But they are interested, and and as we know now, they’re absolutely looking to expand after the the statement they released regarding Houston and Austin potentially becoming the next expansion market in the NHL.

MARK BRODIE: Yes, so so that raises the other question. So those are are potential expansion markets. Would Phoenix like is that sort of seen as like the next round of expansion?

CRAIG MORGAN: I guess so. You know, they’re being very cagey about that. Both the deputy commissioner and the commissioner said recently that they don’t care if there are an odd number of teams right now — they’re sitting at 32. They don’t care if they’re at 33. I don’t believe it. I think that they do want geographic split.

And what they’ve done with Houston and Austin is they’ve given them six months to basically solidify this plan. So we’ll know at the end of the calendar year whether that thing is moving forward. But usually when the NHL goes public with these sorts of things, they have a pretty good idea already. So if we’re looking at Houston entering the league in say ’29-’30, you can probably guess that the next expansion franchise won’t come along for two more years. So if they are in fact number one in line, that means a longer wait for the next market, which could potentially be Phoenix.

MARK BRODIE: Right. Now, in the meantime, you’ve also written about the USHL minor league hockey team, which has put two teams in Arizona: one in in the Valley, one in Prescott Valley. Does that have any bearing on whether or not the NHL comes back here?

CRAIG MORGAN: I wouldn’t say it has any direct bearing. I think it just shows that there are multiple people out there at various levels of hockey that believe that this is a good market. It’s a viable market.

Usually the USHL, other than Chicago, avoids markets that have the NHL in it. So in the short term, that may work for them. Prescott Valley could work long term because it’s far enough away. I’m having a hard time understanding how Phoenix works, and honestly, as I just wrote, they they don’t have a place to play yet. They haven’t locked down an arena, so that’s a major issue.

What this really impacts more than anything is the college level. The USHL is the main feeder for Division I college hockey. More than 50% of the players in college hockey have gone through the USHL. So it’s good for ASU for visibility. There’ll be even more scouts than usual, and Coach Greg Powers won’t have to get on a plane every time he wants to go scout a player.

MARK BRODIE: I would imagine that’ll save some time and some money for ASU and and for the for the school, right?

CRAIG MORGAN: Absolutely.

MARK BRODIE: Interesting. All right. That is Craig Morgan, longtime Coyotes beat writer, writes a Substack about hockey, also an ASU journalism professor. Craig, great as always to talk to you. Thank you so much.

CRAIG MORGAN: You as well, Mark. Take care.

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