Winning Is More Important Than Ever For The Arizona Coyotes
The Arizona Coyotes are in a tough spot off the ice. In an interview with Todd Walsh on Fox Sports Arizona, Coyotes General Manger Don Maloney said that the Coyotes are team built to win and make the playoffs now. The only problem is the team is struggling to win games. Granted, the season is still young but it’s not trending well. The Coyotes are currently 3-4-1 and 7th (last) in the Pacific Division. Having a bad season happens, every team in every professional sports league will go through it at one point or another. When this happens in small markets with teams that have small payrolls such as Arizona, usually teams look to their minor league systems to grow their own talent from within the organization. The Coyotes are loaded with near NHL ready prospects and this wouldn’t be a bad route to take for them. The only problem is, they don’t have time to do that right now.
It’s a multifaceted issue, but the main part of it starts with the looming five year out clause in IceArizona’s ownership agreement. As most Coyotes fans know, the owners can choose to move the team if they lose more than $50 million in five years. IceArizona has said that they plan to be profitable by the third year of ownership. It’s currently the second year of ownership and the group has said they lost money but it was expected and planned.
The other side of the issue lies with the on ice product, they must win and they must do it consistently. The team has been successful on the ice in recent years and as a result, the attendance has continued to grow. Being a melting pot, the sports loyalty of Arizona is fickle unfortunately. If a team is having a bad year, fans will not show up. The 2014 Arizona Diamondbacks proved this as they finished 25th of 30 teams in attendance coming off a bad year. The Coyotes have been finishing near the bottom of the attendance in the NHL but the number has been consistently growing. If the team were to have a bad year the attendance will likely suffer. That is something that cannot happen if the team is to remain in Arizona. That is why winning is more important than ever and taking away the option to have couple not so great seasons as they wait to groom their prospects for the NHL.
IceArizona has said that everything is going according to their plan and that’s great. However, in order to sustain that, the team must win. Fortunately the season is still young and there is plenty of time to turn it around.