[MUSIC] Hello everybody and happy auction day. Oh wait, just kidding. That's not happening. Thank you all so much for tuning in to the Ph and X hockey podcast, coming to you live from Studio K presented by Circle K, head to any Circle K Arizona location where you can get any size polar pop or froster for just 79 cents now through September 3rd. And don't forget to hit the like button, subscribe wherever you get your podcast. Leave us a five star review. I'm Leah here with Craig. Craig, happy what would have been auction day. >> Yeah, we could be up the NHL award show, just saying. We could be talking to Connor Ingram tonight instead of, yeah, missing out on an auction that's not happening now. And we're not surprised that the auction isn't happening. Of course, we're not surprised about anything that happened with his ownership group, but we will be at the draft tomorrow and this weekend, Leah. So I'm looking forward to that. In the meantime, we have other things to discuss. >> Yeah, there's a lot to talk about. It feels like a lot has happened this week, a lot still to come this weekend with the draft, Craig and I are headed up bright and early tomorrow morning to Las Vegas. But in the meantime, here we are talking yet again about the coyotes saga here in Arizona, wandering the desert as someone in the chat put it earlier, continues on and on just like the might end up being the 40 years in the desert. We'll see, but Craig, obviously earlier this week, you broke the story that Alex Morello decided to relinquish his ownership rights, walk away from the Arizona coyotes and Gary Bettman did confirm that this week happened. I think a little bit faster than we thought it was going to happen, but the NHL gets to wipe their hands of Alex Morello. >> Yeah, I wondered how he would handle it, but I also knew that there was a board of governors meeting. So he was going to be asked a lot of questions and that's a format and setting where Gary Bettman gets cornered all the time. So he probably figured I have to address this now. Now he didn't answer all of the questions that we have, but at least he confirmed it and answered some questions. So there's closure, there is closure to this chapter of the coyotes. One point, I guess as we'll call them now. >> Yeah, absolutely. And I actually wrote about that chapter coming to an end up now at gophnecks.com. So make sure you check that out after the show. But Craig, I think we should start things off by hearing from Gary Bettman himself. And then we can go from there front of the show, Elliott Friedman, of course, spoke to Gary Bettman at the board of governors meeting. So let's take a listen. >> Commissioner, first off, as the Stanley Cup was being awarded the other night, there was a report that came out about Arizona. Can you tell us where that stands and what the situation is with the coyotes? >> Yes, Alex Morello, the owner of the coyotes, has formally advised us that he's not going to reactivate the coyotes. As I think everybody knows, the state of Arizona canceled the auction. That would have served as the basis for bringing a new arena for the coyotes. And I think circumstances and the political climate conspired against the coyotes being able to move forward. And I think it was a smart, wise, appropriate response for Ms. Morello to conclude that people shouldn't be led on by the prospect. When it was clear, there was too much opposition to a new arena. Do you look at it now like an expansion situation that if Arizona wants to come back, it'll have to go through that kind of a process? >> Well, obviously, it's not something we're looking at today. This is all kind of new. And secondly, somebody would have to solve the arena issue. And based on the climate, and I don't mean the weather in Arizona. I don't see the arena issue being resolved anytime soon, okay? Now, I had some Jets fans who asked me about the Jets history. Could it ever be returned to Winnipeg? That's an excellent question. And since this is all unfolding rather rapidly, it's something that we would have to take a look at. But I understand the reason for the question, and it's a good one. Craig, what is your reaction to Commissioner Betman's response there? >> Well, I mean, good that he confirmed it. I'm not sure how to read how he feels. But listen, we're going to talk about this, Leah. We've said it a million times. Any group that comes in has to solve the arena issue. That's problem number one. In my opinion, problem number one is finding a stable and good ownership group. Something that the NHL necessarily hasn't, or hasn't necessarily done for the Valley in the past. The vetting process has to be better. They can't have another ownership group come in like this past one. But yes, any group that comes in, they're not going back to Glendale. Maybe if you have the promise of a arena, it's actually planned. You know it's going up. You might be able to reach out to Glendale and say, can we play there for a couple seasons? You'd have to pay a premium. Maybe that's a solution. But Glendale will not be a permanent solution for NHL hockey in the Valley. I want to make that very clear. That will not happen. It has to happen in a different location. As far as the records, that was interesting to me. I've always been of the opinion. And I know this isn't popular with a lot of people. They should just share the history. Like what happens if the coyotes come back? Do they lose all that history? Because the Jets already took it. I think they have to be careful with that. Why not just share it? Why not just do what we were taught in kindergarten? Share. >> I thought his response is interesting. You know him saying Alex Morello did the right thing by doing this. And it's interesting Danielle and I were talking before the show. And it does seem like, and this is something that we've talked about over the course of the last couple of weeks, Craig, is that this is the outcome the NHL kind of wanted all along. They'll never say it, obviously. They wanted to avoid a legal situation with Alex Morello. But now this market gets a blank slate. And I do think that they want to come back here. It was interesting listening to you on with Jeff Merrick earlier in the week on Sportsnet. And he said he does think that Arizona will be given priority as an expansion market. Whether or not that's true is yet to be seen. And you know, there's obviously a lot more that has to happen over the next few years to make that happen. But I think this is probably, besides everything working out for the best, the team never having to be relocated in the first place, this is the best case scenario for the NHL. >> Yeah. A couple thoughts on that. Craig has been 72 years old, he's not going to be the NHL commissioner for all that much longer. Although he still loves coming to the office and John Delopita's right-hand man always jokes about how Gary likes to give it to the younger guys because he works harder than them in longer hours than them. But listen, he's 72. He's not going to be around that much longer. To Jeff's point, I don't have any inside information on this, but I do wonder does Gary want to do the Valley one more solid before he steps aside? Does he want to make sure that NHL hockey gets back here? Maybe that's a possibility. So yeah, I don't know, we'll have to see how that plays out. But again, it's the arena, right? You can't dodge that. And when Gary talked about political opposition existing here in the Valley to building an arena, he's right. We saw how it played out in Tempe. We saw how it played out here. It was pretty clear that the city of Phoenix, the mayor's office, wasn't going to support Alex Morello, wasn't going to give him the tax breaks that he wanted to get this project complete. But how do you make it happen in that sort of climate? That's a real challenge for whoever comes in. They'll have to build a lot of bridges, a lot of relationships. And even so, how do you sell it to the voters? That's difficult. As far as that opposition, though, the last point I want to make, I think the league knew. I think the league knew ahead of time that he wasn't going to be able to get this done because I think they had a sense of the opposition. And I want to make it very clear that I do not have inside information on this, but I have mentioned many times that Marty Walsh, the head of the NHLPA, is a former politician, the former mayor of Boston, and he has political connections here in the valley. I am wondering if Marty got a real sense of the climate here and passed that along to Gary Betman because I really got the distinct impression that the league knew all along. There was no way Alex Morello was going to get this done. Yeah, that's a great point and one that I never thought of, but definitely someone knew and had an idea, otherwise they wouldn't have scrambled to move the team to Utah at the last minute like they did and put Ryan Smith in a borderline impossible situation to make this thing work right away, just it just goes to show. So obviously this is an ongoing story that we'll track as we learn potentially about new groups that want to come in, new arena plans, all of that, we'll keep our tabs on it. If you talk about Alex Morello's exit and the ramifications of that, Craig, last night you tweeted that on his way out, Alex Morello will donate a million dollars to the Matt Shaw, Arizona Legacy Foundation, an additional million to maintain Coyote's youth hockey programs. In addition, $8 million will be dedicated to the remaining staff and form of compensation and health insurance at least through the end of 2024. And then you also follow up that applies to the employees laid off both in Arizona and in Tucson. Yeah, the ones that were laid off mid-month that originally only got one additional paycheck and health care through July, at least that's what I was told and I want to make it clear to people, I'll make sure I will be following up to make sure that they keep good on those promises. I know a lot of people don't believe that it's going to happen, so I'll make sure I continue to report on that. It's great to see the commitment to youth hockey. Alex Morello said a long time ago that he would maintain that commitment. This is a really positive thing and I want to address a really weird narrative that I became aware of this morning after I reported that that's out there. There are some people within the youth hockey community that are like, "I don't want to take that corrupted money." What? What are you talking about? Take the money because youth hockey deserves to keep going in Arizona. Take the money because it will help so many kids and so many families. If you want to see hockey continue to thrive, I guess there's an argument to be made that you don't want Alex Morello's money, but I think that's crazy. I feel like the youth hockey community has earned this, so take the money. Good Lord, let them take the money and help support youth hockey. Absolutely, and I do want to say, and with the disclaimer being, the money actually has to go through and this has to actually happen, if that all does, I will say I think this was a classy move on his way out, and I think that a lot of people were having negative reactions to it, which I completely understand, and I think somebody had tweeted it this morning and it was a really great point that you can both think that this is a very nice thing to do and also still have your feelings toward Alex Morello for everything that he did. Oh, what? Nuance, Craig? Thank you. Yes. What? A lot of people were saying, "Oh, he got his billion dollars and he's only giving a million." First of all, he doesn't actually have a billion dollars. He had debts that he had to pay back, but that's beside the point. What amount would have been enough? No amount in the eyes of the public would have been enough. So at this point, at least for me, I think that it was a great move as long as it actually happens, and I think it was a nice thing to do on his way out, since it did working out. Again, with the caveat that he actually does it, but yes, I agree with you completely. It's nice to see some good come out of this process. Again, separate those things. You can still be angry at Alex Morello. That's fine. I get all that. That's justified. But don't be angry that youth hockey is getting money, that it desperately needs to survive, and don't criticize in any way the payment to the employees, because some of them reached out to me after they saw my tweets, and they were so thankful that I actually did the reporting, and obviously far more thankful, that they're going to get more pay and more health coverage, because that really matters to people in their lives. Not all of us are billionaires. We're living paycheck to paycheck, so this means a lot. Again, if he follows through with his gesture, it's a really nice gesture. It's just too bad, and this will be the topic of a newsletter that's coming out later today. It's too bad that we didn't see more of this from Alex Morello throughout his tenure with the Coyotes. And I'm not talking about the spending, because he did spend a lot, and he did lose a lot, and that sometimes gets lost in this whole shuffle. I am talking about the treatment of people. I think that's important. It's too bad that that wasn't a priority for this ownership group throughout its tenure. Absolutely. Who knows how much would have been different, and what different show we would be on, and talking about right now, maybe we'd be talking about draft prospects. But instead, we're talking about land, as we always do. Another thing that you tweeted last night, Craig, and this is something we weren't quite sure of, given the fact that the Morello has maintained their ownership of the Tucson Roadrunners, was Alex Morello's gaming license, but that's another thing that we now know that he will not maintain as well. Yeah, and somebody else did the work. I can't remember who I quote tweeted, but that person DM me to let me know, and it's a credible source, I check. And it's not a surprise, actually. Alex will not keep his gaming license now that he doesn't own the Coyotes, owning the Roadrunners apparently is not enough to do that. And as we've mentioned previously, and I saw the reports down in Tucson, sorry Tucson, but enjoy it while you can, because that team's headed to Reno in two or three years. I'm not sure which, but we'll be in Reno. You can bet on that. Oh, well, it's really disappointing because now it looks like Arizona as a whole will be without professional hockey in just a few years. Of course, there's still Arizona State in the NCAA, and I hope that everybody really supports them because that program's on the up and it's a program that we will definitely cover over the course of our time on PHNX hockey. But yeah, as far as professional hockey in the state, there's just way more questions than answers. That seems to be the theme of every show we do, Craig. More questions than answers. That should be PHNX more questions than answers. There's the next iteration of the show. We mentioned the youth hockey thing, but somebody in discord reached out yesterday and said that they attended. They were at the ice den for something and someone let them know, like, "Oh, well, with the coyotes leaving, we're not getting funding anymore." Obviously, we talked about the match on Arizona Legacy Foundation and what they're trying to do to help maintain youth hockey and the growth of hockey in the state. But I guess the impact on these programs is something that we don't quite comprehend just yet. Yeah, and they're going to lose the NHL funding, right? I haven't seen it officially announced, but I assume they're going to lose the NHL funding because it's not an NHL market. That's why Lindsey Fry's work right now is so important and I hope people will support that foundation. Take the pledge, support that foundation in any way you can. Lindsey Fry and others, others helping her out that have come on board are our own Jason de Merris, who's been on the show many times with co-hosting, while this is helping out. Support youth hockey. Do whatever you can to help them if you can donate money. Yeah, that's really important. We want to see hockey continue to thrive, so support Lindsey's efforts, please. Absolutely. Well, I guess now we have to talk about what comes next in this market. Obviously, the arena being the first major hurdle, but I guess the other one that you already mentioned is an ownership group. And yesterday, you know, there's a group of people that people keep throwing the names out. This guy would be great. This guy would be great. And a local guy, JJ Watt, put out this tweet last night. If for no reason, other, I can't even read it from here. Danielle, you're going to have to read, I'm sorry. I got you. All right. If for no other reason than this logo alone, the franchise needs to be revived properly and Shane Stone should be involved. He's got to gather up a couple billionaires and have the people of Arizona approve a new stadium, build and get Gary Betman to approve it. Easy, right? Exactly. Easy, right? But how great would it be to have JJ Watt involved in an ownership group that also involved Shane Stone, potentially? Who knows? Maybe he's putting his feelers out there with that tweet, but I don't know. I don't have any insight information on that, but sign me up for JJ Watt, former Cardinal and also a hockey lover. And by the way, oh, where's he? Where's he from? Chris. Earlier PD. He's a UW guy, UW Madison, born in Wisconsin, the greatest state in the upper Midwest. So sign me up for any role that JJ Watt can play in bringing a show hockey back to the valley. Absolutely. You know, you've reported this whole time that there's for sure two interested groups. I guess now time will tell what's going to happen there as far as them making themselves known, presenting a plan. You know, you could, I could say I'm interested in owning a team and bringing a team to Arizona, but you know, it's about putting your money where your mouth is quite literally and making a concrete plan and concrete steps to getting this done. Do you have any more insight or thought on that? What could come next there? Not at this point. Just beyond, you know, none of these groups are going to come public for a very long time. Like, and I do get the sense that the NHL is going to slowly roll this to make sure it has all the pieces in place. You got to, again, you got to vet the ownership group and make sure this is the one. I do hope that they have front men like Shane Donne involved in it. I hope they involve civic leaders. They build relationships of things that the last guy did not do. All of that matters. And then I don't know how the heck you get the arena planned and approved in this state given the political climate. It's, again, I've said this before, it's a political suicide to talk about tax breaks for sports owners, but people assume all they can just build it on their own. That's not really the case in the NHL. These guys don't have that kind of money to just throw up, you know, throw a billion dollars into expansion and then spend whatever it's going to cost by the time we get around to it to build an NHL arena. They do need some help. And I am not of the mind and it's not just because I'm a sports writer. I know there are all sorts of studies saying sports arenas are never worth it. And I mean, in and of themselves, arenas don't make money. But real estate developments around them, that's the way to go these days. Those can bring in jobs and make money. But even if the final calculus of that just on a bottom line dollar says, and we're not so sure about that, I never believe that people calculate in the incalculable cost of what it means to have a team in a city, civic pride, bringing in community together. What does that mean? I consider sports performance art. So I think we should invest in something like that, just like we invest in museums or dance halls or whatever it is. Should we not support any of that because maybe it's not making money? I don't agree with that. I think there's something greater that it adds to a community and it's really hard to put a price on that. I completely agree. Again, we're going to have to wait and see Craig. We're going to talk about what the next iteration could be in our dream scenarios as far as naming something a little bit more frivolous in this conversation. But before we move on to that, is there any other part of Alex Morello walking away or just what this all means before we move on? No, just like I said earlier, Leah, it was good to get closure from the commissioner. Just put it to bed. Put it to bed before the draft. We can all focus on the draft. He's already said it at the border governor's meeting, we know that Coyote's 1.0 is officially over. We're not going to have this uncertainty looming over us for the next three and a half or slightly less than three and a half years as we wonder whether Alex Morello can get it done. At least we know what it is now. And honestly, again, I think this is what it was going to be all along with Alex Morello. I didn't think he was going to get it done. I had a sense of what was happening behind the scenes. And I know people thought, oh, this is the fastest path. I mean, theoretically, I guess. But again, none of the people in the know thought it was going to happen, and that should tell you something. So let's clean this late and see what comes next. Yeah, absolutely. And in a way, it was almost poetic that the ending of the season, which is marked by the Stanley Cup getting awarded, the news about Alex Morello's departure broke at the same time. It kind of just felt like we could close the book on 2023, 2024, you know, yeah, which I wrote about. Go page next.com. You can read about it now. But that make you cry. I'm just letting you all know you'll cry when you read latest columns. Really? Again, I only write what I'm like feeling strongly about something lately. And that's what happens. But yeah, closing the door on the season. And now here we are right in the middle of the week where we have the NHL awards tonight, the draft this weekend free agency development camp. So we're just in that like no man's land. And then the off season begins and it's the first off season that the Arizona Coyotes are not a part of at all, both on the ice and off of it, which is some unfamiliar territory for us as well. But of course, we did mention that Craig and I will be heading up to Las Vegas bright and early tomorrow. We've already planned it out. Craig's buying the snacks. I got the gas. I'm part of the inner circle with circle K and I've gotten a lot of compliments on this new mic stand, loving the circle case, Studio K here at PHNX. And we got the whole snack cart behind me, Craig. I'm not going to take those. I want you to buy us fresh snacks. Well, I got to ask, like, what are your favorites? Oh, and by the way, the D for is going with us too. Oh, yeah. He's the navigator, right? Oh, yeah. You're dressing. Yeah. Okay. What are your favorite snacks? I already know. Yeah. You're the donuts. I like the the salt and pepper chips. Okay. So we're going to have a little bit of gentle, a giant bottle of water, especially for this drive across the desert in 110 degrees in June. So I got good AC, but we need the water. Maybe we'll stop for a polar pop as well. But because I am a member of the inner circle, I do save on gas and get all sorts of deals on snacks and drinks as well. And you too can join the inner circle for free by downloading the circle K app today terms and conditions apply at participating locations, visit circle K dot com for details. Another thing about Vegas, you need to get cash out. If you're going to, you know, gamble. And I know Shane Diefenvock will certainly be gambling. So on the drive, we're going to make a stop at Craig's vaults at desert financial credit union and Craig, maybe you'll supply some cash too for us gamblers that they take gold bars at casinos. Not quite sure. But desert financial, there is actually a branch really close to my house. They're all over the valley and they've been serving the valley for more than 84 years. And Craig's family as well, Desert Financial has checking and savings account options, mortgages, loans, credit cards, investment options and more. And when you open a free checking account online, you get $200 in bonuses. So get started by visiting desert financial dot com slash 200. All right, let's move on. Before we do, I want to read the couple of super chats that have come in so far. Let's all read, I'm your chucks because that he said, feel like Delta Center renovation will be a good template for Ispia to redo footprint for a proper hockey ball. Listen, if that happens, we will, we'll see you that I know that's a dream scenario for a lot of hockey fans here in Arizona is that ispia somehow gets involved in the team somehow ends up footprint. Again, one of those things that big question marks that we will, of course, check in on in the coming weeks and months. But Kenny super chat kind of leads us perfectly into our next conversation. Kenny said rise from the ashes, Arizona, Phoenix, Phoenix, firebirds, Craig. I mean, this is exactly what you had in mind. Craig and I really wanted to talk about, we'll use the word when because I want to be confident, but I'm not going to use a timeline. But when the coyotes 2.0, maybe when an Arizona NHL team 2.0 returns here, should they still be the Arizona coyotes? I'm really curious what the chat thinks Danielle, can we put a poll in the chat? Would you call 2.0 the coyotes Danielle is going to put a poll in the chat, but Craig, I know you have thoughts. So take it away. I do. I was talking about this with Mark McClellan the other day when I was on a show and Mark McClellan dropped firebirds as well. And I'm just like, buddy, that is exactly what kind comes to mind for me. I will say this. And I have no idea if this is going to happen, okay? So please don't read the read the tea leaves, read between the lines here. If Shane Don is involved, I think the coyotes probably would come back because it means something to him. If anybody gets to decide whether the coyotes get to come back or not, it should be Shane Don. But if Shane Don is not involved, I wonder then if a new owner should consider, as we just talked about earlier, wiping the slate clean, getting rid of the coyotes past for how great that logo is for how great that name is, too, because it is a great nickname. There's a whole lot of bad juju associated with the coyotes. So you might want to just say, eh, we're going to push that to side to the side, rebrand and just pretend that that chapter never happened. So if that happens, what are the nicknames that we should consider? I threw a few at you. I don't know that you have any favorites here, Leah, but you can take it from here. So I do love firebirds. And that does seem to be, well, the general consensus in the chat and we'll get the results of the poll after people have time to vote, which please go vote and hit the like button on this video while you're here, by the way, seems to be keep the coyotes. And we saw JJ Watts tweet as well, saying that for the logo alone, it seems like any JJ Watt involved group of that were to be a thing. He would want to keep that as well. I do think that if the coyotes were resurrected, that they would need to hire like some like witch or like some person who can put like do perform a cleansing ceremony of like the aura associated with Arizona or Phoenix coyotes. This episode is brought to you by our good friends at NFL Sunday ticket on YouTube TV. I'm sure by now you've all got back into your Sunday routines, but they could be even better. With NFL Sunday ticket and YouTube TV, you get the most live NFL games all in one place every game every Sunday. And you can even watch up to four different games at once with multi-view, one of my favorite inventions of this decade. It's exactly what you need to catch all the action. Make your Sundays more magical. And also, YouTube TV is great. I got it this year. It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com/BS device and content restrictions apply local and national games on YouTube TV and a false Sunday ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital-only games. Oh, Craig might have frozen, I'll just keep going. But if not for the coyotes, I am a strong proponent of firebirds because of what it represents. First of all, the city of Phoenix is so aptly named, Phoenix rising from the ashes. What better way to capture what a 2.0 team would be than rising from the ashes, like what the firebirds would mean, whether it be the Phoenix firebirds or the Arizona firebirds. I know some people were saying, well, the Coachella Valley firebirds are a team. There's plenty of crossover between names. They can both be named that. I think it's fine. There's multiple kings and cardinals and all that across many different leagues. Some people saying Arizona Phoenix might be too much of a tongue tie, but Craig, I did put your idea. You were really excited about the firebirds. I did use a little bit of AI to imagine what a potential Arizona or Phoenix firebirds logo would look like. So we can take a look at what the AI produced. This one put a volleyball in there for some reason, not. I said a sports logo, so you can put a hockey puck there, but I like it. For a stick, put a stick in his talons. Yeah. Yeah, I like it. So let's take a look at some of the others. I feel like there's a lot of like, you can go a lot of directions with this branding. You definitely can. I love this. Yeah. I don't know why. Yeah. Yeah. So here's another one. If you're listening on audio, head over to the Ph and exports YouTube channel to take a look at these. That's all the firebirds ones I have. What other name ideas did you have or do you want to also give your pitch for why you like firebirds? Well, I just think thematically it fits so well, right? They'd be rising from the ashes of the old team. So I mean, it's the perfect narrative, right? If you if you bring the team back again, I'm okay with the idea of coyotes. It's not like I'm opposed to it. And if Shane's involved, absolutely, I just wonder if a new owner would come in and say him, not so sure about that, but firebirds, it works. It works on so many levels, and I think he can have a lot of fun with the logo and the design as well. I do have two other names that I've always loved for this city. I'm not sure there's widespread support for these, but you know, we're in this age now where teams are coming up with pretty original nicknames like the Kraken, like, yeah. Where's Eric Ruby? So here are two that I've always loved that are that are native to Arizona. First off, the Hela monsters. Did you did you plug him? Oh, you did. Well, that's that's freaky looking. Yeah, the AI, the Hela monsters and AI wasn't great. And yes, people are making fun of AI's spell check. This next one will make you laugh. Let's take a look at it. The Healy motors, according to AI, but the only problem I have, the only problem I have with Hela monsters, Craig, is that the Las Vegas mascot chance is a Hela monster. Yeah. So what? Now I do, I actually like that, that illustration of a Hela monster right there. That's pretty cool. Did you just do two? Or is there another one? I just did two because the Hela monster results were not great. I'm telling you, it's hurting my eyes, by the way, that's just that's brutal. Like what's going on there? Anyway, the other one that I like, scorpions. Well, we did have the Arizona sting of the National Lacrosse League at some point. This one's kind of scary. It's not my favorite, but the second one I like a lot better, especially with the palm trees in it, I think the scorpion itself would need to be a little less involved. But I actually don't mind this logo, again with the spelling, scorpions. Here, AI, what's going on here, but I think there's some potential in all of these names. I'm curious what people think about these three or if they have other ideas, do you have other ideas? Does Danielle, you know, now that her beloved Oilers have. Oiler's fan for as long as she can remember. Roaring Fork said the hoboobs. I mean, listen, the dust storm, the storm. I was like, there's a, I know Carolina would have something to say about it, but there's a lot of good branding you could do with with dust storms and the color dust. Not Hoboob. No, not Hoboob. Tom in the chat earlier said, buy the Roadrunner name and likeness in the new color scheme with the Columbia blue and silver old school Roadrunners fan and there are plenty of them in Arizona. I could definitely get behind that as well, reviving the Roadrunners. I think that's really cool because that's the original pro franchise in the Valley. Yeah. Absolutely. Steve says Arizona heat. I mean, now it's certainly work. It's like we said already. There's already the kings and kings in the NHL and NBA can't see why there couldn't also be the heat. I do like the idea of there being something separate. I see Arizona monsoon. I don't mind that either again, the storm thing. We have the cactus, the freakin lizards. That makes me laugh, Phoenix scorch except for the fact that Craig is adamantly against non plural names. So not sure. Yeah. For that reason. And I don't know what what he does really, how you illustrate that, it just doesn't work for me. If you're going to go with a singular name, at least make it like a being of some kind for me that that's that's sort of my bare minimum. Like when we talk about the Minnesota wild, I'm like, what is it? It has to be a thing, not a concept. Yes. No conceptual names. Yes. I got a couple. Oh, Danielle has a couple. The javelina. Oh, yeah. Cool. I see I prefer thunderbirds over firebirds, personally, sugar skulls and then I threw in the monsoon just for you, Craig. Okay. I like that. Two. You could have fun with javelinas. Yeah. Do you guys know what do you guys know what a group of javelinas is called? No, it's called a squadron feels very appropriate there. They cause a lot of trouble. I will say absolutely do. Just ask Kevin can not and that story I wrote years ago for that. Oh, my God. Yeah. By the way, I like the suggestion in the chat as well, rename to Kachina's and keep the logo. That's something that's interesting. We already have the Arizona Cachina as the girls program here. They use the same Cachina logo. That's not a bad idea. I do think the one, the best argument to be made for keeping coyotes besides continuity is just the logo in the Jersey being one of the best in the history of the NHL and it would just be so unfortunate to lose that. Yeah, it would. I agree with that. The Cachina's thing is really interesting. I hadn't thought about that. Well, these Arizona wrong way drivers. Why is that a thing? Wait, the Arizona snowbirds? The howlers bring back howler, miss him. Keep putting your names in the chat. Very, very curious to hear what everybody thinks. I do think in the end, I am team keeping it Arizona coyotes. But I do think there would need to be some sort of like cleansing cabin, like whoever, whoever's responsible, or if it's Shane Stone involved, then I am 100% behind the Arizona coyotes and I'm open to Phoenix coyotes if the arena ends up in Phoenix. Sign me up for Phoenix coyotes. I like that better. By the way, the results of the poll, very, very close, 166 votes, 54% say no, the team should not be rebranded. So keep the coyotes, 47% say yes. So actually way closer than I thought seems to be a little bit of a split there. Okay. Some Larry suggests some dogs as well. That's another one that has some ties, some historical ties in Arizona. So again, this is something we'll, a conversation we'll have fun with. I'm sure it's something that we'll talk about again, something else I want to do this summer. Craig is do a build your ideal ownership group where everybody comes with their, they present the best combination of people to own the team and everybody gets, I would say the rules for that would be everybody's get Shane Stone, but then you can't repeat. Petey's literally calling in right now. I don't know how he has the link to call in. I did not give it to him. I think that he just wants to give his input here. So we'll bring him in from the Las Vegas airport currently, literally, oh my God, I can't. This is hilarious. All right. Let's bring him in. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Petey was text, by the way, Petey, you're trying to call and text me during the show already. All right. We are very happy. Wrong video. There we go. Hello. The hell was that? The Lindsey Fry jumping in here's the deal. Here's the deal. So I have so much FOMO. You guys are coming to Vegas. I'm leaving Vegas, which bad enough. So I call Leah going, Hey, you guys are on 11. No, not on live. Yeah, we don't need you, Petey. It's good. We're fine. No, you're, you're good. Craig and I can do this show because Craig is now on the card. No, he's not on the card. No, he's not on the show anymore. He's on the couch. He should have taken my spot away. Like I never get on the goddamn show. And now it's like, no, don't call in just because we're good. We don't need your opinion. We don't give a shit. What do you think about a new logo or a new, ah, it's okay. We're good. We got it. It's just the Craig and Lance show now. And we're going to the draft and we're going to have fun and see all these people. And no, no, Petey, you're good. You're fine. There's a lot of blame going on for something that is you're doing. Well, and by the way, 22 days on the road and I'm done, like I'm just done. There's nothing happy in my life. I got in the wrong lane today at the airport. You don't have the TSA and then the regular common people at the TSA pre-check. I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is. Got in the wrong lane. So I didn't figure it all the time of halfway through going, wait a minute. This line's going very slow and we're getting yelled at a lot about our shoes and laptops. Wrong lane. That is how my days are. Couldn't find the Uber lane at the area. I can't find it. And so I ultimately had to get a cab, which is twice as much as an Uber. It's not going well for me in Vegas. Hope you guys have more fun in Vegas than I did in my 22 hours here. I will say this though. This city is really transitioning into the hockey city right now and you cannot walk around the city without seeing representatives from teams. You guys are really going to enjoy it. It is a hockey vibe here and it's going to be a lot of fun. I know the draft isn't as exciting without the coyotes picking a player, but you two are really going to enjoy it. It is wall-to-wall hockey here and it's such a small community that you just feel like you want to embrace it and be a part of it. So I am a little bit jealous and I have a little bit of foam hole that you guys will be here and I will be on my plane ride back. Just for our viewers here in Arizona and then those that may have joined us from Utah, the person in the middle here, his name is Steve Peters. He's a kid. He's actually a hockey show for him in a while, so it's largely used to work here. I have a feeling too that my plane is going to be delayed. I'm just telling right now we're supposed to be boarding 15 minutes ago and now they're just de-plaining the last flight. Not a good sign, but hopefully we still get on board and come home. I will say this though. I would rather be taking a flight home right now than the four and a half, five hour drive through the skull and the heat in the desert in the middle of the day tomorrow. I'm just saying. Our drive is sponsored by CircleK though, so we got it. Is it really? Well, unofficially. Can I ask one more question I know that no one cares that I'm asking this? I saw on, I haven't been to PHNX in a month. There is now a CircleK studio. Where the hell is that? Where is it? That's not the CircleK studio. I saw it with wood in the background. This is the CircleK studio. So that's renamed. That is now the CircleK studio, but I saw something where Jesse was in front of wood. There's wood over here, but you can't see it because you called in and now three people. You can't see the white background. It's your fault. So that's this. You know, isn't it always my fault? Isn't it always? And just feel bad. And the only draft pick name I know is not going to celebrate. Don't know anything about the draft. Are you guys going to get dive deep into the draft? And if so, why? Because I don't know what the purpose would be because there's no picks for the Arizona Coyotes. I'm just curious what the plan is. Are you guys diving deep into all the draft picks? Do you know how they have to be a draft pick primer? I mean, Craig Button wouldn't come on the show. We're just failing. If you tuned in in the next 15 minutes, you would hear what our draft plans are because we're going to talk about it. Oh, seriously? You're going to do that now? Okay. Well, I'll let you guys do that. I just want to say I'm really jealous that you guys are coming to do this and I'm leaving. I can't wait until I actually be on the show again. In my opinion will actually matter. Craig, Craig, it's got the backdrop. I see Craig's backdrop everywhere. Channel three, five, twelve. He's literally ubiquitous. Yes. I used a three syllable word. Is that three ubiquitous, four, syllabic, and one more thing. Okay. One more thing, Craig, what it had to be a fucking journalist that came up with squadron. Like who names, like who, oh, well, let's name today what a group of this animal are called. How about squadron? Adam, so I'm thinking 100% sure. Probably. Oh, Petey just broke a thing. The Arizona squadron, and Petey, we've got an opening in our journal is that pressure. It's going to fit me in August. Yeah. That's okay. I'm packing that. Oh, yeah. You can be on the August show. We'll get Petey back on in August. Oh, we'll see. Oh, we'll see. You guys get safe travels. I'll be out of town so you can join the God. So I can actually do the show then so I can do the Petey show again. I really do miss you guys that I miss pH and X on the community, and I can't wait to get back back there and talk to everybody back in the desert and I do miss it. And you guys have fun. Please be safe on that Circle K Drive. I can't wait to see all the great content you guys spit out. And I hope to see everybody next week in studio. So we do. We do miss you. I know I just gave you a lot of show. From Vegas. It's okay. It's okay. It's well-deserved. Well-deserved Leah. I do deserve every single bit of it. You guys have fun and be safe and I'll be tuning in all weekend long to see what you guys create. You're the best and I can't wait to get home. Safe travels, Petey. Oh, man. Bye, guys. Chaotic energy from Petey, as expected. I think he was I wasn't texting him back, so I think he was feeling a little bit slighted by me, but that's okay. It's okay. Looking forward to having him back. He will be back on the show starting next week. And he did record some audio episodes over the course of his time on the road. So hopefully everybody listened to those and as a reminder, we have weekly audio-only shows. So make sure you're subscribed wherever you get your podcast. We have another super chat that came in while Petey was on. This one comes from Steph who says, "Here's the way I see it as Utah is finding out quickly. Branding is expensive and complicated. If a new NHL team in Arizona doesn't need to rebrand from the Coyotes, why should they? Also much love from this New Jersey doubles fan." Well, thank you. All from the support from a doubles fan. And second of all, it's a great point that you make, Steph. Take. Yeah. It's a good take there. Yeah. All right. Well, we will move on and talk about the draft next, but first things first, I felt it was very appropriate today to where the hockey belongs in the desert shirt. I feel like I could wear this shirt every single day and you can buy yours right now at pHnextlocker.com, 20% off if you're a die hard free. If you want to become a die hard, this could be the free shirt you get at sign up. Plenty of other great gear as well. Everyone has finally received their deactivated fan shirts, their Coyotes forever shirts. Plus, we have so much other great merch in our locker, pHnextlocker.com. Also, if you're a die hard, not only do you get access to those discounts, but you get access to our die herd only discord as well. Die herd only content on the website and some extra stuff as well that we'll talk about here in just a minute. So there's so many great reasons to become a die hard. We would love love love to have you be part of the die hard community. Craig, let's talk about draft and plans and what you put out this morning and we'll put I guess a warning on this next three minutes of the show that there will be a mention of Utah. So if you don't want to hear about it, you can skip ahead, but we won't dwell on it. But Craig, you put something major out on Twitter this morning. Yep, all city is going to be covering the Utah hockey club. And I say covering, I don't really mean covering because it actually it actually bugs me when people say they cover a team when they're not in the city. You're not covering a team. You're writing about a team at that point. You need to be at practices and games to cover a team, but as I mentioned in the story, the Coyotes management staff, coaching staff, media relations staff are all on board with the idea of maintaining our relationship and in fact, they had some ideas for what it could look like. So after much discussion with the all city team, we've decided, we're going to write about the Utah hockey club. You won't find it on PHNX. I want to be clear with that. So it's not going to offend anyone's eyes on this site that can't handle the idea that their team is in another city. It will be on the all city national site, which is undergoing a remake. So be patient with us. It's basically been housing our national podcast and nothing else. But we have, we're talking about some plans to maybe roll out national content on that on a regular basis, not just the Utah hockey coverage, but across all the sports that we cover at our all city networks in PHNX, in Denver, in Chicago and in Philadelphia. There's opportunities for writers to collaborate on pieces. There's opportunities for writers to take on bigger national in scope pieces. Sometimes a local story rises to a national level like Alex Morello stepping away from the Coyotes. That probably would have been a centerpiece on the national site. So we're talking about all that. But here's what I'll tell you about the site. I want to make this very clear as I did in the story. This is not going to be the boots on the ground coverage that I have provided for the Coyotes over the past. Well, I mean, I've covered them for 24 years, but like really closely since about 2009. I'm not going to be there. I have another job. I am the Cardinals beat writer, and I'm going to dive into that. I'd already have been diving into that. I wrote a really interesting story on Greg Dorch just yesterday. When season starts, I'm really going to be deep into the Cardinals. I'm also acting as PHNX sports' columnist/features writer. So I'm bouncing around the other beats. I've already written about ASU. As you may have noticed, I've had a few stories on Arizona State University. I'll write about the Suns. I'll write about the Diamondbacks. So in my free time, I will try to give you Utah Hockey coverage. I know I'll give Utah Hockey coverage. Listen, the great thing about this is I have a ridiculous amount of relationships in this league after having covered it for so long. A ridiculous amount of sources, and the club is on board with this 100%. Jeffrey Sanders, thank you very much for the support and retweeting my tweet today. Bill Armstrong, thank you for saying that we'll continue to get access to this team and every way that we have in the past. I'm not going to do game-centric stories, Lee. I can't do that. I'm not on the ground. I'm not going to be a practice giving you practice updates and tweeting lines. That's not the stuff that you're going to get from me. You'll probably get that from the beat writers on the ground. But I will continue to write in-depth features that I don't think you find much in the hockey community. You may have a difficult time finding them in that community. We're going to give that to you. I'm going to keep doing the prospect reports. By the way, a bunch of them are going to be playing down the road in Tucson, so we'll get to see them. I want to do my mailbag still because I think those are really important in the form of engagement and answering everybody's questions. As for the rest of the coverage, it will evolve. I'll probably try and keep some sort of track of what the team is doing on the ice, probably through some sort of weekly feature that recaps it. I don't know what that's going to look like just yet, but that about covers it for what I want to do. I'll just re-emphasize. I'm not on the ground, but I have a lot of relationships, and I really, really enjoy storytelling, doing deep dives. I'm going to give you that. I hope that's the sort of coverage that you want from Utah hockey. You can supplement it elsewhere. It's going to be free for now, so you'll get a sample of what we're going to give you. It's going to be free until the regular season at which point will probably roll out some sort of subscription model. So give it a look and decide whether you want to join the tons of diehards that we already have in Arizona. One last point for the PHNX diehards. Again, it's not going to be on the PHNX site. You won't have to endure it if you don't want to see it there. But if you do want to follow along with your old team, diehards will still have access to this content even when it goes behind a paywall. And that was the answer to Larry and Azeh hockey nights question in the chat just now. So there you have it. Yeah, just to reiterate, this won't be housed on PHNX on YouTube on our website. It's all city as well as any Utah content that comes from the draft. It'll be on all city platforms, not on PHNX. But I know there's a pretty good group of people who want to continue to follow this team that you've invested so much time in. And honestly, at first, I was in the boat of I want nothing to do with it just because it was very hurtful at the start. And now I'm kind of in the camp of there's no team coming back here for the foreseeable future. We've invested so much time and energy into following this group of players' prospects and following their development. I think I'm going to be interested in Utah. If you want nothing to do with it, I completely understand. If you want to be all in on Utah, I completely understand that as well. So just know that you have multiple options. PHNX hockey will continue to cover hockey in Arizona. The quest to get an NHLT back here, Arizona State, local hockey stories, the roadrunners. All of it will cover that on this show. There'll be opportunities for Utah coverage on our network as well outside of PHNX. So we hope you'll follow along. And as I tweeted this morning, you can take the coyotes out of Arizona, but you can't take Craig off this beat. You just can't. So there you go. And it all starts this weekend, Craig. Our draft coverage will be a mix of you covering Utah for this new venture and PHNX hockey covering the last centralized draft. I know there's no Arizona-based team there, but there's lots of ties. We're going to talk to a bunch of national voices to get their perspective on what's happening here. And the NHL draft is great if you're just a hockey fan in general. There's so many storylines and things. So we hope that we can kind of give you that behind the scenes on the ground. Coverage just without a team this time. So it's the last centralized draft we had to go. It's just a quick drive up the road for us. And at the sphere. So it's a cool setting for the final draft, and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm glad we get to take part in it because it does feel like, well, there's finality on a number of fronts, right? The coyotes are gone and this is the last in-person draft. But just one more point for those who are interested in this content. I will have a story later today, probably late afternoon, early evening. And it's not just going to be a draft primer. I decided because the window between the draft and free agency is so tight this year. And there's trade rumors swirling. We've talked about what the coyotes wanted to do while they were here. I'm going to wrap it all up into one story and just give you a general plan of what Utah hockey hopes to do this offseason. So look for that later today on the All City Network site. I'll obviously tweet that out as well. You will not be able to find it on GoPHNX.com. Yep, so make sure you all check it out. Craig tweeted it out earlier today as well on his Twitter account at Craig S Morgan. And speaking of Craig Morgan, our next super chat has a great name suggestion that I'm a fan of from Sean, the Phoenix Craig Morgan's, the amount of his life he has given and needs to have a stake in the team. Craig, if not that, at least you need to be given like a 1% stake and like just gifted. Just like a 0.5% stake in the new team. Maybe they'll just be whacked up for me in the new press box when they come back. I like or the press box can be named after you. Well, I love that idea, but I don't expect that at all. There are more important people. Okay, there are more important people than me in the past of this franchise. So we won't worry about that. Let's just hope that NHL hockey comes back to the valley as soon as possible. Absolutely. Jabbar in the chat said it would be awesome if the Utah, Arizona rivalry be born. If the new Arizona team comes alive. I think that would be unreal, honestly. Just almost like what happened between Winnipeg and Arizona. Even though it was, you know, a new team there in Winnipeg, the fan base had a feeling about the coyotes and we completely understand why. Right, proxies will really help. And they'd well, maybe be in the same division unless Arizona would hopefully end up in the Pacific, but we'll see. Roaring forks said Arizona having an NHL team is now officially on the wheel of fantasy. That is very heartbreaking. That's very heartbreaking, but you're right. It is. It is very sad. Oh boy. All right, Craig, before we wrap up, there were a couple of new rule changes added to the NHL. This week thought we'd run through them quickly. The first one having to do with a coaches challenge. Coaches challenge now be permitted to take down a penalty for puck out of play. That's interesting. I'll just run through them and then we can talk about them. The next is the line change for a dislodged net. The defensive team cannot make a line change in the event. The goaltender accidentally dislodges the net, which is. Yeah, I like that too. Face off following an icing, the offensive center. Now we'll receive one warning, same as a defensive player for a face off violation. And last but not least, I'm sportsman like conduct for a player sitting on the boards. The ref will now provide the offending team with one warning regarding players sitting on the boards after one warning in a game. The team precipitating the warning will be issued a bench minor penalty for future violations. Did you understand that last one? And not quite, but talking about like when they're about to hop over. Like I didn't follow up on these. I should have read a little bit more of that one. I was just like the previous one I didn't care about at all. But I like the dislodged net one. I like a lot and I like I want to see even more. Consideration for puck over the glass. It's one of my least favorite penalties and I get what you're you're doing there. You're if somebody flips the puck over the glass to to stop play when they're under pressure, I get why you're trying to stop that. But I just don't feel like that that rule has been handled very well in the NHL. So I'd like them to continue to look at that one. Absolutely. Well, that's it for us today. Felt like we had a lot to talk about after Monday night. I was like, Oh, what are we going to talk around on Thursday now? Well, a lot a lot happened in the day since and a lot's going to go on this weekend as well. So we hope you follow along our coverage. Make sure you're subscribed to the pH and exports YouTube channel. Make sure you're following us on Twitter at pH next underscore hockey. So you don't miss it all and make sure you're a bookmark a tab on all city network.com as well. If you're interested in craigs, you talk coverage, Craig, any final thoughts on anything we talked about today or anything else we didn't before we head out. I'm just looking forward to the draft. I really am actually just because I know first of all, I didn't think I was going to be covering it because we didn't have a team here. Secondly, it was the last one in person. And third, it's in such a cool setting. I just want to see the sphere. So it's great to get up there. I'm glad that you're driving and not me. And it will be great to reconnect with the entire NHL community, which is why the NHL should continue this current practice. It's an event like no other in professional sports. It is the best draft of them all having covered them all. It's the best draft. So please rethink your decision because I think it's a bad one. I 100% agree. We can add the centralized draft now to Wheel of Fantasy. And Josh also said we can add goaltender interference clarifications to the Wheel of Fantasy. Trap is going to get rid of the trapezoid. Oh boy. All right. Well, we appreciate you all so much for being here. A lot of you here this morning. Please hit the like button on this video, whether you're watching live or later. If you're listening on audio, be sure to hit the five star button and leave us a little review. If you will, and make sure you subscribe wherever you get your podcast. So you don't miss our weekly audio only episodes. We will have a show for you this Saturday, a recap of the NHL draft time TBD. Keep your eye on our social channels for that announcement, but you can set the little notification reminder on the PHN exports YouTube channel. So you don't miss that. So how about that? Two bonus shows this week. We had our emergency pod Monday night. Plus you get a bonus live show on Saturday as well. So tons of great content coming for you this week. Make sure you're following us along. You can follow Craig on Twitter at Craigus Morgan. Follow me at Liam Merrill. You can follow Danielle at advocate Danielle and follow the show at PHN x underscore hockey. Enjoy the rest of your Thursday, everyone. The auction list day that it is. And we will see you all this weekend.
