Reports: Arizona Coyotes players have been told of pending move to Utah

The notion that the Arizona Coyotes NHL franchise will be relocating to Salt Lake City is becoming more real at a very rapid rate.

On Friday evening, multiple outlets reported that current Coyotes players were informed of the upcoming move earlier in the day.

Canadian hockey reporter Elliotte Friedman reported that players and staff could go to Salt Lake City as early as next Wednesday following their season finale at home against the Edmonton Oilers.

There have been whispers in recent days that an announcement of relocation could take place next Thursday, April 18, but PHNX Sports’ Coyotes reporter Craig Morgan reported Friday that such an announcement could come Wednesday instead.

Earlier this week, Frank Seravalli of the Daily Faceoff first reported that the NHL was working on two schedule iterations for the Coyotes for next season, one that had them staying in Arizona and another that had them moving to Salt Lake City.

Since then, a process that had seemed to be stalled out last week has progressed rapidly. For years, the Coyotes have struggled to get a new arena built and are currently playing at Arizona State’s stadium, but there seemed to be momentum last week toward that changing.

Utah Jazz, Real Salt Lake and Utah Royals FC owner Ryan Smith has been public about his interest in bringing an NHL team to the Beehive State, with many figuring a relocation of the Coyotes made sense in that regard.

Utah governor Spencer Cox wasted little time in welcoming the Arizona franchise to Utah, taking to X to send the team a message.