Coyotes Rumors: 5 Cities Favorites to Land Franchise

The Arizona Coyotes organization from the top down is going to do whatever they can to keep the Coyotes in the desert, but frankly, after the Tempe residents voted no to a new arena in the entertainment district, the chances of the team staying are slim. Here's five cities who will be in the running should the franchise be moving:

Houston

The city of Houston has been rumored to be interested in an NHL team for quite some time now and are a great fit for the Coyotes. A natural rival could easily be created with the Dallas Stars and considering Houston is the fourth rank US city in terms of population, if you build it they will come. It also helps they have an NHL-caliber arena ready for use and the team tried to land a franchise when the Golden Knights were created in Vegas.

Salt Lake City

One city which has come out of nowhere is Salt Lake City, Utah. According to the owner of the Utah Jazz NBA team, Ryan Smith, the process to land an NHL franchise is 'in motion'. We'll see how far Smith gets, but it does help they have an arena ready to go. 

Kansas City

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is in and we'll see how much head way the city makes as they are interested in an NHL franchise. The only issue is people as the city only has 500,000 people, but...there's a rivalry to be made with the St Louis Blues, plus the city has T-Mobile Center which holds 18,000 people. Perhaps a wild card candidate in all of this.

Toronto

Yes, the GTA could easily hold another franchise as the province of Ontario is hockey crazy. It would create quite the buzz and the rivalry with all the fans who hate the Toronto Maple Leafs would be an easy bandwagon to jump on. Canada hasn't won a Stanley Cup in 30 years, easy way to fix that? Add more teams to Canada.

Quebec City

One city which has been trying to get a team back for years, Quebec City, QC. The Nordiques were a storied franchise with unreal jerseys and of course, ended up in Colorado and the Avalanche won a Stanley Cup right away. Tough pill to swallow then for the people of Quebec City and if they miss out on relocating the Coyotes, it's going to be another tough pill to swallow for Nordique supporters.

Photo credit: Ed Mulholland