Gary Bettman and the NHL apparently aren't done with Arizona, even after just watching that market fall apart again.
Elliotte Friedman said on 32 Thoughts this week that the league genuinely wants to go back there at some point.
According to NHL Rumour Report, Phoenix currently sits behind Houston and Atlanta in the expansion pecking order, but it clearly remains a city the NHL wants back.
That's notable given how recently this exact market fell through. The former Arizona Coyotes relocated and became the Utah Mammoth, leaving Phoenix without a team.
Houston and Atlanta still look like the priority, largely because both rank among the top 10 U.S. television markets heading into the league's next broadcast negotiations.
Arizona doesn't carry that same leverage, but the NHL apparently isn't ready to write off the desert completely.
Getting back in requires solving the same problems that pushed the franchise out in the first place: ownership stability and a workable arena situation.
Why Phoenix's history makes this a tougher sell than Houston or Atlanta
Houston and Atlanta represent genuinely new ground, or in Atlanta's case, a fresh start after past NHL failures there too.
Phoenix is different. This market just proved, within the last couple of years, that the previous setup wasn't sustainable long term.
Any return would need real answers on ownership and a building before the league seriously commits resources to trying again.
Is chasing a market that just failed smarter than simply focusing on new ground? That's a fair question to ask here.
Nothing about a Phoenix return sounds close or formal right now, more like a long-term intention than an active plan.
Still, it says something that even after relocating a team out of the market, the NHL isn't ready to consider Arizona closed for good.
Should the NHL try Phoenix again after the Utah relocation?
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