Phoenix Coyotes

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The Phoenix Coyotes are a professional ice hockey team currently based in Glendale, Arizona, just outside of Phoenix. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). They play their home games at Jobing.com Arena.

The Phoenix Coyotes were founded in 1972 as the Winnipeg Jets of the World Hockey Association (WHA), joining the NHL in 1979 and moving to Phoenix in 1996. Their home ice was at the US Airways Center (then known as America West Arena) for seven years until 2003, when Jobing.com Arena opened.

From May until September 2009, hearings were held in Phoenix Coyotes bankruptcy court to determine the fate of the Coyotes and the holding company. Two potential bidders for the team surfaced, Jerry Reinsdorf and Ice Edge Holdings, Inc. but they did not submit a bid for the team at the bankruptcy hearing. Instead, the NHL put in the only rival bid to Balsillie for the team, while they fought Moyes's plan to sell the team and move it to Hamilton against the NHL rules. Ultimately, the Phoenix court ruled that the team could not be sold to Balsillie, as the judge held that bankruptcy could not be used to subvert the league's rules. The NHL's initial bid was also declared insufficient but the judge left the window open to an improved bid. Moyes and the NHL settled, with the NHL buying the team and assuming all debts. The NHL negotiated a temporary lease with Jobing.com Arena owner, the City of Glendale, Arizona.

The NHL then proceeded to work with the two potential bidders of Jerry Reinsdorf and Ice Edge to work out a deal with Glendale. Ice Edge signed a letter of intent to buy the team from the NHL, while Reinsdorf has won the approval of the City of Glendale. The NHL has yet to deal with the purchase. On Friday, May 7, 2010, ESPN.com reported that Reinsdorf bid had fallen apart, and the City of Glendale was working with Ice Edge group to buy the team in a last ditch effort to keep them in Phoenix. The National Post criticized both bids, as both were conditional on municipal taxpayers to cover any losses that the Coyotes might incur, and suggested that keeping the team in Phoenix was never economically viable.

On March 27, 2010, the Phoenix Coyotes clinched a playoff spot, their first playoff spot since the 2001-2002 season, and in the process, reached the 100 point mark for the first time in franchise history. Their first round opponent in the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs was the Detroit Red Wings. Game one of the series was the first NHL playoff game to be played in Jobing.com Arena. The Red Wings won the series four games to three. An injury to Captain Shane Doan kept him from playing most of the games in the series.

In July 2010, the Ice Edge bid collapsed as it did not satisfy Glendale's financial conditions. Ice Edge decided to concentrate on an effort to buy a minor league team. The City of Glendale had to step in and guarantee the team's losses for 2010–11 as a precondition of the NHL not transferring the franchise. As of November 2010^[update], Glendale and the NHL are working to finalize a sale to a consortium of investors led by Chicago investor Matt Hulsizer. The NHL has set a December 31, 2010 deadline for the sale or it will seek to transfer the franchise to another city.