The Arizona Coyotes have been a perpetual doormat in the National Hockey League. Aside from a few stellar seasons that occurred almost ten years ago, the franchise has lived without much success, let alone expectation.

But I’m not here to discuss the on-ice product. That’s a pretty short conversation. They’re bad, we get it.

The situation that the Coyotes currently find themselves in should be great cause for concern if you’re the NHL. Hell, it probably already is.

The Coyotes are reportedly working out a deal with Arizona State University that would allow the Coyotes to play at Arizona State. There doesn’t seem to be another feasible option for the Coyotes to have home games for the foreseeable future.

There are two ways to think about this. Part of me thinks this is really cool. There are plenty of out of state students at ASU. They’ve got a nice hockey program that’s already had success through its infancy as it’s continued to grow. Having the Coyotes sharing the same barn as your relatively new D-1 program is a great opportunity for the university and ultimately the students themselves.

However, this is a bad look for the Coyotes. It’s not as bad as having to backpay $1.3 million to avoid eviction from their home arena. But it’s certainly not good. They’ve submitted a proposal to potentially move to Tempe in a brand new, privately-funded arena. Whether or not that becomes a serious option remains to be seen.

The Coyotes don’t want to move. The league does not want them to move. But it might be time. Whether or not they win the Connor Bedard sweepstakes, that franchise is just not working in that location. I think it is long overdue that serious conversations are had about relocating the Arizona Coyotes. Exactly where they’d go is a conversation for another day.