Phoenix Coyotes Hockey on AZ Vibe

As you probably have seen, with the exception of the Coyotes court battles, there really isn’t much to report about for another couple of weeks.

This is the lull in the Hockey offseason that doesn’t generate much press across the NHL (and other leagues as well) and leaves us press types scrambling to come up with something that is interesting for hockey fans/listeners/viewers/readers to digest and tide them over until training camp begins.

Coyotes News

Elliot Friedman of CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada reported today that journeyman NHL-er Aaron Downey was invited to Coyotes training camp on a tryout basis.

From what I’ve been reading online, Downey may be a fighter and a has some toughness to his game.  However, his character in the locker room and in the community seems to be, on paper, a good fit for the Coyotes

I’ve got a couple of Coyotes items that fans should mark on their calendars (if they haven’t already):

The first is the Yearly ‘Athletes Resource Training and Conditioning’ camps (also known on unofficial Coyotes related sites as ‘Shane Doan’s Conditioning Camp’) are just around the Corner. From August 24th to September 4th (no Wednesday or weekend sessions) at the Alltel Ice Den in Scottsdale NHL players (not just Coyotes players) will descend on the Ice Den to get themselves in shape for Training camp and the upcoming season.

http://www.athletesresource.com/camps.html

The Coyotes Rookies will take part in a couple of games against the LA Kings Rookies at the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo, CA on September 9th and 10th.

http://kings.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=479924&cmpid=rss-News%20in%20English

No word yet about Coyotes Rookie Camp or the full Coyotes Training Camp.  Stay tuned…

ASU Hockey

Arizona State University’s conditioning camp and Tryouts will be taking place starting on August 24th at Oceanside Ice Arena in Tempe. This year ASU Hockey will not only be fielding a Division I and a Division II team  but will also be putting together a prospect team.

For more information about the Open Tryouts and Conditioning Camp, including times and dates, please refer to this link:

http://www.sundevilhockey.com/index.php/program-news/41-sun-devil-hockey-announces-conditioning-camptry-out-dates

NAU/U of A Hockey

Finally, Arizona Rubber has posted two announcements about Meetings/Tryouts for the Northern Arizona University and University of Arizona Hockey Teams. NAU will be fielding a Division II and a Division III team this year.

NAU Announcement:

http://arizonarubber.com/story.cfm?id=1959

U of A Announcement:

http://www.arizonarubber.com/story.cfm?id=1960

The Phoenix Coyotes and the ECHL Las Vegas Wranglers have reached a one year affiliation agreement for the upcoming season.

In a statement released by the Coyotes, Assistant General Manager Brad Treliving said the following about the deal:

“We are pleased to be entering into this new affiliation agreement with the Las Vegas Wranglers.” Treliving continues, “We are looking forward to seeing young Coyotes prospects playing for the Wranglers this season.”

The Wranglers play their home games in the Orleans Arena which is housed within the Orleans Hotel and Casino. The Wranglers are most famous for having the highest winning percentage in ECHL history (.676 from 2003-2008).

You’ve probably been wondering why we have not posted any articles about the Coyotes ownership court battle.

I mean this is a Coyotes related site, right?

When we broke off this Coyotes site from the main AZ Vibe, site our focus here was one thing only.

To provide in depth coverage of the Coyotes team (on ice) and not the external battles that are going on in Federal Court.

There are many competent reporters, as well as some passionate and amazing fans for that matter, that are covering  the court battle better than we could. (We have included a list of links to follow when the Coyotes court battle resumes, at the end of this post.  The twitter links will be as close to real time coverage of the court proceedings as possible)

We’ve also been noticing that many publications around town have been coming out of the woodwork lately offering their own opinions of the situation.  However, many of them (the ones that are hopping on the Coyotes court battle bandwagon), don’t have a clue about how the team got into the situation.  Nor do they know simple background information about the Coyotes as their respective publications hardly, if ever, provide any form of Coyotes coverage.

Do we have an opinion about the ownership court battle?

Of course we do.

When this entire matter has been resolved, we will write a very lengthy editorial about the entire court battle.  We have been reading everything regarding the court battle that has been published locally, across the US, and from the Canadian point of view.  We also will be reviewing all the public court documents shortly.

Until that day comes, our focus will be on the Coyotes as a team (as well as local Hockey in and around the Greater Phoenix area) and their preparations for the upcoming 2009-2010 season.

Links

Twitter links to follow for up to the moment reporting of the Coyotes Court case (these posting from the court room).  We will update the list as needed:

http://twitter.com/TheYotesDiva – Head of the Save the Coyotes Coalition
http://twitter.com/brahmresnik – Local Reporter
http://twitter.com/Yotesgurl – Coyotes Blogger
http://twitter.com/OdinMercer – Coyotes Blogger
http://twitter.com/RebekahLSanders – Local Reporter
http://twitter.com/coyoteshipcheck – Coyotes Blogger

The Save the Coyotes Coalition:
http://savethecoyotes.com/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=77971569444&ref=ts

The Phoenix Coyotes Booster Club:
http://www.phxcoyotesboosterclub.com/
http://www.facebook.com/phxcoyotesboosterclub

I’m not going to set this up as I can’t take a lick of credit for this article.  In short, the PF Chang’s U16 team is joining the Tier 1 Midwest Elite League, one of the most heavily scouted leagues around.  Check out this article as this is great news!!!

http://arizonarubber.com/story.cfm?id=1922

The Helsingin Sanomat out of Finland is reporting that former Winnipeg Jet/Phoenix Coyote Teppo Numminen is retiring after 19  NHL seasons (it can be argued he played 20).

Numminen, played the majority of his career in Winnipeg/Phoenix, spending 2001-2003 as the Captain of the Phoenix Coyotes, before he was traded to the Dallas Stars.

During his NHL Career he amassed  637 points (117 Goals and 520 assists).

Would it be safe to assume that Numminen’s number will the next number retired by the Coyotes?