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The Phoenix Coyotes are a professional ice hockey team based in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale. They play in the National Hockey League. The team began play as the Winnipeg Jets, one of the one of the founding franchises in the World Hockey Association (WHA). The Jets were the most successful team in the short-lived WHA, winning three Avco Cups, the league's championship trophy, and making the finals five out of the WHA's seven seasons. It then became one of the four team admitted to the NHL when the rival leagues merged in 1979. After arriving in Phoenix, the team posted six consecutive .500 or better seasons, though they have never made it out of the first round of the playoffs, a streak which dates back to 1988, while they were still in Winnipeg. The closest they came to advancing was the 1999 Playoffs where they lost a heatbreaking Game 7 to the St. Louis Blues. The Jets/Coyotes franchise is currently the oldest NHL team to have never appeared in the Stanley Cup Finals. Since 2002, the Coyotes, due to lack of ownership stability and poor personnel strategies, have fallen to the lower echelon of the NHL and attendance levels have dropped, worrying many NHL executives. In addition, an unfavorable lease with America West Arena, where the team played for its first eight years in Phoenix, had the team bleeding red ink. While Wayne Gretzky was trying to get the funding for his purchase it appeared as if the Coyotes future in Phoenix could be in jeopardy, especially if they could not get funding for a new arena. With financial troubles the Coyotes were forced to trade away captain Keith Tkachuk to the St. Louis Blues at the trade deadline. Without Tkachuk the Coyotes would fall just short of making the playoffs despite posting a respectable 35-27-17-3 record. After the season the Coyotes would lose another star in Jeremy Roenick who signs a free agent deal with the Philadelphia Flyers. However, they would secure their future as plans to build a new arena in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, were approved by voters.
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