Utah Hockey Club will be the first overall pick in the NHL draft. (Arizona Coyotes fans nod)

The Arizona Coyotes will not tell their story in Salt Lake City. Technically, the team now known as the Utah Hockey Club will trade its very first draft pick at the 2024 NHL Draft on June 28 in Las Vegas.

It’s complicated, but it has been done in other sports like football.

When the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Baltimore Ravens, they left the team’s history in Cleveland behind and started a new one. With the caveat that they had somehow signed all of the Cleveland Browns’ players during the offseason.

The Ravens’ first technical pick was future Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee left tackle Jonathan Ogden. The second pick they ever made was in the same 1996 draft and went to Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee linebacker Ray Lewis.

The same situation exists in Utah, and the Utah Hockey Club may be on the verge of naming two of the best players in league history to their positions on June 28.

The Coyotes’ owners have preserved the team’s history and will try to bring the Coyotes back at some point. So while Utah has never made a pick, the Coyotes, and before them the original Winnipeg Jets, certainly have.

Arizona Coyotes were the Phoenix Coyotes. The Phoenix Coyotes were the Winnipeg Jets

The Winnipeg Jets were founded in 1972 and played in the WHA until 1979. The team then joined the NHL in 1979 and played in Winnipeg until 1996.

The team moved to Phoenix in 1996 and was called the Phoenix Coyotes until 2014, when it became the Arizona Coyotes.

In 1999, the Atlanta Thrashers were founded, in 2011 they moved to Winnipeg and became the Jets again.

But in both cases, the history of the clubs was not limited to the abandoned city.

Who did the Arizona Coyotes select in the 2023 NHL Draft?

The Coyotes’ last first-round picks were Dmitriy Simashev at No. 6 and Danil But at No. 12 in 2023. Neither has ever played for the Coyotes, as they are currently teammates on Russian team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.

These signing rights now belong to the Utah Hockey Club.

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