ARIZONA COYOTES

Gutierrez: Coyotes focused on continued organizational turnaround

Feb 19, 2021, 9:42 AM

(Arizona Coyotes Photo)...

(Arizona Coyotes Photo)

(Arizona Coyotes Photo)

The Arizona Coyotes’ image took a gut punch earlier this week when The Athletic published an article centered around the organization’s financial misdealings and toxic environment.

While the team doesn’t agree whatsoever with the “mischaracterizations” of the article written by Katie Strang, president and CEO Xavier Gutierrez understands where the organization once was and where it needs to be moving forward.

“We recognize one thing and that is this is a turnaround,” Gutierrez told Arizona Sports’ Doug & Wolf on Friday. “This is an organization that when [Coyotes owner] Alex Meruelo bought it a couple years ago … definitely needed to have an infusion of investment, a new commitment, a new vision and new people.

“Sometimes when you do a turnaround … a lot of things need to change. We’re going to come in here, we have a track record of success in these types of turnarounds in multiple industries, and we are building a financially stable organization today, tomorrow and into the future.”

The article, which highlights the team’s financial issues, looks back at the organization under Meruelo’s ownership through interviews from 50 current and former employees as well as those with business relationships with the team.

That includes eight vendors who told Strang the organization would haggle over portions of a contract or invoice items.

The Coyotes did not respond to Strang for comments on the article, but did issue a lengthy press release on Tuesday refuting the story.

“The biggest part that bothered me was the fact that we are changing the narrative of this organization and when you don’t have individuals that necessarily buy in to what you are doing to transform this to a best-in-class organization, this is the result that you get,” Gutierrez said.

“It really, really impacts the team members that we do have, it impacts the organization and it diminishes the successes that in the middle of a pandemic, the middle of an economic downturn, this health crisis, the progress that we are making just gets overlooked and overshadowed by this.”

The story also touches on the team’s first 2020 NHL Draft pick, Mitchell Miller, who bullied a Black classmate with developmental disabilities when he was 14. Miller pleaded guilty to one count of assault and one count of violation of the Ohio Safe Schools Act. After news broke of Miller’s past, the team released him.

“We are in incredibly good standing, we have 1,000% support from Gary Bettman, Bill Daly and the NHL league office,” Gutierrez said. “They’ve made that public, they’ve made that known to us consistently here. They like what we are doing. That’s not to say that there aren’t things to improve on and we always say that.

“As good business people, you’re constantly seeking improvement, you’re constantly seeking iteration, you’re constantly seeking how to do best practices and we haven’t made any bones about the fact that we’re new to sports, we’re new to hockey. We’re not new to business, we know what we’re doing, we have a vision.”

Arizona Coyotes

Lawson Crouse of Canada, Milan Lucic of Canada and Peyton Krebs of Canada Team Canada celebrates af...

Associated Press

Lawson Crouse scores, Andre Tourigny-coached Canada defeats Germany to win hockey worlds

Arizona Coyotes' Lawson Crouse scored for Canada in a 5-2 victory over Germany in the final of the ice hockey world championship on Sunday.

5 days ago

Mesa Mayor John Giles, Tempe mayor Corey Woods...

Arizona Sports

Mesa mayor ‘encouraging’ Coyotes to look at private sites for new arena

Could the Arizona Coyotes find a new arena home in Mesa and find a way to avoid a public vote like the squashed Tempe plans required?

11 days ago

Logan Cooley #92 of the Minnesota Golden Gophers warms up before a game against the Quinnipiac Bobc...

Wills Rice

Coyotes prospect Logan Cooley to stay 1 more year in college

Arizona Coyotes highly regarded center prospect Logan Cooley announced he is staying in college for one more year.

13 days ago

Clayton Keller, Arizona Coyotes...

Arizona Sports

Arizona Coyotes reportedly inquire about Mesa’s Fiesta Mall site in arena land search

Mesa's old Fiesta Mall footprint is among the land the Arizona Coyotes have inquired about, CBS5's and 3TV's Dennis Welch reported Thursday.

15 days ago

Mullett Arena, Arizona Coyotes, tempe...

Arizona Sports

Coyotes to play at Mullett Arena in 2023-24, seeking new Valley site

The Arizona Coyotes expect to play at Mullett Arena as planned in the 2023-24 season amid uncertainty about their future, the team confirmed.

16 days ago

Arizona Coyotes Tempe arena...

Jake Anderson

Hockey world reacts to Tempe voters’ rejection of Coyotes’ arena plan

One of the Arizona Coyotes' captains and a face of the franchise Clayton Keller made his reaction felt with one simple emoji.

16 days ago

Gutierrez: Coyotes focused on continued organizational turnaround