Billionaire Ryan Smith Gets His NHL Team, Moving Coyotes to Utah

Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith has officially landed a National Hockey League franchise.

Earlier this afternoon, the league’s board of governors approved a plan to relocate the Arizona Coyotes to Utah for next season. In an unusual deal that helps the NHL avoid a potential arena crisis in Arizona, Smith and his wife Ashley bought the Coyotes’ hockey operations, including player roster and draft picks, from billionaire developer Alex Meruelo, but not the team’s name, logo, uniforms or other intellectual property.

“I don’t know if this has ever been done,” said Smith, the 45-year-old billionaire co-founder of online survey ...