The Arizona Coyotes Are Bringing Back The White Kachina Jersey, Might Just Be A Wagon After All
When you look back at the Arizona Coyotes history, there has been plenty that has gone awry. The bankruptcies, the fact that the franchise has never made it to the Stanley Cup Final, Brett Hull only playing 5 games in Arizona, basically getting ghosted by John Chayka, etc. etc.
The list goes on for a while so I don't want to hold anybody up for too long. The fact of the matter is that things have never quite seemed to work out for the 'Yotes. And when you look back on the history of the team and where things really started to go to shit, I think we can pinpoint it all on one gigantic misfire of a decision. The choice to go from this uniform:
Kellie Landis. Getty Images.To this:
Don Smith. Getty Images.Granted, JR had so much steeze that he could make any sweater look good. The jersey tuck, the luscious lettuce flowing through the wind, the whole thing. But even still, it's hard to come up with a worse downgrade in league history. The 'Yotes were your cool indie friend who didn't give a shit about the establishment who then got an office job and went full corporate in the blink of an eye.
Now things still aren't necessarily going great for the Coyotes. They're about to be homeless, they missed the playoffs last year, and they had to forfeit their 1st round pick in this past draft. But if there's anything that can turn this franchise around, if there's anything that can actually turn the 'Yotes into a legitimate wagon…
It's going all in on the prebrand. They already brought the black kachina back as an alternate last year, bring back the white kachina this season, and phase out the reds.
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Now we'll always have some fond memories of those red uniforms. There have certainly been some legends to toss that bad boy on in the past.
Christian Petersen. Getty Images.But sometimes the only way to go forward is to go back. And if the Coyotes want to do the right thing and make Phil Kessel a 3x Stanley Cup champ, it starts and ends with going back to the Kachina full time. I'm glad they realized that now before it was too late.
P.S. - $11.9M in cap space still available. Going back to the Kachina from the original '96-97 season. The same jersey that a young Auston Matthews ($11.65M cap hit) grew up watching. All I'm saying is it's just something to keep an eye on….