Lamont makes pitch to NHL team

HARTFORD — The Arizona Coyotes may be forced to relocate if a land auction scheduled for June fails, and Gov. Ned Lamont said Connecticut's capital is ready to become their new home.

While it is still unclear whether the NHL team will need to relocate and if so, where, Hartford has been without a NHL team since the Hartford Whalers left the city in 1997.

“We're ready. We're ready to do XL,” Lamont said Monday, referring to the XL Center venue in Hartford.

Lamont said a few months ago he spoke with an ownership team that he still believes will be ready to come on board. At a meeting with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman about six months ago, Lamont said he pushed the idea of Hartford “pretty heavy.”

“I thought they were going to stay down there in the Southwest but we will see what happens,” Lamont said.

Last May, the news broke that Lamont was meeting with the NHL commissioner about the potential relocation of the Coyotes, stirring a wave of nostalgia and hockey fervor among Whalers fans. The meeting came amid a $100 million renovation project at the XL Center.

But if Hartford were to be selected by the displaced Coyotes, the arena is likely to need even more upgrades.

“You can make this work,” Michael Freimuth, the executive director of the Capital Region Development Authority, said last June. “Is it going be the top of the line, top shelf, sexiest building in the NHL? No. It's an old lady. But you can make it work.”

Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam wasn't in City Hall during the first round of Coyotes excitement, but he will be this June when the team may be forced to pick a new home.

Arulampalam said the Capital Region Development Authority has received several bids on the project and the process of renovating the venue is moving “as rapidly as possible.”

“We are ready,” Arulampalam said. “We've been ready, and it would be huge to bring a professional sports team back to the city of Hartford.”