It’s a story that not even former Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum could dream up.

The NHL’s Arizona Coyotes appear destined to move to another city, after voters in Tempe rejected plans to build a new arena for the team to play in. The Coyotes were booted out of Gila River Arena one year ago by the City of Glendale, before temporarily moving into an arena that’s smaller than some junior hockey rinks.

The plan was to get a new NHL-sized arena built in Tempe, but yesterday’s vote has put an end to that dream.

The Coyotes are telling season ticket holders that they plan to continue playing games at the 4,600-seat Mullet Arena next season and that they “remain committed to Arizona.”

But there doesn’t appear to be a Plan B, and most experts are anticipating the team will be relocating elsewhere.

So where will the Coyotes go? We outlined 11 cities that could be suitable.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on the 32 Thoughts podcast that he believes Houston, Salt Lake City, Sacramento, and Kansas City are the most likely landing spots.

And then there’s Surrey.

A Vancouver Canucks fan on Twitter, who goes by the handle @PRiMETIMESNOOP_, posted an obviously fake report saying that Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke announced she had submitted a “formal bid” to the NHL to relocate the Coyotes to her city.

The fan changed his display name to “BREAKING NEWS BRITISH COLUMBIA” and profile picture to an image saying “BREAKING 911.”

And it duped one publication.

#BREAKING: The city of Surrey is making a bold move to bring the Arizona Coyotes to British Columbia.

The mayor of Surrey, Brenda Locke announced that he has submitted a formal bid to the NHL to relocate the struggling franchise to the "fastest-growing" city in Canada. pic.twitter.com/2F6wSta9rH

— BREAKING NEWS BRITISH COLUMBIA (@PRiMETIMESNOOP_) May 17, 2023

Most people got the joke.

Surrey’s former mayor made a completely laughable election promise back in August, saying he would build a 60,000-seat stadium for “all sports,” without any kind of logical reasoning to support the idea.

So why wouldn’t the new Surrey mayor also make a ridiculous sports-themed statement?

The joke must have gone over the head of Canadian publication “Western Standard.”

Western Standard published an article on their website Wednesday afternoon titled “Could the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes be headed to Surrey after Tempe voters reject $2.3-billion arena deal?”

“The Arizona Coyotes could be BC bound after voters rejected a US$2.3-billion arena deal that would have kept the NHL team in the Grand Canyon State,” the article said. “According to Breaking News British Columbia, the answer could be yes after it tweeted Surrey mayor Brenda Locke ‘announced (she) submitted a formal bid to the NHL to relocate the struggling franchise to the ‘fastest growing’ city in Canada.’

“Western Standard could not independently verify the veracity of the claim.”

Gee, I wonder why.

A move to Surrey would require spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build a brand new NHL-sized stadium, similar to Rogers Arena. It would also need a billionaire owner to step forward.

But it would also require the approval of the Vancouver Canucks, as NHL teams have territorial rights protecting an 80-kilometre radius around their city.

The chances of the Canucks approving such a move are about as realistic as Surrey getting a 60,000-seat “all sports” stadium built.

Needless to say, Canucks fans had a good laugh about @PRiMETIMESNOOP_ breaking the “news.”

Academy award level trolling @PRiMETIMESNOOP_

— Qing James Dynasty (@CrownRoyal22) May 18, 2023

People were running their mouths like idiots without knowing the facts.

Congratulations to Breaking News British Columbia (BNBC) for breaking this first https://t.co/WsFVhuqh68

— Mike Martignago (@MikeMartignago) May 18, 2023

As first reported by @PRiMETIMESNOOP_, later confirmed by @MikeMartignago’s sources

Nice to see two of the hardest-working reporters in the city get credit for this scoop. I know they’ve been hard on this story for months. Surrey deserves the #Yotes. #SupportLocal @WSOnlineNews https://t.co/yK0m4KheRS pic.twitter.com/Cb2Rf8gI3l

— Grady Sas (@GradySas) May 18, 2023

Not sure why the tweet was deleted but here's the link to the story.

Could the Coyotes be headed to Surrey?

First reported by @PRiMETIMESNOOP_ https://t.co/tqmjE8mvGp

— Taj (@taj1944) May 18, 2023

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