The mechanics of the deal are interesting.

EF basically saying that the AZ Coyotes NHL hockey ops are going temporarily "inactive" with a sale of assets to the NHL for $1 billion (probably about a $400k overpayment). But the ownership group will remain in existence in the background while the arena situation continues to get worked out down in the desert.

Then Smith/Utah ownership group will buy from the NHL the assets/contracts of the hockey ops for about $1.2 or something like that. Then the $200 million is basically an expansion fee that the other owners share (about $6 million each).

The Coyotes would then have the right to buy back for the $1 billion to the NHL as an expansion franchise and re-start their hockey operations. That $1 billion is probably an underpayment in terms of an expansion, so this is potentially a good deal for Alex Meruelo. He has an exclusive window of some sort to get the arena situation in AZ figured out (probably 5 years, would be a guess) and then the league would return to AZ pretty quickly after that.