from Patrick Brown of the Coyotes website,

Defenseman Matt Dumba is already warming up to his new home in the hot desert.

Dumba signed a one-year contract with Arizona on Monday, uprooting his life from the only NHL city he's called home to join a new-look Coyotes team that has added Logan Cooley, Sean Durzi, Jason Zucker, and Alex Kerfoot this offseason. Add to that the return of both Nick Bjugstad and Troy Stecher, who opted to come back to Arizona following their departures at the 2023 trade deadline, and Dumba said he's excited to get to work with his teammates in his new surroundings.

The 29-year-old has spent all 10 seasons of his NHL career in Minnesota, recording 79 goals and 157 assists in 598 career games with the Wild. Though Dumba said it was a tough decision to leave the Twin Cities for The Valley, he said the Coyotes were "always my front-runner."

Thus, he made the decision to head to the Southwest.

"The discussion I had with my girlfriend and with my family about what was right for us, we were weighing the pros and cons, and there weren't too many cons to coming to the desert," he said. "We just needed to take the time to look at everything and be calculated and make sure this is the right fit. We know it is, and I'm so happy to be here."

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