The Ice Edge Holdings investment group will pay around US$140 million for the Phoenix Coyotes NHL franchise, in a deal that will keep the Coyotes in Arizona for at least the next 26 years.

Ice Edge had initially indicated it would pay as much as US$150 million for the team, which is now in the hands of the NHL after the league stepped in to secure its future. The investment group has now signed a letter of intent with the NHL, which says that the sale will be completed "as expeditiously as possible".

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Though Ice Edge will honour the Coyotes' 26-year lease at Jobing.com Arena, which was built for the team by the city of Glendale, it has indicated that the team will play five games per season in Canada. Another man formerly keen to buy the team, Jim Balsillie, intended to take it to Canada permanently, and had offered more than US$200 million, but the NHL paid US$140 million for the franchise in November and has spent the past month searching for a buyer who would keep it in Arizona.