TEMPE, Ariz. — When IceArizona purchased the Arizona Coyotes from the NHL in 2013, they made a commitment to keep professional hockey in Arizona. On Wednesday, the Coyotes made a commitment to keep growing the sport.

Partnering with Arizona State University hockey, a team beginning the transition from club level to Division I, the Coyotes will host four ASU hockey games at Gila River Arena this season. ASU will play the University of Arizona on Oct. 3 and the U.S. National U-18 team on Feb. 28. Gila River Arena will also host the Desert Hockey Classic, a four-team tournament slated for early January that includes Connecticut, Michigan Tech and Yale along with ASU.

The exposure of playing in an NHL rink adds some prestige to the program and is the first step in a long process of making Arizona, specifically the greater Phoenix area, a hockey hub.

“Without the Arizona Coyotes and their clear, very clear commitment to the state of Arizona… hockey is still an afterthought in this state,” Sun Devils head coach Greg Powers said at a Wednesday press conference. “Today, celebrating this great partnership with the two now leaders of this sport in our state is a tremendous honor to be a part of — not only personally, but certainly for our university and hockey club as well.”

Tradition is one reason many NHL fans believe hockey is the greatest sport on Earth. It’s also what makes it tough for teams to get traction in nontraditional markets. Developing a tradition can be challenging, especially for a club that’s only been around since 1996 and has been mired in constant ownership drama.

The Coyotes and ASU both hope that the Sun Devils’ move into DI is just the beginning of an Arizona hockey explosion.

“The announcement nine months ago of ASU going DI, from our perspective, was probably the most important thing that could happen to really continue the growth, in an aggressive manner, of the game,” Coyotes co-owner, president and CEO Anthony LeBlanc said.

“The most important thing to do is to grow the game,” LeBlanc said. “The easiest way to do that is to partner with an institution like ASU.”

That growth is already underway. USA Hockey reported a 51 percent increase in amateur hockey participation in Arizona in 2014-15. Arizona led the nation in total number of new USA Hockey memberships and had the second-highest growth rate.

As rinks begin to fill up, Arizona feels more and more like a place hockey can thrive.

“Honestly, I couldn’t tell the difference (between Arizona and his hometown of Cary, Illinois),” freshman forward Jack Rowe said. “I’ve been skating out at Oceanside (Ice Arena) and it’s always full.”

While playing in an NHL rink and moving up to the NCAA level is certainly a thrill for current ASU players, the message it sends to youth hockey players is the foundation for what this partnership can truly become — a door-opener to collegiate and professional hockey that won’t force players out-of-state.

“(The partnership) is great because youth hockey players and the hockey community will see us working together, but most importantly it gives kids a realistic light at the end of the tunnel to play really elite hockey (in Arizona),” Powers said.

“Now we have an option here locally for kids to say ‘I want to go play NCAA hockey at ASU and If I go to ASU there’s a good chance I can move on to the next level,'” Powers added.

This partnership is just the start of the Coyotes’ involvement in college hockey. LeBlanc hopes to attract the Frozen Four to the Valley as well as looking into plans of starting a new tournament for college teams in the Southwest, similar to the Beanpot tournament in Boston.

By every measure, hockey is growing in Arizona. With the prospect of an Arizona-born player going No. 1 overall in the 2016 NHL Draft, the benefits of youth hockey in the desert are finally beginning to manifest at the highest level.