Arbitration will have to wait. Lawson Crouse and the Arizona Coyotes have agreed on a five-year contract extension, just ahead of their arbitration hearing that was scheduled for today. The deal will carry an average annual value of $4.3MM. Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports has the full breakdown:
- 2022-23: $3.6MM
- 2023-24: $4.6MM
- 2024-25: $4.6MM
- 2025-26: $4.8MM
- 2026-27: $3.8MM
The two sides had exchanged arbitration figures over the weekend, with the Coyotes filing for $2.5MM and Crouse asking for a $4.0MM contract. That would have been a one or two-year deal, which is why the number crept a bit higher as the two sides agreed on a long-term solution. General manager Bill Armstrong released a short statement:
We are very pleased to sign Lawson to a long-term contract. He is a big, strong, skilled power forward and we look forward to him being a big part of our future.
Crouse, 25, still had two years of restricted free agency left, meaning this contract is buying out three UFA seasons for the power forward. He’s coming off his first 20-goal season, one in which he was an impressive blend of size, physicality, and scoring touch. Those 20 goals and 34 points came in just 65 games, along with his 181 hits.
Originally selected 11th overall by the Florida Panthers in 2015, Crouse was part of the trade that sent Dave Bolland’s LTIR-bound contract to the desert in 2016. Since then, he has played in 346 games for the Coyotes, scoring 56 goals and 110 points.
While those numbers don’t jump off the page, he did experience a solid improvement this season and is the kind of power-skill mix that is difficult to find in today’s NHL. He’ll join Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz as the only Arizona players who are signed for more than three years, and slides in as one of the team’s building blocks moving forward.
The team still has Barrett Hayton to sign as a restricted free agent, but otherwise looks rather set for the upcoming season. Arizona does still have close to $20MM in cap space, meaning they can continue to use that room to acquire more futures for the rest of the summer, if the opportunity arises.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was first to break the news on Twitter.
That…might be a bit much.
Good for the player. You probably do have to overpay to get people to want to play in an NCAA rink lol.
Yeah, you may have a point there, kscheer.
Great signing. Now name him captain.
Wow that is way too much.
That’s alot of money for a third line winger.
^ 1st line winger for this franchise.
For all you trolls, troll your own team. Yotes fans are sick of your constant crapola.
I mean, sorry it’s the case, but your team sucks and probably will for a while. That’s just the reality of the situation.
What Yotes fans?
It’ll be sad when they can’t even fill a 4500 seat building.
I’d think you’d be a lot sicker of the crapola your team dishes out. This is a team that’s made it past the first round *once.* EVER. This is a team that’s made the playoffs once in a decade, and only then because COVID expanded the playoffs. Four playoff appearances in the last twenty years. And now playing in the smallest arena any team has played in in over a century. And WE’RE the problem?
I’m excited for the future of the Yotes. As much as arena fiasco is an embarrassment, it moves them in the right direction towards building an arena in a good location in the Phoenix/Tempe area. Once they get the new arena, their stable of prospects should be coming up and ready to contribute. Then they can start being competitive and UFA’s will want to go there. If you’re a free agent and the team is headed in the right direction, why wouldn’t you want to play in a new arena in Tempe and live in an area with great weather/golf courses? And hey, who knows, maybe they end up tanking hard enough to get Bedard. Or maybe Matthews heads home. So everyone who dogs on the Yotes and wants them to move to Houston should just shut up and wait 5 years.
as a long time yotes fan I agree with your post but as everyone knows fans have been on this rebuild for what basically 10 going on 11 years. saying to wait another 5 just seems cruel lol
The reason people think the team would do better elsewhere is simple: the fans just aren’t supporting the team, and never really have. Even in the 2010-2012 stretch, where the team had the only genuinely strong seasons it’s had in the last twenty years, including a first place finish and that Cup semifinal, the Coyotes finished last in the league in attendance every single year. It’s been 15 years since Arizona wasn’t in the bottom three in attendance. They have NEVER finished better than 7th worst in the league in attendance.
Frankly, the only thing that’s kept the franchise in Arizona is that Bettman plainly feels he’ll be emasculated if it moves, and I predict that the club will be in Milwaukee, or Houston, or Portland, or Quebec City promptly after he retires from power.
few things speaks to talent on this team,. they are paying him like top six forward. which he is not on a winning team. they have pay at least few players who actually are still active to get too the floor of salary cap. The team win have fans if they win. If they don’t location of arena will be meaningless. Gary ego will not allow a team to move unless. It is like Atlanta no wanted to buy the team except people from winnipeg. They only thing worse for gary ego would be a team folding over moving. Quebec only gets team if that is gary only option other then folding. The next guy the owners put in charge. Will not looked at arizona mess as their fault it’s gary’s. If team not working then moving could happen.