‘Yotes Notes: Front Office, Prospects, Braid
The Arizona Coyotes have had a busy offseason, between hiring the youngest GM in NHL history, the first full-time female coach and using their cap-space to build a great young pool of players. Today, they announced that they’d done some more hiring, this time to beef up their scouting staff. The team has brought on Jim Hammett, Rick Beckfeld and Sergei Kuznetsov as amateur scouts, Brett Stewart as a development coach, Brad Rossen as Director of Statistical Science and Al Ambrosia as the Hockey Operations Coordinator.
Other news from the desert:
- ESPN released their annual top 120 prospect rankings (subscription needed), and the Coyotes fared very well coming in with four players in the top 40 and nine players in total. Dylan Strome and Clayton Keller led the list at #4 and #6 respectively, while Jakob Chychrun and Lawson Crouse, both acquired through the use of cap space, came in at #32 and #37. Solid drafting, combined with a shrewd use of every advantage has led the Coyotes to have one of the best young crops in the league, and this list even excludes players like Max Domi and Anthony Duclair.
- After all the fanfare that has surrounded the hiring of Dawn Braid as the first full-time female coach in the NHL, she’s quick to heap praise on other people. In a piece by Alex Prewitt of Sports Illustrated today, Braid admits it’s “a little bit overwhelming”, and quickly lists other skating coaches Barbara Underhill (Toronto) and Tracy Tutton (Colorado) as deserved of the same praise. It was her father who had pushed her into helping hockey teams, and Braid continues to remember why she started: “It’s the opportunity to honor my father again. Every day I teach or I coach or I consult I think about him. It is part of what drives me on the ice to do what I do. He’s always in the back of my head.”
Roster Crunch: Pacific Division
While the NHL season is still more than two months away, it seems as though most teams have finished their free agent shopping and are now focused internally on roster decisions they’ll have to make. We’ll take a look at some of the options teams will have this fall, starting with the Pacific Division.
Anaheim Ducks – 2015-16 division winners Anaheim were discussed at length last weekend, with seemingly way too many bodies than roster spots on their blueline. With between seven and ten players who deserve to be in the NHL next season (depending on how you feel about youngsters Shea Theodore and Andy Welinski), the team is still expected to make a move to shore up their forward group.
Los Angeles Kings – Like the Ducks, the Kings have quite a few options on their back-end after signing Tom Gilbert to a one-year contract. With four spots locked up between Drew Doughty, Jake Muzzin, Alec Martinez and Brayden McNabb, the last two will be some combination of Gilbert, veteran Rob Scuderi and Matt Greene. That’s to say nothing of NCAA transplant Paul LaDue who will figure into the Kings’ plans before long.
San Jose Sharks – It’s said that depth down the middle is a key to success in the NHL, and the Sharks have that in spades. It looks like they’ll go into next season with at least six forwards who are capable of playing center. Often last season the top line was made up of three of them, with Joe Thornton between Tomas Hertl and Joe Pavelski. If the team wants to move the young Hertl back to his natural position (as they did at points last season), they’ll have to find ice-time for him behind Thornton and Logan Couture.
Arizona Coyotes – The crunch has already started to affect Arizona, as the team bought out veteran Antoine Vermette recently to open up a spot for one of their young forwards. With Dylan Strome and Christian Dvorak both leaving junior after huge seasons, they’ll look to make the jump to the NHL this season. The Coyotes may ice one of the youngest lines in the league this year, if Strome ends up between Max Domi and Anthony Duclair like many have speculated. Another spot could open up if RFA Tobias Rieder ends up overseas next season, as has been rumored lately.
Calgary Flames – Will top pick Matthew Tkachuk break camp with the Flames, and where will he play? Many eyes will be focused on the second-generation NHLer this fall, as he tries to force his way onto the Flames roster. Otherwise, the Flames have some decisions to make on the blueline if Ladislav Smid declares himself healthy enough to start the season and Dennis Wideman remains on the roster. Jyrki Jokipakka hopes he did enough last season to deserve a spot, but if both veterans are around when October 12th roles around, he may find himself on the outside looking in.
Vancouver Canucks – The Canucks are one of the hardest teams to figure out in the league, as they seem caught somewhere between rebuilding and trying to contend. Outside of their top-four, it’ll be a battle for the defensemen in camp to lock up a spot. Luca Sbisa has a contract that will probably guarantee him a spot, but his diminished play and injury history makes him a poor choice for the Canucks. If they decide to contend, icing him every night ahead of younger, more effective defensemen seems unwise.
Edmonton Oilers – It’s been long said that the Oilers don’t have any defensemen, and while it may still be figuratively true based on the overall skill, the team actually has too many bodies for their back end under contract. After trading for Adam Larsson, the team has eight defenders worthy of NHL time, including Jordan Oesterle who many believe proved his ability last season. One of them though, former captain Andrew Ference, may be on his own way out as he has stated more than once he’s heading to retirement if the Oilers’ buy him out. They haven’t been able to yet because of Ference’s lingering injury, but the two sides should come to an agreement before camp.
West Notes: Blues, Horvat, Domi
When center David Backes left St. Louis to sign a five year, $30MM contract with Boston at the beginning of the month, he vacated the captaincy for the Blues in the process. Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch suggests that defenseman Alex Pietrangelo may be ready to take over the role.
Pietrangelo has been a mainstay on the back end for St. Louis for the past six seasons and has been among their leaders in ice time and points from the blueline in each year. In 2015-16, he served as an alternate captain and played in 73 games with the Blues, picking up 37 points while averaging 26:18 of ice time per game, the sixth highest average in the league.
Blues GM Doug Armstrong had plenty of good things to say about Pietrangelo when it comes to his leadership:
“He was an assistant captain at a young age and he has leadership qualities that we’ve seen. As he gets more and more comfortable in the leadership role he’s certainly growing into an elite player that has a presence on the ice.”
If the Blues decide to go with more of a veteran as their next captain, Alex Steen, who has spent the last nine seasons with St. Louis, is the other likely candidate for the post.
More from the Western Conference:
- In an interview with Ben Kuzma of the Vancouver Province, Canucks center Bo Horvat acknowledged that the plan last season was for him to ease into a second line role. However, multiple injuries to Brandon Sutter thrusted Horvat into that role quicker than planned which played a part in his early-season struggles. While he finished strong last year (27 of his 40 points came in the second half), Horvat may be pencilled in behind Sutter and Henrik Sedin on the depth chart to start next season.
- Coyotes forward Max Domi is a big fan of Arizona’s additions this offseason, telling TSN.ca that their moves have been “amazing”. The Coyotes have added blueliners Alex Goligoski and Luke Schenn as well as winger Jamie McGinn in the last month. Domi was Arizona’s top point getter amongst their forwards last season as a rookie, collecting 18 goals and 34 assists in 81 games. The 21 year old also believes the Coyotes can take another step forward in 2016-17 and reach the playoffs for the first time since 2012.