What Your Team Is Thankful For: Arizona Coyotes
As the holiday season approaches, PHR will take a look at what teams are thankful for as the season heads towards the one-quarter mark. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. We’ll examine what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Arizona Coyotes.
What are the Coyotes most thankful for?
The flat salary cap.
When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the NHL to hit pause on the 2019-20 season, limited attendance figures across the league, and ended the natural rise of the salary cap, teams all around the league were stuck with bad contracts that they could no longer afford. Enter the Coyotes, who used their massive amount of cap space to leverage draft picks and futures out of several transactions this summer. The team now has eight picks in the first two rounds of the 2022 NHL Draft, while their actual salary expenditure comes nowhere near the collective cap hit of the players they accumulated.
Loui Eriksson, Antoine Roussel, Jay Beagle, Anton Stralman, Shayne Gostisbehere, and Andrew Ladd were all considered bad contracts, but the Coyotes welcomed them with open arms if it meant adding future assets. None of those deals last more than two seasons, meaning the Coyotes will be free to do as they like down the road.
Who are the Coyotes most thankful for?
It’s hard to know if Armstrong has what it takes to build a winner, but at least Coyotes fans have a clear plan to cheer for right now. The team is bad this season. It will probably be bad for the next several seasons. But that’s better than, as Armstrong put it recently, making the playoffs “once every four years — if lucky, get by a first round, but most times get beat out.”
There will be a lot of pressure on Armstrong to pick the right players with these draft picks he has accumulated, but don’t forget that the team brought in some help for the rookie GM. Director of amateur scouting Darryl Plandowski was one of Armstrong’s first hires, bringing him to Arizona after 12 years as the assistant director of amateur scouting with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Plandowski and Armstrong weren’t allowed to participate in the 2020 draft for Arizona because of their previous roles but were responsible for the 2021 group that was headlined by Dylan Guenther (9th overall) and Josh Doan (37th).
What would the Coyotes be even more thankful for?
A healthy deadline market.
There’s little doubt that Armstrong and company would be willing to trade almost anyone on the roster at this point, but their deadline prizes include Phil Kessel, Ryan Dzingel, and Ilya Lyubushkin, among others. Perhaps a player like Gostisbehere, who is experiencing a renaissance in the desert, would also fetch a price if the Coyotes retained salary, despite the Philadelphia Flyers spending two draft picks to get him off the books a few months ago. It’s really not about getting prime, franchise-changing assets at this deadline, but any small piece that can add to the pile would be appreciated.
One thing to note is that because they retained salary on Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Darcy Kuemper already, the Coyotes can’t just trade everyone at a slashed cap hit. They can only retain salary on one more contract for this season–though, Kuemper’s retention expires at the end of the year so they can do it a couple of times again in 2022-23.
What should be on the Coyotes’ Holiday Wish List?
Draft picks, draft picks, and maybe another few veterans?
Quite frankly, the Coyotes don’t want to be good next year. They don’t want to add a young player that breaks out in 2022-23 and leads them to challenge for a playoff spot. They’re stripping it down to the bones and with the 2023 Draft being so impressive (at least at the top), they want to be in the mix for the first-overall pick.
In fact, they actually may turn into something of a buyer at the deadline, if only to take on even more bad money in the form of overpaid veterans. A player like Brett Connolly, currently buried in the minor leagues for the Chicago Blackhawks but still costing them $2.375MM against the cap, is a perfect target for a team like the Coyotes. He could fill out a spot on their team next year without the risk of really turning them into a contender, and potentially even be flipped at the 2023 deadline if things go well. There are many players like this around the league, all which could be collected if Armstrong still wants to weaponize his cap space further.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
What Your Team Is Thankful For: Anaheim Ducks
As the holiday season approaches, PHR will take a look at what teams are thankful for as the season heads towards the one-quarter mark. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. We’ll examine what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Anaheim Ducks.
What are the Ducks most thankful for?
The light at the end of the tunnel. It has been a few rough years for Anaheim as they haven’t even come close to a playoff spot in each of the last three years. However, those struggles have yielded some promising prospects, headlined by centers Trevor Zegras plus Mason McTavish and defenseman Jamie Drysdale. Those are three strong building blocks after not really being able to develop any in-house over the past few years. Are they ready to vault themselves back into consistent playoff contention yet? Probably not but there is certainly a roadmap to getting there with their promising young core.
Who are the Ducks most thankful for?
Since being held off the scoresheet in the opening game of the season, the 24-year-old has recorded at least a point in 16 straight contests. That’s impressive for anyone but especially for a player who had only reached 16 points in a single season once. Yes, it had been a particularly quiet first few seasons for him despite the fact that Terry lit up the scoresheet in college with Denver but all of a sudden, he has grabbed hold of a spot on the top line and gone with it. His dozen goals have helped propel the Ducks into the top five in goals scored, a mark that hardly anyone would have seen coming. Is this sustainable to the point where he can join the other top prospects as a piece to build around? That’s the big question from a long-term perspective but for now, Anaheim’s just enjoying the ride.
What would the Ducks be even more thankful for?
A return to form for Max Comtois in the second half. It has not been a fun season for the 22-year-old after he led Anaheim in scoring last season, earning himself a two-year deal at just over $2MM in the process. He’s not a pure power forward but brings enough physicality with some scoring touch to make him a key part of their attack.
But things haven’t gone well at all this season. Comtois has just one assist in 13 games, has been scratched, and is now out until probably January as he recovers from a broken hand. The first half has been a complete write-off but if they’re going to hang around the playoff mix, they’ll need him to be the impact player he was last season.
What should be on the Ducks’ Holiday Wish List?
Since ownership has already acknowledged that their GM search will likely go into the offseason, that chair isn’t getting permanently filled over the next few weeks. But the key item on interim GM Jeff Solomon’s wish list will be defensive stability.
In terms of the current roster, there is a need to add with both Simon Benoit and Josh Mahura both better suited for depth roles and right now, one of them is in the lineup on a regular basis when everyone’s healthy. Adding a veteran defender, particularly one that can play in the top four when injuries strike, would be a good addition for the Ducks.
But stability also extends beyond this season. Hampus Lindholm and Josh Manson are both pending unrestricted free agents. Getting one or both of them signed would certainly go a long way towards giving them some more defensive certainty but finding the right price point to sway them away from the open market will cost a pretty penny. There’s also the potential that one or both are moved to avoid the risk of losing them for nothing.
It won’t be easy but Solomon needs to find a way to retain or replace those two veterans, especially since Anaheim’s prospect depth is largely littered with forwards beyond Drysdale; it is an area of need long-term. That’s a tall task for anyone let alone an interim GM but securing the future of their back end will go a long way towards securing their future as a team on the rise.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.