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Pacific Notes: Meruelo, Frolik, Talbot

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Arizona Coyotes fans got good news last week when Alex Meruelo closed on his sale of the franchise and the expects to keep the franchise in Arizona. The new owner must still figure out whether the team can get a new arena and make his claim to keep the team in the state of Arizona a reality.

Arizona Sports 98.7’s Matt Layman notes five takeaways from his press conference last week, including the owner’s desire to win. However, perhaps the most interesting fact is that Meruelo is known for buying failed businesses and making them viable once again. While Arizona isn’t a failing franchise, the team has been losing money and Meruelo might be the perfect owner to take over a struggling franchise that many feel cannot survive where it is, hence the rumors that the team will eventually make its way to Houston.

At the end of the day whether you’re flipping pizzas or you’re hitting hockey pucks, it’s a business and it must be treated as one. Hockey is a sport, but it’s also a business. I’ve had a lot experience growing businesses and turning them around. For 40 years I’ve been doing this. I’ve had a lot of success. I’ve got good people that I work with that I consider to be my team and my family and that makes me who I am today.

  • The Calgary Flames may have $7.76MM in projected cap room still, but with Matthew Tkachuk and Andrew Mangiapane still unsigned, the team will be forced to offload a contract to bring both forwards, especially Tkachuk under contract. While there has been plenty of talk of Calgary trading away a defenseman such as T.J. Brodie or Travis Hamonic, The Athletic’s Kent Wilson (subscription required) writes that another option would be Michael Frolik. The middle-six forward is still just 31 and is coming off a 16-goal season, which might make him more palatable than many of the veteran free-agent options remaining on the market. Frolik has one year remaining at $4.3MM. Wilson suggests that Ottawa might make a good fit. The Senators are way under the cap, but Frolik will actually be paid just $3MM in salary despite his cap hit number, something that the budget-focused Senators love to acquire. The scribe adds the New Jersey Devils, Columbus Blue Jackets and Philadelphia Flyers as alternative options for Calgary.
  • Sportsnet’s Luke Fox writes that Calgary Flames new goaltender Cam Talbot hopes to prove his value to his new team. Talbot, who signed on to be a veteran backup to David Rittich this summer, struggled in his final two seasons with the Edmonton Oilers before finally being traded at the trade deadline. Talbot said he hoped that a trade to Philadelphia would be the reset of his career that would allow him to bounce back. However, Talbot played just three and a half games with Philadelphia as the backup to Carter Hart and never got a chance to prove his value. Now in Calgary, Talbot said he hopes to be more than just a backup to Rittich and hopes to split time with him evenly. “[Rittich] played extremely well last year and kinda took that spot and earned his right to battle for it. I’m going in. I want to complement him,” says Talbot.

Adin Hill Agrees To Sign Qualifying Offer With Arizona Coyotes

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The Arizona Coyotes have brought back their third-string goaltender as Adin Hill has agreed to accept his qualifying offer and will sign a one-year deal, according to The Athletic’s Craig Morgan. The Coyotes have announced the trade, reporting that it is a two-way contract. Since Hill made $675K last season, his qualifying offer is for five percent more, meaning Hill should make just under $709K. While his qualifying offer expired on July 15, the offer can be extended by the team.

Hill showed some flashes of potential last season after being recalled and pulled into active duty after Arizona saw both their goalies, Antti Raanta and Darcy Kuemper, injured in the middle of the season. Hill immediately took over, winning four straight games, which included one shutout and two one-goal performances. He continued to show impressive skills for six more games before teams began to figure things out. The 23-year-old finished with a 2.76 GAA and a .901 save percentage in 13 appearances before returning to Tucson in the AHL.

With Raanta and Kuemper expected back to tandem the net for the Coyotes, Hill is expected to work on his skills with the Roadrunners and is the likely callup if one of the injury-prone goalies gets hurt and if he can find some consistency, could eventually be a long-term option for the club, especially considering that Kuemper is in the final year of a two-year deal he signed back in 2018. Raanta is also only two years away from unrestricted free agency, so a good season by Hill could eventually vault him into the mix.

New Owner Alex Meruelo Promises To Keep Coyotes In Arizona

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New majority owner of the Arizona Coyotes Alex Meruelo made a great first impression on his fan base today. Meruelo took the stage this afternoon at Gila River Arena and, among other things, promised that he would keep the Coyotes in Arizona:

I am committed to stay here. I will do everything I can in my heart, and in my hard work to make sure that we can make it viable…I will not stop until we bring a Stanley Cup to the Valley.

Given the constant issues that the Coyotes franchise has had with both ownership turnover and attendance, the team has continually been rumored to be a candidate to re-locate to a new market. Although NHL expansion has quieted some of these whispers, cities like Houston and Quebec City remain interested in adding an NHL club and the Coyotes are always considered the top candidate. However, the league has remained dedicated to the state and the new owner has joined in.

Meruelo spoke openly and honestly in his press conference about many things, including his childhood dreams of owning a sports franchise and his role as the NHL’s first Hispanic owner. His commitment to keep the Coyotes in Arizona seems just as legitimate. While that doesn’t necessarily mean that the team will remain in Glendale, having previously expressed a desire to move to a new arena – an idea backed by the league – it seems that Arizona fans can rest easy for a while longer that their team isn’t going the way of the Thrashers.

Ownership Change Official For Arizona Coyotes

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The NHL announced today that the Arizona Coyotes franchise has now formally changed hands. Alex Meruelo has purchased a majority share in the team from Andrew Barroway, though Barroway will retain a minority stake. This sale was reported much earlier this offseason, but is now official.

The Coyotes have a long and varied history of ownership, including former Phoenix Suns owner Jerry Colangelo, Wayne Gretzky and the NHL themselves at different times. Barroway purchased a majority stake in the team in 2014 after a failing bid to get into ownership with the New York Islanders. He bought out the remaining investors in 2017, a move that was quickly followed by a change in leadership for the team, with Gary Drummond and Dave Tippett both leaving the organization entirely. There were also some hard on-ice decisions made, including leaving Shane Doan unsigned and trading Mike Smith to the Calgary Flames.

In 2017 there was also a real push from the league to find a way to move Arizona to a new arena, as commissioner Gary Bettman penned a letter explaining to legislators that “the Coyotes cannot and will not remain in Glendale.” The battle for a move out of Glendale will now fall to the new ownership.

Obviously, this transfer of ownership will also bring up the long standing issue of franchise relocation. Not just finding a new arena for the Coyotes in Phoenix, but the chance that the team could move to another city and state entirely. With the announcement that the team will be moving into the Central Division once the Seattle expansion franchise is operational, many had speculated on a potential move to Houston. When the NBA’s Houston Rockets were sold to Tilman Fertitta in October of 2017, he immediately expressed interest in bringing the NHL to the city.

The NHL however, for all the strong language about not remaining in Glendale, has always strongly supported the Coyotes staying in the Arizona market. Relocation is a last resort for the league—and currently off the table. Hopefully new ownership will be able to finally find some financial and organizational stability for the franchise.

Arizona Coyotes Announce ECHL Affiliate

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What’s old is new in terms of ECHL affiliates for the Arizona Coyotes, as they have reached a new two-year agreement with the Rapid City Rush. The Rush served as the Coyotes ECHL affiliate from 2015-17. Arizona assistant GM Steve Sullivan released a statement on the renewed partnership:

We are excited to once again partner with the Rapid City Rush as our ECHL affiliate. The Rush are a first class organization with a passionate fan base. We look forward to working with owners Jeff Dickerson and TJ Puchyr (Spire Sports and Entertainment) as well as owner Scott Mueller and Head Coach Daniel Tetrault.

The Coyotes were affiliated with the Norfolk Admirals last season and the Fort Wayne Komets the year prior, but will now get at least a little bit of stability with the two-year deal. Like any ECHL affiliation, the Coyotes can use the Rush for their raw or long-shot prospects as well as house their young goaltenders to give them some stable playing time.

Pacific Notes: Coyotes Defense, Carter, Flames, Lucic

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The Arizona Coyotes have one of the highest payrolls among defensemen, the second highest in the league at $29.54MM. Yet despite their success defensively, the blueline’s offensive production just isn’t there. The Coyotes defensemen had the seventh-worst goal production in the league and were fourth-worst in points.

The Coyotes hope that much of the defense’s struggles can be accounted by the massive amount of injuries the team suffered throughout the year and while many of those injuries came from the forwards, the changes in personnel definitely had a part to play in the team’s struggles to score goals. The team also were without defenseman Jason Demers for all but 35 games last season and lost Jakob Chychrun for 29 games as well, according to The Athletic’s Craig Morgan (subscription required).

“We played defensive and there were so many injuries that we were forced to, but for the most part during the season, we directed the pace of the game and the scoring chances,” said Demers. “It’s just that once you get behind the eight ball and it has been 20, 30 games of not scoring, you tense up a little bit and you might force things you wouldn’t normally force or look for the perfect play when the perfect play is just getting it to the net.”

The team hopes that new assistant coach Phil Housley can help out and get the defense to start producing some offense, his forte when he was a player. The hope is that with a healthy blueline, the team should be able to take that next step.

  • The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta appeared on NHL Tonight recently and stated that the Los Angeles Kings have tried to be active on the trade market, reporting that the Kings were talking to the Arizona Coyotes before the draft about potentially sending Jeff Carter there. Of course that was before Arizona turned around and traded for Pittsburgh’s Phil Kessel instead. However, trading off Carter may have been more of a challenge as the 34-year-old who scored just 13 goals and 33 points last season still has three years at $5.27MM AAV and obviously was no where near as productive as Kessel who finished last season with 82 points.
  • NBC Sports’ James O’Brien writes that despite moving James Neal Friday, the team’s salary cap situation hasn’t improved much at all. In fact, the Flames saved just $500K after they traded Neal for Milan Lucic, which will require Calgary to make more moves this summer. The team has just $9.97MM in cap space and still have to sign several restricted free agents, including Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett, David Rittich and Andrew Mangiapane.
  • Edmonton Journal’s Jim Matheson writes that another victory in the Edmonton Oilers of Lucic to the Calgary Flames for Neal is that Neal doesn’t have a no-trade clause and will not have to be protected in two years for the Seattle expansion draft. However, the Calgary Flames do have to worry about the fact that Lucic has a no-movement clause and will have to be protected, which could be a major issue in two years unless they can convince him to waive that clause for the expansion draft.

Edmonton Oilers Sign Josh Archibald

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The Edmonton Oilers have signed forward Josh Archibald to a one-year contract. Archibald became an unrestricted free agent when the Arizona Coyotes decided not to issue him a qualifying offer earlier this offseason. The contract will pay him $1MM according to PuckPedia.

Archibald, 26, will be the latest low-cost winger the Oilers will try and squeeze some offensive production out of, after he scored 12 goals and 22 points in 68 games for the Coyotes last season. In 121 NHL games the former Pittsburgh Penguins forward has 36 points, with a lot more experience on the penalty kill than the powerplay. Archibald may very well get a chance to find some chemistry with Edmonton’s top centers though, as his only real competition on the right wing currently is Alex Chiasson, Zack Kassian and perhaps Sam Gagner or Markus Granlund, depending on how the team deploys their forward group. With Jesse Puljujarvi still not looking like he’ll play for Edmonton this season, that group certainly doesn’t have a clear order in terms of skill level.

While Archibald is a useful player at the bottom of a lineup that can help out in a variety of ways, his signing does seem a bit puzzling when the Oilers have little cap space and several options for the bottom-six. It doesn’t come with a ton of risk as the entire deal can be buried in the minor leagues if necessary, but it’s hard to imagine that Archibald will be a real difference-maker on this team. With 23 players now projected for the NHL roster, the team has just under $3MM in remaining cap space and a roster that looks generally the same as last season. Obviously the hope is that head coach Dave Tippett can turn things around, or that riding out some of these contracts will put them in a better position down the road.

Archibald will be an unrestricted free agent after the contract expires.

Coyotes Re-Sign Dysin Mayo

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Arizona has locked up one of their remaining free agents, announcing the re-signing of defenseman Dysin Mayo to a one-year, two-way contract.  CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that the deal is worth $715K in the NHL and $70K in the minors.

The 22-year-old wrapped up his entry-level contract last season, suiting up in a career-high 67 games with their AHL affiliate in Tuscon.  However, he made a very limited impact offensively, collecting just two goals and four assists on the season which had him on the bubble to receive a qualifying offer.  Mayo was a productive blueliner at the WHL level, recording at least 35 points in each of his three full seasons but that has yet to translate to the pros.

With Arizona’s depth on the back end, it’s hard to envision Mayo realistically pushing for a roster spot with the Coyotes in training camp.  Instead, he’ll likely be exposed to waivers and if he clears, he’ll once again serve as injury depth in Tuscon.  The team now has 46 players under contract and they still need to re-sign goalie Adin Hill; RFA center Emil Pettersson has already signed in Sweden for next season.

Chicago Shopping Brendan Perlini

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There’s been no shortage of turnover in Chicago this summer, with the team acquiring Olli Maatta, Calvin de Haan, Andrew Shaw, and Alexander Nylander, signing Robin Lehner, and drafting Kirby Dach, while watching Dominik Kahun, John Hayden, Gustav Forsling, Marcus Kruger, and Henri Jokiharju depart. Yet, the re-shaping of the roster may not be done yet. Blackhawks insider Jay Zawaski of the Madhouse Chicago Hockey Podcast reports that the team is actively shopping young forward Brendan Perlini. 

Perlini, 23, is currently a restricted free agent looking for his first deal following the expiration of his entry-level contract. While the big winger was trending towards a nice pay day through his first two NHL seasons with the Arizona Coyotes, the status quo is much less clear since Perlini was dealt to the Blackhawks this past season alongside Dylan Strome. While Strome took off in Chicago, Perlini struggled and only began to find his game late in the season. Altogether, Perlini recorded just 15 points in more than half a season with the Blackhawks and never looked to fully gain the trust of the coaching staff. While it’s obvious that this could cause a rift between the team and player when it comes to contract negotiations, there was never any indication that it went so far as Chicago seeking to trade Perlini rather than re-sign him, at least until now.

With very little salary cap space remaining – approximately $2.04MM according to CapFriendly – and a lineup that still needs three more forwards, the Blackhawks have to be both creative and careful with how they fill out the roster. If the team is struggling to convince Perlini, a player they might not be sold on, to take a deal that fits within their cap constraints, then shopping him makes sense. On the other hand, they could be giving up too quickly on a young player who dealt with a change of scenery but has previously looked like a future 20-goal scorer. It never hurts to test the trade waters and see what the return may be for a player, but Chicago will have to make sure that they’re moving Perlini for the right reasons and for a fair return or risk ending up on the wrong side of a potential deal.

Minor Transactions: 7/13/19

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While there are still a few notable unrestricted free agents left on the open market, some of the lesser-known ones continue to find new homes.  We’ll keep tabs on those minor moves here.

  • Coyotes UFA goaltender Hunter Miska has signed a one year contract with the Colorado Eagles, the AHL affiliate of the Avalanche announced. The 24-year-old had a 3.08 GAA with a .895 SV% in 25 appearances with Arizona’s AHL team last season while also making his NHL debut.  However, they opted not to tender him a qualifying offer last month.
  • Blackhawks goaltending prospect Ivan Nalimov has been dealt in the KHL as SKA St. Petersburg announced that they’ve acquired him from HK Sochi in exchange for the rights to Arizona goalie prospect Ivan Prosvetov. Chicago has expressed an interest in signing Nalimov in the past but the opportunity to play for a top team at home may be difficult for him to pass up.  Meanwhile, Prosvetov has already signed his entry-level deal but with several other goalies under contract already, the Coyotes could opt to loan him to Sochi for next season.
  • A report from the Russian website, hawk.ru (translation required), KHL’s Avangard Omsk has acquired the rights to defenseman Gustav Forsling from Sochi, whose rights are currently owned by the Carolina Hurricanes. The 23-year-old was acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks as part of the Calvin de Haan trade last month. The blueliner is a restricted free agent. Forsling has played 84 games in two seasons with the Blackhawks but might have a hard time cracking the Hurricanes’ defensive corps this season.

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