Mammoth Rumors

Rangers Have Looked Into Phil Kessel

March 18, 2022 at 7:53 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 7 Comments

The Rangers are among the teams that have done some research into Coyotes winger Phil Kessel, ESPN’s Emily Kaplan reports. The 34-year-old is in the final season of his contract with Arizona carrying a $6.8MM cap hit, one that few playoff-bound teams other than New York can actually afford without requiring retention. Kessel has just six goals in 60 games but has chipped in with 31 assists to sit fourth in team scoring. Kaplan notes that Arizona’s asking price earlier in the season was a third-round pick which would be a reasonable price to pay to add some extra offensive depth on the wing. The Rangers already made a move like that this week with the acquisition of Frank Vatrano but they still have cap and roster space to add more help on that front.

Arizona Coyotes Unlikely To Deal Jakob Chychrun Before Deadline

March 17, 2022 at 3:39 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson 3 Comments

With just four days remaining before the Trade Deadline, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports that there hasn’t been much progress made on an extension between the Anaheim Ducks and defenseman Hampus Lindholm, and it’s unclear at this point whether general manager Pat Verbeek will circle back to try and work out a deal. Seravalli also relays that the current asking price for Lindholm is a first-round pick, a top prospect, and another asset. While Lindholm is still a quality defenseman after battling back from injury trouble the last few seasons, that’s an exorbitant asking price for a rental player with just 22 points in 61 games on the season. He’s second among Ducks blueliners in terms of ice time per game, being eclipsed by almost two minutes per game by Cam Fowler. Verbeek is playing a dangerous game here, and will likely have to up his extension offer or lower his asking price in order to retain value for Lindholm either way.

As the Trade Deadline creeps closer, some more notes from the trade market:

Bally Sports Midwest’s Andy Strickland says it’s “looking more and more like” the Arizona Coyotes won’t be dealing defenseman Jakob Chychrun prior to the Trade Deadline. The much-talked-about defenseman is currently on the shelf with an ankle injury, which originally put his availability in question. Strickland says it doesn’t mean that the team is going to hang onto him long-term, though, as there’s still a high potential for Chychrun to get moved over the summer, potentially prior to the 2022 NHL Draft.
The San Jose Sharks haven’t had any talks on a new deal for pending unrestricted free agent Alexander Barabanov, per The Mercury News’ Curtis Pashelka. Assistant general manager Joe Will, who’s in effect the team’s interim GM while Doug Wilson is away on a medical leave of absence, knows that “[the team] is trying to replenish” and is listening to offers on many other pending UFAs as well. Barabanov’s continued a strong end to the 2020-21 campaign after being acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs, posting 30 points in 51 games while receiving top-six minutes. It could be a bit of buyer beware in this case, though, as many advanced metrics suggest the 27-year-old’s production can be strongly attributed to playing with Tomas Hertl.
The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta reports conversation surrounding Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Calvin de Haan is heating up, and specifically names the Toronto Maple Leafs as a team in the mix to acquire him. De Haan has just five points on the year, but he’s still an extremely capable two-way defenseman who’s helped stop the bleeding defensively this year in Chicago. He’s a solid case of a buy-low candidate who could flourish on a better team, which is exactly the type of player the Maple Leafs have targeted in recent months.

Jakob Chychrun Out Two To Four Weeks

March 14, 2022 at 6:58 pm CDT | by Zach Leach 9 Comments

No player has been talked about as much or as long this season as Arizona Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun. The 23-year-old is a supremely skilled blue liner coming off of a 41-point season and carrying a very palatable $4.6MM cap hit through the 2024-25 season. Yet, the rebuilding ’Yotes have reportedly been willing to trade him for the right price in hopes of drawing a return that would better suit their timeline for contention than Chychrun’s contract. By no means was Arizona shopping the young star, but they were willing to listen and wait for a godfather offer.

Well, that offer may not be coming this season. Chychrun was injured on Saturday night against the Boston Bruins, falling awkwardly against the board following a Derek Forbort check. Chychrun left the game and did not return and yesterday the team announced that he was flying back to Glendale to be examined by team doctors. Those test results have now come back and the team has announced that Chychrun will miss the next two to four weeks with an undisclosed lower-body injury.

This is far from a worst-case scenario for the Coyotes – or Chychrun’s suitors – and doesn’t completely rule out a trade occurring before the deadline next Monday. After all, a Chychrun acquisition is a long-term move rather than a rental deal. The talented rearguard avoided long-term injury and that is all that matters in the big picture. However, the injury does substantially lessen the odds of a deal being made this week. Most teams eyeing Chychrun are contenders or at least battling for a playoff spot and will think twice about paying full price for an injured player guaranteed to miss time down the stretch. As such, Arizona is not going to accept a reduced offer for their most valuable trade chip just because he could miss a few weeks of his remaining three plus years under contract. The Coyotes are under no obligation or time pressure to trade Chychrun and will wait as long as it takes to be blown away by an offer.

In the meantime, Chychrun is still on the active roster for the time being, merely scratched from the lineup for Monday night’s game. Whether he remains on the roster or is moved to the injured reserve, Chychrun’s recovery timeline implies that he will not play again before the deadline. Interested teams have seen plenty of him this year to make a decision before the deadline, and Arizona will still be open to an offer they can’t refuse, but in all likelihood the Chychrun saga will continue into the offseason or beyond.

Chychrun Injured Against Bruins, Will Not Return

March 12, 2022 at 8:55 pm CDT | by John Gilroy 12 Comments

The Arizona Coyotes announced that defenseman Jakob Chychrun would not return for the Coyotes tonight after suffering a lower-body injury against the Boston Bruins. Interestingly, this was Chychrun’s second trip to the dressing room of the evening, after leaving the ice earlier in the game and returning, before taking a hit from Boston’s Derek Forbort. As a result of the hit, Chychrun fell awkwardly into the boards.

The injury carries multiple layers of concern for the Coyoytes. While the team is first and foremost concerned with the health of Chychrun, he is one of Arizona’s most important players. It’s also no secret that Chychrun’s name has been front and center among potential trade bait as the NHL’s trade deadline nears, and any long-term injury to Chychrun could drastically affect his market.

In the 32 Thoughts segment of Hockey Night in Canada, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman added another interesting name to the trade deadline discussion: John Marino. Friedman mentions Marino as a potential option for the Vancouver Canucks, who are searching for an impact defenseman. Friedman adds, however, that the Pittsburgh Penguins very much like Marino and would certainly prefer to keep him. The idea of trading Marino might seem misplaced, especially with the Penguins sitting in second place in the Metropolitan Division, however Vancouver could utilize one of their forward assets such as J.T. Miller or Brock Boeser to try and acquire Marino from Pittsburgh. Even if the young defenseman could bring the Penguins a player like Boeser, Marino is signed through the 2026-27 season at a very reasonable $4.4MM per season, something the salary-cap-mindful Penguins may not want to part with.
Joining Friedman on Hockey Night in Canada was Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek, who took a name out of the deadline conversation: John Klingberg. Marek mentions that with Miro Heiskanen expected to miss time with mononucleosis, Klingberg may now be more valuable to the Stars than what they could get back for him. Rumors had started to circulate around Klingberg as a potential trade chip when it appeared the Stars would not be able to re-sign the pending UFA. While the talented defenseman would likely bring back a large return for Dallas, the team is in the midst of a playoff push and could use Klingberg for its own benefit. Even if Klingberg leaves via free agency in the summer, he could function as a rental for Dallas, who may have sought to replace him anyways if they were to trade him away. With nine days to go until the NHL’s trade deadline, things can surely change, but for now, it appears Klingberg is staying put.
ESPN’s Emily Kaplan reports that New York Rangers’ goaltender Alexandar Georgiev has switched agents ahead of the trade deadline. Georgiev is now represented by Gerry Johannson of TSC Hockey. It is not immediately clear why Georgiev changed his representation, but the switch is noteworthy considering Georgiev is one of the more likely names to be moved ahead of the trade deadline.

Christian Fischer Day-To-Day

March 12, 2022 at 3:58 pm CDT | by John Gilroy Leave a Comment

The Edmonton Oilers announced that they have officially activated defenseman Tyson Barrie off of injured reserve ahead of tonight’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Barrie had been placed on IR on March 7th, retroactive to March 5th, missing the past three games. Adding Barrie back into the lineup will give the Oilers more of an offensive punch on their back end and deepen their defensive core once again.

For Barrie, this trip to the IR was his third absence from the Oilers roster in 2022, having previously spent time on IR in late January and early February, as well as time in COVID protocol in January. Barrie has enjoyed a bit of a resurgence to his career since joining Edmonton before the 2020-21 season and signing a three-year, $13.5MM contract with the Oilers this past July. The Oilers will certainly count on Barrie to remain healthy down the stretch, as the team will need all it can get to secure a playoff spot in the incredibly tight Western Conference.

Sam Carchidi of Philly Hockey Now reports that Philadelphia Flyers’ forward Scott Laughton is expected to remain out of the lineup indefinitely after suffering a concussion in the Flyers loss to the Florida Panthers on Thursday. Losing Laughton is another tough blow to the Flyers, who have struggled with injuries the entire season. Particularly, as the team has struggled in the standings, Laughton has remained a steady force for the team, having a career year with 28 points in 54 games, and has also been a core piece in the locker room. No timetable has been given on Laughton’s return, however concussion related injuries can vary and considering the Flyers’ struggles, there is no reason to rush the forward back.
Arizona Coyotes’ head coach Andre Tourigny told reporters, including PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan, that forward Christian Fischer is day-to-day and is unlikely to play in tonight’s game against the Boston Bruins (Tweet). Tourigny also added that if Fischer does in fact sit, Hudson Fasching will play. Fischer has 10 points in 49 games this season for Arizona.

Armstrong Predicting A Fairly Quiet Deadline; Langhamer Signs Extension In Finland

March 11, 2022 at 9:00 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 4 Comments

The Sharks are set to get some much-needed good news on the injury front when it comes to their goaltending as Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News relays that Adin Hill is likely to start tomorrow against Los Angeles. He has missed the last seven weeks with a lower-body injury and had posted a 2.78 GAA along with a .901 SV% in 24 games.

Meanwhile, James Reimer has resumed on-ice workouts and could be cleared to return at some point next week from his own lower-body injury sustained at the beginning of the month. Since then, the Sharks have gone with veteran Alex Stalock and prospect Zachary Sawchenko who picked up his first career NHL victory on Thursday.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

Coyotes GM Bill Armstrong told NHL.com’s Nick Cotsonika that he anticipates the team making one or two small deals by the trade deadline. Arizona has made it known that they’re willing to utilize their cap space to yield other assets as they’ve done several times already over the past year but they’re trying to space out their draft picks. To that end, Armstrong indicated that they’ve nearly accumulated enough picks for 2024 and will soon be starting to work on adding more selections for the 2025 draft.
Still with Arizona, Coyotes goaltender Marek Langhamer has signed a one-year extension with Ilves, the Finnish team announced. The Coyotes still hold the rights to the 27-year-old when they tendered him a qualifying offer that went unaccepted in 2018. Those rights will expire in July and with this deal, it’s clear that Arizona will be losing him in a few months.
Penguins prospect goaltender Filip Lindberg is out for the rest of the season, notes Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The 23-year-old was drafted by Minnesota but signed with Pittsburgh after three stellar seasons at UMass (Amherst). However, he suffered an ankle injury in November in just his seventh professional game and it appears it’s significant enough that he won’t return for the stretch run.

Coyotes' Asking Price For Jakob Chychrun Increasing

March 11, 2022 at 3:50 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson 8 Comments

It appears as though Arizona Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun’s hot streak couldn’t be timed any better. Chychrun’s play has come alive in the past week or so, along with the rest of the team, as the much-discussed defenseman now has eight points in his last five games, including an overtime winner last night against the Toronto Maple Leafs. ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski reports, in conversation with an unnamed NHL general manager, that the Coyotes are “swinging for the fences” on Chychrun’s ask. There appears to be an increased probability that the price could be even higher than the previously reported ask of a first-round pick and two top prospects, something that’s evidenced by the laundry list of teams that have been rumored in recent days to be interested in Chychrun’s services. Any acquisition of that magnitude for the Coyotes would jumpstart a prospect pool that’s already on the rise, likely bringing in one or two players that could be in the NHL lineup next season. It’s worth noting that the team already has eight selections in the first two rounds of this year’s draft, a number that could quickly rise to nine if they acquire a fourth first-round pick in this deal.

More trade notes, this time from British Columbia:

Sportsnet 590’s Nick Kypreos suggests that defenseman Tyler Myers could be on the trading block for the Vancouver Canucks. With rumors surrounding another trade piece in J.T. Miller continuing to die down, the Canucks could likely look to move a variety of other players to gain assets this Trade Deadline. Myers does carry a 10-team no-trade list and has a rather bloated $6MM cap hit for two more seasons following this one, but he’s improved defensively a lot this season, especially after the team’s coaching change. Myers’ unexpected resurgence is likely to pay dividends for the team no matter what if he keeps it up through the remainder of his deal, as a solid run of play before the deadline will only increase his potential trade value for any takers.
The Fourth Period’s Irfaan Gaffar also reports another Tyler could be on the move out of Vancouver, as he says the Tampa Bay Lightning have shown “a lot of interest” in Tyler Motte. He’s a small acquisition that the Lightning could potentially actually have the cap flexibility to make, as Motte carries a friendly cap hit of $1.225MM. He has seven goals and 14 points in 43 games this season after missing some time to start the year with injury and would add a more veteran presence to a Tampa Bay lineup that’s relied more this season on inexperienced youth than in years past.

Trade Deadline Primer: Arizona Coyotes

March 11, 2022 at 10:20 am CDT | by Gavin Lee 5 Comments

As we enter the middle of March, the trade deadline is inching closer. Where does each team stand and what moves should they be looking to make? We continue our look around the league with the Arizona Coyotes.

Bill Armstrong has been general manager of the Coyotes for one year, five months, and 22 days. In that time, he has already made 15 trades, changing the look of his roster dramatically. Derek Stepan, Adin Hill, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Conor Garland, Darcy Kuemper, Christian Dvorak, Ryan Dzingel, Ilya Lyubushkin–all out. Andrew Ladd, Shayne Gostisbehere, Loui Eriksson, Antoine Roussel, Jay Beagle, Anton Stralman, Nick Ritchie–all in. It’s easy to spot the way that Armstrong is approaching his full-scale rebuild, by sending out anyone that carries value, and bringing back contracts that teams don’t want. It’ll be the exact same strategy at this deadline, which opens up a whole number of possibilities for the suddenly-hot Coyotes.

Record

18-35-4, 8th in the Central

Deadline Status

Seller/Broker

Deadline Cap Space

$26.02MM today, $32.53MM in full-season space by the deadline, 2/3 retention slots used, 44/50 contracts used per CapFriendly

Upcoming Draft Picks

2022: ARI 1st, MON/CAR 1st*, COL 1st^, ARI 2nd, NYI 2nd, PHI 2nd, SJS 2nd, VAN 2nd, ARI 3rd, ARI 4th, ARI 5th, ARI 6th
2023: ARI 1st, ARI 2nd, ARI 3rd, NYI 3rd**, ARI 4th, ARI 5th, ARI 6th, VAN 7th

*As per the terms of the offseason Dvorak trade, Montreal will give Arizona the better of Montreal/Carolina’s first-round picks, unless either or both are inside the top-10, in which case Montreal will receive the better of the two picks.

^If Colorado’s pick is in the top-10, the Avalanche will send their 2023 pick instead.

**Pick not transferred if Ladd plays in any professional games in 2022-23 while under his current contract, or retires prior to the conclusion of the 2022-23 regular season.

Trade Chips

If the Coyotes wanted to, they have the draft capital to acquire just about any player on the market. Their three first-round picks and five second-round picks will make them a frequent flyer to the podium in Montreal this summer, adding a huge amount of talent to the prospect pool. Giving up those draft picks at this point isn’t the strategy though, as Arizona is still in tear-down mode wherever possible.

No one represents that strategy more than Jakob Chychrun, who has been on the market all season despite being just 23 and under a relatively inexpensive contract for another three years. If the Coyotes are willing to trade Chychrun, they’re not even considering a quick rebuild with the assets they’ve already acquired. Among those things they could move at the deadline, the young defenseman is obviously the most attractive and could bring back a package that includes multiple high-end assets. Still, they likely will be targeting prospects that still have years left on their entry-level contracts (or perhaps those who haven’t even signed yet) instead of struggling first-round picks that are already around Chychrun’s age, meaning this is a hard trade for many teams in the league to actually accomplish. If he is moved before the deadline, it will be a blockbuster deal.

Beyond Chychrun there is still lots left on the Coyotes’ roster that could be of interest. Phil Kessel, finally in the last season of that eight-year, $64MM contract signed with Toronto in 2013, is a potential target for teams looking to upgrade their second or third line. Whatever you think of Kessel, he’s still an incredibly dangerous forward off the rush and has 78 points in 113 games since the beginning of last season, while playing on a bad Coyotes team. Kessel’s contract already has some salary retention from when the Maple Leafs traded it, meaning it couldn’t go through the double-retention that some other big names will this spring. A single contract can only be retained on twice, meaning the lowest his cap hit can go from this point is $3.4MM.

Speaking of salary retention, that would normally be a perfect option for the Coyotes, but they’ve already used two of their three slots. They’ll have to be quite picky about where that last one is used at the deadline in order to maximize the return. Gostisbehere, for instance, could be an option after he has rediscovered his game in the desert. The 28-year-old defenseman cost Philadelphia two draft picks to get rid of in the summer, but after 36 points in 57 games perhaps there will be another team interested–especially if he comes at just a $2.25MM cap hit through next season, should Arizona retain 50 percent.

Karel Vejmelka is another one of the interesting names to watch, should the goaltending market continue to improve in the next ten days. The 25-year-old netminder has been a revelation this season but is also just a year away from unrestricted free agency. Just yesterday his name was brought up by Chris Johnston of TSN, who opined that if the two sides couldn’t work out an extension, the Coyotes could potentially move on from the goaltender before the deadline.

Others To Watch For: F Johan Larsson (IR), G Scott Wedgewood

Team Needs

1) Draft Picks: It’s simple, the Coyotes are trying to build through the draft. A 22-year-old player that’s headed for restricted free agency soon might be attractive to most teams, but for one that’s about to slash revenues by moving into a tiny building and isn’t expected to really compete for the playoffs in the next few years, a prospect that will head back to junior, college, or overseas is actually the better route. The Coyotes have a ton for this season and for 2024 but note that they have only two selections in the first two rounds of 2023–a draft that has some exceptional talent. Don’t be surprised to see them add to their 2023 collection so that the wave of prospects doesn’t have a gap.

2) Flippable Contracts: It’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Coyotes flip players like Gostisbehere and Ritchie after building them back up with prime deployment. It’s a great strategy for a team that doesn’t really care about wins and losses, and one that has worked well for other franchises in the past. Just yesterday, the idea of acquiring Andreas Johnsson was brought up by Darren Dreger of TSN because of how front-loaded his contract is. The Coyotes could nab a player like that, pay him for 12 months (while giving him powerplay and top-six time) and then flip him for even more next deadline when every team in the league can afford the decreased cap hit. While some might say that the New Jersey Devils aren’t the team to target with that kind of a strategy, there are plenty of other opportunities just like it out there.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Coyotes Linked To Johnsson, Could Trade Vejmelka

March 10, 2022 at 7:30 pm CDT | by Ethan Hetu 16 Comments

With the salary cap set to stay flat for the near future, the battle for most NHL clubs is being able to fit their payrolls under that cap’s $81.5MM upper limit. For the Arizona Coyotes, though, the upcoming battle seems to be managing to ice a roster above the NHL’s salary floor. Per CapFriendly, the Coyotes’ projected cap hit for the 2022 season currently stands at only $37.9MM, and the team’s only major pending free agents are Lawson Crouse and Phil Kessel, two players who very well could be traded before this season’s trade deadline. Essentially, the Coyotes are going to need to add some significant salaries to their cap sheet to get above the cap floor, which currently sits at just over $60MM.

The Coyotes’ need to add salary to reach the cap floor is made more complicated by the team’s arena situation and the finances involved with it. The team is already not known as a financial powerhouse and has historically struggled with inconsistent ownership. The team recently agreed to a deal to play in Arizona State University’s new multi-purpose arena project, settling there on an “indefinite” basis until the team can secure a new long-term home. With a home arena capacity set to be under 5,000, and the team already receiving the maximum amount of support from the league’s revenue-sharing system, it stands to reason that budgets could be tight for the Coyotes moving forward. This means that their effort to get above the salary cap floor for next season could be more complicated than simply doling out a few big contracts. The team may be looking to get a bit more creative, and to take advantage of how the NHL calculates salary cap hits.

The NHL calculates a player’s cap hit through the average annual value of the contract. So if a player signs a 2-year contract worth a total of $10MM, the yearly cap hit is going to be $5MM, regardless of how the individual years’ salaries to be paid out are structured. This means that there are players on teams’ rosters with higher cap hits than actual dollars due to be paid to them for that season, and it seems as though the Coyotes could target those players to be able to get above the cap floor without needing to pay the full $60MM or so that the cap floor is set at.

One of those players with a cap number exceeding actual cash owed is Devils winger Andreas Johnsson. Johnsson, 27, is set to have a base salary of only $750k next season. His signing bonus is set at $1.75MM, but his cap hit is going to be $3.4MM. This makes Johnsson an ideal candidate for them, and TSN’s Darren Dreger links Johnsson with the Coyotes for this exact purpose. Johnsson could be a fit with the Coyotes for not only all the financial reasons previously mentioned but also for his play on the ice. Johnsson has 11 goals and 28 points this season, and his 28 points would make him the fourth-highest scorer on the Coyotes. He is an accomplished offensive player at lower levels who has flashed talent at the NHL level, and has scored 20 goals before. The Coyotes went all-in on mining value from unconventional sources when building their roster this season, as evidenced by the out-of-nowhere success of Travis Boyd. Acquiring Johnsson, as Dreger reported they could, would represent a continuation of that philosophy for GM Bill Armstrong.

In more news about the Coyotes coming from TSN’s Insider Trading panel, TSN’s Chris Johnston reports that the Coyotes are “going to have to look” at potential trades for goaltender Karel Vejmelka if the team is unable to reach a deal with him on an extension. Vejmelka is one year away from being an unrestricted free agent, and although the Coyotes, per Johnston, really like Vejmelka and are engaged in trying to get him signed to an extension, their organizational mandate to accumulate as much long-term value as possible could mean that Vejmelka gets dealt to a goaltending-needy team. On a Coyotes team that has struggled all season, Vejmelka has been occasionally brilliant and posted decent overall numbers, with a 3.38 goals-against average and a .904 save percentage. Again, the Coyotes team Vejmelka plays behind has been among the league’s worst this season, so while these numbers aren’t impressive on their own they are more impressive with proper context. From what Johnston is reporting, it seems as though the Coyotes genuinely do want to keep Vejmelka as a first priority, but the realities facing the team mean they could be forced to deal him.
Pierre LeBrun of TSN has reported that the Toronto Maple Leafs “have spoken” with the Chicago Blackhawks about the 2020-21 Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. Toronto’s goaltending has faltered in recent weeks, with starter Jack Campbell struggling to find his game and backup Petr Mrazek enduring season-long issues. Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas has repeatedly reiterated his faith in the team’s goaltending tandem, but this reported “due diligence” conversation between the two clubs is an indication that perhaps the goaltending situation in Toronto is not as settled as it may seem. LeBrun does note that Toronto is unlikely to be Fleury’s ideal trade destination if he elects to be moved. But regardless of Fleury’s specific situation, this reported contact between the Maple Leafs and Blackhawks is an indication that the Maple Leafs are potentially searching for upgrades in net, and if they end up doing so their pursuit could drastically change the trade market, as the pool of available goaltenders is generally believed to be thin.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Antoine Roussel Out Six Weeks With Lower-Body Injury

March 8, 2022 at 11:12 am CDT | by Gavin Lee Leave a Comment

The Arizona Coyotes will be without Antoine Roussel for a good chunk of the remaining season, as the veteran forward has been ruled out for the next six weeks with a lower-body injury. The Coyotes recalled Hudson Fasching yesterday, a move that would likely be explained by Roussel’s absence.

While it’s not like the Coyotes were going to be competing for the playoffs, losing Roussel does still hurt given his status as a pending free agent. The team could have potentially flipped him at the deadline for an asset of some sort (even a late-round pick), given his experience and defensive ability. The 32-year-old certainly isn’t the player that was a rock-solid bottom-sixer for the Dallas Stars several years ago, posting double-digit goal totals in four consecutive seasons, but he’s still a decent penalty killing option that brings more than 600 games of NHL experience to the table.

With a six-week timeline, there likely isn’t a market for his services unless it’s as a long-term injury salary cap play. An acquiring team could potentially grab him, move him to LTIR and keep him out until the playoffs–six weeks from now gets him relatively close to the end of the current schedule–where his cap wouldn’t be an issue any longer. The Toronto Maple Leafs did a similar thing with Coyotes’ teammate Riley Nash last season, giving the Columbus Blue Jackets a conditional seventh-round pick for the injured forward, only to have him back in the lineup during their first-round playoff series.

Still, Roussel was never going to generate a ton of interest given how much his offensive game has deteriorated, meaning this is really nothing more than an opportunity for the younger players in Arizona to get some additional minutes. An unrestricted free agent in the summer, Roussel’s future in the NHL looks tenuous at best after recording just three goals and six points in 47 games this season.

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