Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
Really? From which die-hard Coyotes fans are you getting your information? I personally don't know anything about Arizona's system—as I would expect from pretty much every other poster here, but in a brief overview of various prospect reports and rankings published in the summer I see that Nick Merkley and Kevin Bahl both rank consistently between #2–#5 in their system. For the sake of reference, Flames prospects franked by CP in that range include Dillon Dube, Oliver Kylington, Jakob Pelletier, and Matius Emilio Pettersen.
Please enlighten us about your great insight into Arizona's prospects.
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Sure. This is culled from playing golf with a couple of the executives from the Coyotes' front office, so take it with a grain of salt, especially when you have published rankings to fall back on.
The players they talked a lot about were Soderstrom and Hayton. They spoke very highly of two kids already on the team, and waiting for them to blossom, in Chychrun and Keller. They figure those two will be significant adds to the team as they adjust to the game. A kid they talked up was Cam Dineen, but I think this is because of the deal with Pittsburgh. The player they regret having to give up in the Kessel deal was P.O. Joseph. I'm pretty certain this is why they weren't prepared to go down that road again. Bahl was the only player discussed of the bodies that were moved, and the Coyotes did like him, but saw him as a project. Chara's name came up as a comparable, but with appropriate reverence to the player that Chara became, and acknowledging the long path it took for him to become the player he did. Merkley was not considered a player, and I specifically brought him up because of the Calgary connection. The belief was the clock had run out on him. He was not showing anything and was not in the conversation with players they had high hopes for.
Again, just skuttle butt from a couple of people from within the Coyotes' organization. Nothing official to be certain, and of course no where near as accurate as information posted by the likes of Pronman and his ilk.