An inside look at the Arizona Coyotes' draft experience

[TheScorpion]

Max Domi is also a 9-goal scorer. Meanwhile, Alex Galchenyuk has scored 30 goals in a season.

Also, what in the world are you talking about?

Stepan trade, in a vacuum, may not have been too bad value wise but has to be considered an absolute massive loss for the Coyotes. DeAngelo is still up in the air as to what he'll become but likely depth player, however, that first round pick would have easily been in the lottery territory without Raanta. So giving up on a chance to draft Hischier, Patrick, Pettersson etc.. Those are players that could have been built around, instead they got a couple ~30 year olds for a couple years. And they've wasted them so far finishing at the bottom of the league.

Uh. So, the pick that they gave up in that trade was the seventh-overall pick in the 2017 draft. They traded that pick... at the 2017 draft. So... Raanta's play had nothing to do with it. The value of that pick had already been determined by the time that Chayka made the trade. The Rangers picked Lias Andersson with that pick. Hischier, Patrick, and Petterson would have been LONG gone by the time that the Coyotes would have been on the clock. Meanwhile, Andersson's developmental path has been bumpy, DeAngelo looks horrible, and the Coyotes got a 1C and a younger 1G to replace Smith.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

Max Domi is also a 9-goal scorer. Meanwhile, Alex Galchenyuk has scored 30 three times.

No he hasn't....

[TheScorpion]

Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen

No he hasn't....

Yikes, don't know why I said that, just mistyped I guess. However, he's scored 30 once, while Max Domi has scored 10 goals once. Also, four of Domi's nine goals last year were empty-netters.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen

No he hasn't....

One time 30, one time 20, 4 times < 20.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

I think that building a winner on a budget would be extremely difficult (i.e. hardest job in the NHL), but that doesn't really apply yet. They are in a total tear-down rebuild, so he hasn't really been constrained by budgets yet.

And again, I think rebuilds are easy: "look... we're younger and we drafted some promising kids."

Well yeah, but turning them into a competitive team is a different ballgame. See Edmonton, Buffalo, etc.

Even with Calgary, we're now seeing how difficult that next phase is. Drafting Tkachuks is easy (and is largely determinant on luck), but even once you get a Gaudreau and a Monahan and a Tkachuk - or a MCDavid - you still have to build a team around them. Much more difficult.

Agree with you that he really hasn't accomplished anything yet at all. But he is certainly going about reshaping his roster rather aggressively and different than some teams who just suck and draft high.

I guess those that like his moves are projecting anticipated future results which after two years on the job seems like about all you can do.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

Yikes, don't know why I said that, just mistyped I guess. However, he's scored 30 once, while Max Domi has scored 10 goals once. Also, four of Domi's nine goals last year were empty-netters.

Not a hill I feel the need to die on for sure, think Montreal lost the trade. But it's not like Domi was chopped liver. He had an 18 goal season, "averaged" 50 points over his career. Again, the point was moreso that it was a trade that wasn't possible without Domi being drafted before he became a GM and should probably just wait for the actual season to see how well it turns out for both teams.

I think the bigger concern is the moneypuck aspect that Chayka was suppose to come in and help make the small-budget team competitive. Now take a look at their 2018-2019 defense:

OEL-8.25M
Goligoski - 5.5M
Hjalmarsson - 5M
Demers - 4M
Connauton - 1.4M
Chychrun - ???
Oesterle/depth - ~1M

That's over 25M without Chychrun signed. Tampa's defense currently has the highest cap-hit this year with 26M. Of course a lot will change before next season, but that's going to be one of, if not the, highest paid defense in the league next year if they don't make a move. For a team that doesn't like spending to the cap floor, spending half your budget on a below average defense doesn't seem like a successful formula.

[Hey Connor, It's Mess]

Another team in our division is quickly becoming one of your favourite teams?

[YYC in LAX]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

The Coyotes are quickly becoming one of my favourite teams.

That's bold.

[CaptainCrunch]

The Yotes are nobody's favorite team, not even in Arizona.


They should rename them the who's.


dude 1 - Hey Arizona sporting fan are you going to go see the local hockey team play?


Dude 2 - Who?


Dude 1 - Shut up man this isn't an abbot and costello bit


Dude 2 - what?

[Fire]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

The Coyotes are quickly becoming one of my favourite teams.

Do you like coolers?

[Samonadreau]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

Weird comment, Cap. Here were the Coyotes when Chayka took over:

Domi - Hanzal - Doan
Duclair - Vermette - Rieder
Tanguay - Richardson - Martinook
Tikhonov - Gordon - Chipchura
Downie

OEL - Stone
Grossmann - Murphy
Dahlbeck - Michalek
Connauton

Smith
Domingue

And here they are, now:

Keller - Stepan - Panik
Perlini - Galchenyuk - Grabner
Strome - Dvorak - Fischer
Crouse - Richardson - Hinostroza
Cousins

OEL - Demers
Chychrun - Hjalmarsson
Goligoski - Connauton
Oesterle

Raanta
Kuemper

The first one of those teams is a cellar-dweller. The second one is a possible playoff team with terrific depth, and that's not just on paper. They were much improved down the stretch last year and I can definitely see that improving still.

Aside from an upgraded (expensive) blue line those 2 teams look like a wash to me. And that's after having high draft picks to draft/trade with.

Chayka has done fine but let's not get ahead of ourselves and declare them a playoff team. They were last in west last season.

[heep223]

The team still sucks. Sure they have lots of potential but it’s easy to have potential when you have tons of draft picks every year.

[gunnner]

[QUOTE=getbak;6755382]Interesting. It makes it seem like there might have been a deal to be had if Tkachuk had still been on the board when their pick came up. If so, you'd have to think that Dougie would have been going to the Yotes.

It's weird to think about how everything else would have played out then.[/QUOTE


That was my hope heading into draft day, Hamilton for Tkachuk deal. If it was there for the taking would you rather have that than the deal we made?

[CaptainCrunch]

What else would we get for Hamilton beyond the Tkatchuk deal, because I wouldn't make it one for one.


Personally I like the deal that we did better then that.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by getbak

Interesting. It makes it seem like there might have been a deal to be had if Tkachuk had still been on the board when their pick came up. If so, you'd have to think that Dougie would have been going to the Yotes.

It's weird to think about how everything else would have played out then.

Originally Posted by gunnner

That was my hope heading into draft day, Hamilton for Tkachuk deal. If it was there for the taking would you rather have that than the deal we made?

Not a chance.

I don't believe that B. Tkachuk will ever produce at the same level offensively as his big brother, and in the deal the Flames made they acquired two core pieces. It is possible that the lesser Tkachuk is never even as good as Lindholm, to say nothing of Hanifin.

[ForeverFlameFan]

Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen

I strongly disagree. We are talking about the same Coyotes team that finished last in the west this year, right? The team that has gotten worse each year since he became GM, right?

I guess give him credit for drafting Keller. Would have been a disaster if he drafted A. Nylander instead, but really Mckenzie had Keller 8th overall, the Coyotes selected him 7th overall. Not exactly going off the board there.

Stepan trade, in a vacuum, may not have been too bad value wise but has to be considered an absolute massive loss for the Coyotes. DeAngelo is still up in the air as to what he'll become but likely depth player, however, that first round pick would have easily been in the lottery territory without Raanta. So giving up on a chance to draft Hischier, Patrick, Pettersson etc.. Those are players that could have been built around, instead they got a couple ~30 year olds for a couple years. And they've wasted them so far finishing at the bottom of the league.

Panik trade, not bad, but having him on the top line is not a good sign.

Perlini was drafted before he became a GM. As was the entirety of the third line. Can't give him really any credit there, even if you thought those lines were notable.

Galchenyuk, a 50 point player, was acquired through Domi, a 50 point player. We'll have to see who actually wins this trade, but he's not able to make it at all without his predecessor drafting Domi. So can't give him much credit here unless Galchenyuk explodes offensively.

A NTC to Grabner who sucked with the Devils could easily come back to haunt them, will need to wait on that.

The defense you actually do have to give him quite a bit of credit for the players themselves. Of course getting OEL to sign is huge, even if maybe a different GM would have been able to sign him anyways. Hjalmarsson and Demers trades were good in terms of on-ice contributions and of course having Chychrun drop to his lap has paid early dividends. But that's an expensive blueline. By next season that is going to cost them close to 30M. Take a look at that blueline, that easily could be the highest paid blueline in the league next year, (on a budget team) and try to argue it's one of the best. You can't. It's not anywhere close. And Hjalmarsson, Demers, Goligoski also have NTC to boot.

I'd like for you to take over the GM of the Coyotes when they had little to no assets enticing for any of the other 29 teams at the time Chayka was hired. He has slowly but surely turned the Coyotes around. You criticize him for becoming last in the standings again, but that is also because this guy is literally having to rebuild the Coyotes from scratch. It also does not help that Raanta was out for quite a while towards the beginning of the season. They dug themselves a hole when they put confidence in Domingue, a borderline backup.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Not a chance.

I don't believe that B. Tkachuk will ever produce at the same level offensively as his big brother, and in the deal the Flames made they acquired two core pieces. It is possible that the lesser Tkachuk is never even as good as Lindholm, to say nothing of Hanifin.

I guess the question is what Hamilton, Ferland and Fox would have fetched from the Coyotes. Obviously it should have been much more than B. Tkachuk.

I can't even discern what Hamilton on his own would have returned from the Hurricanes.

[SuperMatt18]

Yeah I think Chayka has been fine.

Probably gets too much credit from analytics folks, and too much hate from the "eye test is all that matters" crowd.

Overall the team has gotten younger, is very talented, and is still working on a very strict budget.

[The Boy Wonder]

Signing OEL was a major Coup...

Still not gonna hold my breath on this team being anything more than mediocre for a while.

Stepan is not a 1C on any playoff team.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by gunnner

That was my hope heading into draft day, Hamilton for Tkachuk deal. If it was there for the taking would you rather have that than the deal we made?

This would have been a horrible trade as you'd be paying that sky high price to get a top ten pick so you'd be reversing what a Hamilton/Tkachuk trade should look like.

It should be Hamilton for Brady +, but it would have been Hamilton + for Brady, who's stats point to a less offensive version of Matthew.

It would have been the epitome of a GM falling in love with a player and paying whatever it takes to get him.