NHL Season Recap - Arizona Coyotes

Arizona Coyotes

2016-17 season: 30-42-10 Did not qualify for playoffs	Head Coach: Dave Tippett (2009)
6th  Place Pacific Division	General Manager: John Chayka (2016)
12th Place Western Conference	AHL Affiliate: Tucson Roadrunners ECHL Affiliate: Rapid City Rush
Draft Position: Will have the third greatest odds in the NHL Draft Lottery, the same as the Vegas Golden Knights

Top Forwards

POS	Age	Name	Points	Goals	Assists	+/-	CF%
RW	35	Radim Vrbata	55	20	35	-18	46.8
LW	21	Max Domi	38	9	29	-9	45.6
RW	24	Tobias Rieder	34	16	18	-8	45.5
LW	20	Christian Dvorak	33	15	18	7	43.9
RW	40	Shane Doan	27	6	21	-3	47.8
C	29	Martin Hanzal	26	16	10	-15	48.1
LW	24	Jordan Martinook	25	11	14	-8	46.0
LW	20	Brendan Perlini	21	14	7	-4	43.9
LW	28	Jamie McGinn	17	9	8	-23	45.2
LW	21	Anthony Duclair	15	5	10	-7	46.9

Top Defensemen

POS	Age	Name	Points	Goals	Assists	+/-	CF%
D	25	Oliver Ekman-Larsson	39	12	27	-25	45.4
D	31	Alex Goligoski	36	6	30	-9	45.9
D	18	Jakob Chychrun	20	7	13	-14	45.6
D	23	Connor Murphy	17	2	15	-13	46.0
D	21	Anthony DeAngelo	14	5	9	-13	46.0

Top Goaltenders

POS	Age	Name	Games Started	W/L Record	Shutouts	GAA	Save %
G	34	Mike Smith	55	19-26-9	3	2.92	.914
G	24	Louis Domingue	26	11-15-1	0	3.08	.908
G	30	Justin Peters	1	0-1-0	0	3.16	.900

Trades Made During the Season

What They Acquired	Team They Traded With	In Exchange For
C Peter Holland	Toronto Maple Leafs	Conditional 2018 6th RD Pick
F Brendan Ranford F Branden Troock	Dallas Stars	G Justin Peters D Justin Hache
F Mitchell Moroz	Edmonton Oilers	F Henrik Samuelsson
2018 3rd RD Pick Conditional 2018 5th RD Pick	Calgary Flames	D Michael Stone
2017 1st RD Pick 2018 2nd RD Pick Conditional 2019 4th RD Pick F Grayson Downing	Minnesota Wild	C Martin Hanzal F Ryan White 2017 4th RD Pick
Future Considerations	Minnesota Wild	F Teemu Pulkkinen
F Joe Whitney	Colorado Avalanche	F Brendan Ranford

Impending Free Agents

POS	Age	Name	2016-17 Cap Hit
RW	40	Shane Doan	$3,876,134
D	42	Chris Pronger	$4,941,429
RW	35	Radim Vrbata	$1,000,000
D	34	Zbynek Michalek	$3,200,000
D	25	Jarred Tinordi	$700,000
D	29	Jamie McBain	$650,000
LW	26	Craig Cunningham	$600,000
C	31	Chris Mueller	$600,000
LW	24	Garret Ross	$600,000
LW	29	Joe Whitney	$600,000
C	38	Pavel Datsyuk

Draft Needs

• Arizona has seven draft picks in the upcoming draft, including two first round picks (theirs and Minnesota's) and two third round picks.  The Coyotes seem to have a good deal of their core forwards taken care of with their draft picks; Clayton Keller and Dylan Strome have the potential to be future number one and two centers, Max Domi and Christian Dvorak are already proving that they are NHL-ready wings, and Tobias Rieder has seemingly come out of nowhere to be one of the most exciting, young players in the NHL.  What they need now are defensemen and goaltenders.  I think that the Coyotes go a little off the board and take either Miro Heiskanen or Timothy Liljegren, both European defensemen who have played in the professional leagues of Finland and Sweden, respectively.  Both have very high potential and are just 17 years old and could pair with Jakob Chychrun or Oliver Ekman-Larsson as the team's future top pairing defensemen.  I think these are the best bet for the Coyotes' future as the top five or six prospects are all centers and the team doesn't really need one.  I think they should take a chance on a goaltender at somepoint in the draft and see if he works out in the future.

What I Said About Them Before the Season

• I wrote that Arizona wouldn't be competitive this season but that it was okay for them to be mediocre.  They are in a rebuild, although it seems like they have been in the rebuild for over a decade now, and so it is okay for them to not be good right now.  I believed in the team's change in General Manger from Don Maloney to John Chayka, who was going all-in on analytics.  I was really excited about the upcoming offseason for the Coyotes, as they should have a lot of money to spend on free agents if they want to.

Success/Failure

• Failure - Although I never thought that the Coyotes would be overly competitive this season, I thought that there would be some growth in terms of puck possession.  GM John Chayka was billed as an analytics guru, and perhaps it will still work, but it didn't show up the first season. Arizona had no players with a positive Corsi, something that seems impossible and something that will have to change in order for the team to have success going forward.  Their defensemen really struggled this season, a good reason for the team being such a poor puck possession team. Their goaltending actually wasn't as bad as I originally thought it was, as Mike Smith was actually just below league average in terms of save percentage.  Their forward group is young, on the whole, but they performed fairly well in their first and second years in the league. Christian Dvorak, Tobias Rieder, and Max Domi have all stepped up as the future of the team and there is more help on the way with Clayton Keller in the minors, plus Dylan Strome, if he can finally live up to his potential.  John Chayka did do an excellent job at the few trades he was able to make around the trade deadline, moving Michael Stone to Calgary for two draft picks, and a package of Martin Hanzal and Ryan White for three draft picks.  It would have been nice to see them move Radim Vrbata and Shane Doan, but those trades were made difficult due to Doan's no-movement clause and Vrbata's performance bonuses.  All-in-all it was a season of growth for Arizona's roster as their young players took steps forward and the the roster group, as a whole, began a significant transition.  Perhaps the biggest failure for the team is that they still don't have a solution figured out with their arena and where they are going to play long-term. The NHL has made it known that they are committed to staying in the Phoenix area but that Glendale isn't working.  They had a deal worked out with Arizona State Univesity to share an ice rink but that fell through and currently they are back to square one.  They either need to figure out a way to get a new arena built or they need to seriously consider moving locations to, perhaps, Seattle or Quebec City.

Offseason Needs

• The Coyotes need to make a few personnel decisions with their own roster, including whether or not they re-sign Shane Doan and Radim Vrbata.  Doan didn't look to have much left this season so there is probably a strong chance that he retires this offseason.  I think that the team should re-sign Vrbata, as he loves playing in Arizona (for some reason), is a fairly consistent goalscorer, and would probably be cheap, although that isn't an issue for the team.  They also need to address their goaltending situation, where Mike Smith won't be around when the team is competitive again and is 35 years old already.  He also lacks consistency and doesn't exactly play a very structured game.  Since they probably don't have their future goaltender on their roster currently they will either need to draft one, which isn't always a guarantee, or try and acquire like the Maple Leafs did with Frederik Andersen.  The Coyotes don't really have anyone else left to trade in an attempt re-coup assets so from here on out they will have to rely on good scouting and drafting and trusting in their ability to develop prospects.  Jakob Chychrun and Clayton Keller should both begin molding into quality NHLers next season.  Max Domi, Tobias Rieder, and Christian Dvorak should be able to take the next step and develop into the next leaders of the team and become bonafide NHL scorers.  They will also need Oliver Ekman-Larsson, their franchise defenseman, to step up and become the player he is supposed to be. Having a solid draft in 2017 will go a long way to taking the next step in this rebuild.  The team has a solid core of young, talented players and should be more competitive next season if they can get better goaltending.  I also think that Dale Tippett's time as head coach of this team has run its course and perhaps now is the time to make the switch with coaches like Gerard Gallant and Darryl Sutter available.

*All stats and information came from hockey-reference.com, rosterresource.com, spotrac.com, NHL.com, hockeydb.com, capfriendly.com, and eliteprospects.com*