2022 trade deadline primer: Arizona Coyotes

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

$26.02M today, $32.53M 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, $64M 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 $3.4M.

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 $2.25M cap hit through next season — should Arizona retain 50%.

Karel Vejmelka is another one of the interesting names to watch, should the goaltending market continue to improve in the next 10 days. The 25-year-old netminder has been a revelation this season but is also just a year away from unrestricted free agency. Just Thursday 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 Thursday, 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 power-play 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.

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More must-reads:

• Coyotes’ Antoine Roussel out six weeks with lower-body injury
• Phil Kessel continues ironman streak, promptly leaves for birth of child
• The ‘Most passing yards for every NFL franchise’ quiz

Related slideshow: Who has scored the most goals in a season for every NHL franchise? (Provided by Yardbarker)

Who has scored the most goals in a season for every NHL franchise?

The goal for NHL teams is to, well, score goals. If you are an NHL forward, one of your key jobs is to light the lamp for your squad. Some players have proven particularly good for it. This includes truly elite goal scorers, and also guys who had unexpected-prolific seasons. Here are the players who have scored the most goals in a single season for every NHL franchise, from the Original Six to the one in Vegas.

Anaheim Ducks: Teemu Selanne

This is the first, but not the last, time we will see Selanne on this list. Let’s just say the Finnish Flash hit the ground running in his NHL career. Selanne scored 52 goals in the 1997-98 season, and when he scored 47 the next year he became the first player to win the Maurice Richard Trophy for having the most goals on the season. The Hall of Famer is arguably the Ducks’ all-time greatest player.

Arizona Coyotes: Teemu Selanne

Hey, that name seems familiar. Remember, we are talking franchise records, and the original Winnipeg Jets became the Phoenix (now Arizona) Coyotes. While other leagues have given franchise’s back their history when they return (a la the Cleveland Browns and Charlotte Hornets), that isn’t the case for the new Jets. Anyway, Selanne scored 76 goals in his rookie season (1992-93). Yes, he won the Calder Trophy.

Boston Bruins: Phil Esposito

Once upon a time, scoring 50 goals in a season was a huge coup, Esposito was a big part in raising the bar when it came to scoring goals. Espo scored over 60 goals four times for the Bruins, but his top campaign came in the 1970-71 season when he scored 76 goals. Somehow, he finished second in the Hart voting, but it was to teammate Bobby Orr.

Buffalo Sabres: Alexander Mogilny

When we told you that Selanne scored 76 goals in the 1992-93 season, you likely assumed that he led the league in goals. In actuality, he merely tied for that distinction. Yes, somehow in one season both the Finnish Flash and Mogilny each scored exactly 76 goals. That was an incredible number for the young forward, but he never quite lived up to that again. In a 16-year career, Mogilny finished with 473 goals.

Calgary Flames: Lanny McDonald

When you think of Lanny McDonald, you probably think of him and his incredible mustache lifting the Cup for the Flames in 1989. By then, he was 35 and more a veteran presence than anything else. Back in his prime, though, McDonald was quite the goal scorer. In the 1982-83 campaign, he racked up 66 goals, which is the Flames’ record.

Carolina Hurricanes: Blaine Stoughton

This is the first name on this list that may leave you scratching your head. That is unless you were a Hartford Whalers fan in the 1980s. Stoughton came over from the WHA in the 1979-80 season and immediately made a splash, scoring 56 goals. He would have one more 50-goal season in the NHL but also be retired at 30 after the 1983-84 campaign.

Chicago Blackhawks: Bobby Hull

The Hulls are the top father-and-son goal-scoring duo in NHL history, and Bobby has the honor of holding the record for lighting the lamp for Chicago. The elder Hall led the league in goals four times in a row, culminating with 58 goals in the 1968-69 seasons. When he was older, Hull joined the WHA’s Winnipeg Jets and scored 77 goals, but those numbers don’t count here, obviously.

Colorado Avalanche: Michel Goulet

You may think of players like Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, and Nathan MacKinnon, but don’t forget about the Wild West days of the NHL in the 1980s, when goals were scored left and right. That’s not to knock Goulet, a Hall of Famer who played for the Quebec Nordiques. He racked up 456 goals in 11 seasons with Quebec, including a 57-goal campaign in 1982-83.

Columbus Blue Jackets: Rick Nash and Cam Atkinson

We want to give Nash the greater nod here, given that he scored 41 goals in the 2003-04 season, during the heyday of the trap and offensive suppression. Back then, 41 goals led the league. When Atkinson scored 41 in the 2018-19 season, he didn’t even finish in the top five. Still an impressive year, of course.

Dallas Stars: Dino Ciccarelli and Brian Bellows

Ciccarelli has been talked about as an underrated goal scorer for so long he’s probably properly rated now. In only his second NHL season (1981-82) he scored 55 goals for the Minnesota North Stars out of the 608 he ended up with. Bellows is a bit more of a surprise, even if he was the second-overall pick in 1982. He only ever made three All-Star Games, but he did score 55 in the 1989-90 season.

Detroit Red Wings: Steve Yzerman

“Mr. Hockey” Gordie Howe has the most career goals for the Red Wings, naturally, but the Captain Stevie Y is the one who had the best campaign in franchise history. In the 1988-89 seasons, Yzerman racked up a whopping 65 goals and 155 points, though scoring was high enough neither led the league. He didn’t win the Hart, but he did win the Pearson as voted on by the players.

Edmonton Oilers: Wayne Gretzky

Gretzky has the two highest-scoring seasons in NHL history, and they both came with the Oilers. When you’ve scored 87 goals in a season and it isn’t your best year, that’s truly astounding. Also a reminder of how easy it used to be to score goals in the NHL. Despite that fact, you have to be a once-in-a-lifetime talent to score 92 goals in one season, which “The Great One” did in the 1981-82 campaign.

Florida Panthers: Pavel Bure

Before injuries hindered his career, Bure was a truly incredible player. The “Russian Rocket” had some great years in Vancouver, but then he moved on to Florida and carried that franchise. In his first full season where he scored 58 goals, and the next season (2000-01) he bested that by one to set the new Panthers franchise record. Both years he led the league in goals.

Los Angeles Kings: Bernie Nicholls

No, it isn’t Gretzky. It isn’t even Luc Robitaille or Marcel Dionne. Instead of one of those Hall of Famers, it’s Nicholls who has the franchise record. Gretzky joined the Kings for the 1988-89 season, and Bernie was the big benefactor. Playing alongside the best playmaker of all-time, Nicholls scored 70 goals and added 80 assists. Yes, he had 150 points. Gretzky, of course, had 168.

Minnesota Wild: Marian Gaborik and Eric Staal

In 2007-08, Gaborik scored 42 goals for the Wild in his final full season with the team. After he moved to the Rangers he would score 42 goals in his first season there. Early in his career, Staal scored 44 goals for the Hurricanes, but by the time he had joined the Wild, he was a 33-year-old thought of as a depth player. Then he scored 42 goals out of nowhere. It was an incredible comeback.

Montreal Canadiens: Steve Shutt and Guy Lafleur

We’ve got back-to-back campaigns here! Shutt lit the lamp 60 times in the 1976-77 season, and the very next year Lafleur repeated that trick. Imagine having two guys who can score 60 goals on the team at the same time. Is it surprising the Habs won four-straight Stanley Cups to end the ‘70s?

Nashville Predators: Viktor Arvidsson

Sure, the Predators haven’t been around for that long, as an expansion team from the end of the ‘90s, but their franchise goal-scoring record is still a little lackluster. Arvidsson is a solid player, but the fact his 34 goals in the 2018-19 season is the best year for any Predators goal scorer is a bit of a surprise. In time, we expect this record to fall. We can’t say the same about the Oilers’ record.

New Jersey Devils: Brian Gionta

What got into Gionta in the 2005-06 season? He scored 48 goals that year, the first season after the NHL lost a campaign to the lockout. It was the only time he scored more than 30 goals in a season, let alone 40. Hey, he’ll always have that season, and it’s still the Devils’ record.

New York Islanders: Mike Bossy

It’s not unreasonable to wonder if Bossy and not Gretzky would have the goal-scoring record if injuries hadn’t cut his career short. Case in point, he only played in 10 seasons and still finished with 573 goals. He scored at least 50 goals in nine of those campaigns. His best year? That would have been in the 1978-79 season when he scored 69 goals.

New York Rangers: Jaromir Jagr

Jagr racked up Hart Trophies and Art Ross Trophies, but interestingly he never led the NHL in goals scored. That’s despite the fact he scored 766 goals in his career, third-most in NHL history. After the lockout year (which robbed Jagr of who knows how many goals), he joined the Rangers and tallied 54 goals, a new franchise record.

Ottawa Senators: Dany Heatley

Heatley liked scoring 50 goals so much he did it twice. In his first two seasons as a Senator – 2005-06 and 2006-07, Heatley scored 50 goals on the dot. He also had over 100 points in both of these campaigns. While his peak would be over fairly fast, it’s a reminder of just how skilled Heatley was at his pinnacle.

Philadelphia Flyers: Reggie Leach

Leach, somewhat famously, is the only forward to ever win the Conn Smythe for a team that didn’t win the Stanley Cup. That’s what happens when you score 19 goals in 16 playoff games. This was a continuation of his regular-season campaign. In the 1975-76 season, Leach scored 61 goals, which was good enough to lead the NHL.

Pittsburgh Penguins: Mario Lemieux

A big reason why Jagr never led the NHL in goals is that he spent many years as a teammate of Lemieux, one of the best players to ever lace up skates. He has three Harts, two Conn Smythes, and six Art Rosses. Lemieux scored 69 goals or more a staggering four times in his career. The peak came in the 1988-89 season, though, when he managed 85 goals, a number only two players have topped.

San Jose Sharks: Jonathan Cheechoo

Joe Thornton is an elite playmaker, and Cheechoo certainly knows that. He had 37 career goals going into the 2005-06 season. Then, out of nowhere, he scored 56 goals to lead the league. Cheechoo retired with 170 career goals. This one season, a Sharks record, represents one-third of his career goals, an incredible stat.

St. Louis Blues: Brett Hull

Only Gretzky has lit the lamp more in a single season. Hull had three seasons in a row for the Blues with 70 goals or more. In the middle campaign of that bunch, 1990-91, Hull tallied 86 goals. That’s the kind of number we will never see again. Bobby was a great goal scorer, but Brett was even better.

Tampa Bay Lightning: Steven Stamkos

Injuries and poor luck have kept Stamkos from truly reached his full potential, but early in his career, he showed why he was the first-overall pick and viewed as a franchise changer. Stamkos has led the league in goals twice, and when he scored 60 in the 2011-12 season it put him into truly rarified air, especially for a player from this millennium.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Rick Vaive

Vaive, far from a famous name, was one of those guys who racked up goals and penalty minutes in equal measure. In 1981-82, when he scored a franchise-record 54 goals, Vaive also had 157 penalty minutes. Imagine how many goals he could have managed had he stayed out of the box.

Vancouver Canucks: Pavel Bure

We’re back with the Russian Rocket, and like Heatley, before him, he’s tied with himself for a franchise record. However, for as good as Heatley was, he was never quite on Bure’s level. In back-to-back seasons (1992-93 and 1993-94) Bure notched 60 goals. There’s a reason he’s in the Hall of Fame even with a truncated career. Few have ever scored goals with as much gusto as Bure.

Vegas Golden Knights: William Karlsson

The Golden Knights have only been around for three seasons, so there has not been much time to set records. And yet, Vegas’ franchise record still beats a couple of teams. Karlsson stunned by scoring 43 goals in 2017-18, the Knights’ inaugural campaign. Wild Bill had 18 goals in three NHL seasons before that. While the Swede hasn’t lived up to that number since he did score 24 goals in his follow-up season.

Washington Capitals: Alex Ovechkin

Given how hard it is to score goals now relative to the ‘80s and early ‘90s, some argue that Ovechkin is the greatest goal scorer of all time. He’s notched 706 career goals and has lead the league in that category a whopping nine times. Fifty goals has proven to be nothing to Ovi, but in his best year (2007-08) he notched 65 goals, which you could consider a record of the modern era.

Winnipeg Jets: Ilya Kovalchuk

Yes, we have to talk Atlanta Thrashers. The Thrashers were an ignominious NHL franchise prior to moving to Winnipeg and giving Manitoba the Jets back. If not for Kovalchuk, they would have had basically nothing. They did have Kovy, though, and he scored 52 goals in both the 2005-06 and 2007-08 seasons.