The Coyotes two recent buyouts suggests the team is looking to be more aggressive this offseason.
Are the Arizona Coyotes finally ready to turn the page on their long rebuild?
The Coyotes have only made the playoffs once in the past 11 seasons but that could all change next year. After the buyouts of both Zack Kassian and Patrik Nemeth, it seems that Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong is looking to shed salary in order to give them flexibility this offseason.
“That approach is changing and I can tell you that there is an about face coming for the Arizona Coyotes, they are looking to be more competitive next year,” hockey insider Frank Seravalli said on Daily Faceoff Live. “They think that they can take the next step in the process. So first and most importantly what that means is they’re not going to be trading away pieces like Lawson Crouse and Nick Schmaltz that had made it to our trade targets board at varying points last season.”
While their 28-40-14 record may not have shown it, Arizona made some strides as a team this past season. Forwards such as Clayton Keller, Crouse and Schmaltz put their goalscoring abilities on display as all three of them recorded over 20 goals.
The Coyotes young core showed a ton of promise including Matias Maccelli, Barrett Hayton J.J. Moser and Juuso Valimaki.
Arizona also holds 12 total picks in the 2023 NHL Draft but Seravalli suggested the team could look to trade some of those picks to improve the roster for next season.
“I don’t think they’re going to be swinging that big,” Seravalli said on the Coyotes offseason plans. “I think they want to stack up a bunch of smaller moves together. I think they’d be in the market to listen for just about anything. The other thing Tyler, is they can’t actually make all of these picks, there’s no way to sign all of these players and not all of them are going to make it to the NHL anyways. So, to use some of them and trade some of them would be the smartest move for the Yotes.”
With more cap flexibility, the Coyotes are expected to target more quality players via the trade market and take advantage of teams that are strained by the cap.
“And what they’re targeting right now are players they consider to be good players that might be expendable in their current homes because those teams have some cap issues and are looking to dump salary,” TSN’s Chris Johnston said about the Coyotes offseason strategy. “This is a change in thinking for the Coyotes, who are looking to move into a more competitive window and try to bridge a gap here until their top prospects are ready to be NHL players.”
This offseason will be a huge turning point for the Coyotes organization to determine if they are ready to compete and become a playoff hockey team.