The Arizona Coyotes picked Dmitri Simashev and Daniil But in the first round of the 2023 NHL Draft, a risky but necessary move in the eyes of general manager Bill Armstrong.
The Arizona Coyotes made two bold moves selecting defenseman Dmitri Simashev at sixth overall and left winger Daniil But at 12th in the first round of the 2023 NHL Draft.
These two Russian prospects have a lot of raw potential but the picks still came as a bit of a shock. Despite the risk involved with these selections, Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong is not concerned and feels he made the right decision for the team down the road.
"Listen, there's always risk," Armstrong said. "You draft college guys and they don't report - there's a risk. Sometimes players get injured. So we took the two players on the board that we thought would fit our culture: Size, skill, compete and they're workers. Those guys come to the rink every day to make a difference."
Arizona certainly values size. Simashev stands at 6-foot-4 and weighs in at 198 pounds. Armstrong feels the 18-year-old’s stature on top of his skills were too much to pass up on.
"He's a physically dominant defenseman," Armstrong said. "We call him the unicorn of the draft because it's hard to find guys who can skate like that as a big man. We got to know him a little bit and fell in love with his personality on and off the ice. He has leadership capabilities, he's very engaging and very intriguing. You can't trade for a defenseman like that in the NHL so our thought process was to draft him and we like where we got him."
Similarly, But stands at a staggering 6-foot-5 and weighs 203 pounds. That sort of size is rare to find in a forward. Armstrong believes that the 18-year-old left winger compares to a couple notable players already in the NHL.
"He's like a Tage Thompson/Alex Tuch player," Armstrong said. "We love the compete in him and he's got that size. For us that size and skill factor is a big advantage for us."
Simashev and But are both locked in to contracts with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the KHL for the next two seasons. Patience is the key word for the Coyotes as they wait for their first-round prospects to develop properly and become eligible to play in the NHL.
"We’ve got so many picks and so many people filtering in, so we’re not hurrying to rush these guys because we don’t have enough prospects coming in," Armstrong said. "We’ve drafted six guys in the first round over the last three years and that’s unheard of. We’ve got prospects coming in that allows us to buy time for those guys."
The Coyotes are building a team and their plan is becoming more and more apparent through these drafts. While the team seems to be looking for young prospects with size, Arizona also wants players with the right character.
Draft rankings don’t tell the full story and Armstrong is building the Coyotes the way he wants to and feels is most beneficial for the team.
That is something that has to be respected.