With the Arizona Coyotes taking another step in their rebuild, general manger Bill Armstrong is confident on where the team is heading into the season.
The Arizona Coyotes are at an interesting place in their rebuild.
After years of finishing at the bottom of the Western Conference, it seems the Coyotes are finally trying to turn the page and become a more competitive team.
Arizona went out and signed forwards Alexander Kerfoot, Jason Zucker, Nick Bjugstad and Troy Stecher while also trading for defenseman Sean Durzi. General manager Bill Armstrong feels players are now more enticed to come to the Valley due to the culture shift that is taking place with the Coyotes.
“I think it's a combination of everything. I think it's the excitement that they get from the energy from the organization, from the coaching staff,” Armstrong said via NHL.com’s Jon Lane. “I think we practice different. We develop skills different. We warm up different than any other NHL team. The way that we do things behind the scenes and how much love we give to the players and making sure that they're at their peak, whether it's eating and our nutritionist, or our sports science guys, making sure that they know what they're eating, what time they need to be sleeping. It's a science behind the scenes, and I think that's spread throughout the NHL and that's why you can see guys wanting to come here.
“They see guys having success in the desert and they see the team taking the next step with a coaching staff that's changed our culture here. They get excited about that. That's why you see guys come back and that's why you see guys join us. They can feel the momentum slowly swinging and the amount of good young prospects that are being infused into this organization. There's an excitement around the Coyotes.”
While Armstsrong sees improvements being made this upcoming season, he also still knows the Coyotes are a young team so there will be struggles that they will have to be patient through and try to overcome.
“Everybody wants stability. That comes over time just with the fact of building chemistry with certain players. It's been a tough two years in the desert in terms of watching our team with the rebuild in place and taking bad contracts. Now it's getting to the good stuff,” Armstrong said. “Listen, we're going to have some challenges. We're going have some moments we're not very good, but we've got an ability now to go to into the ring from the first day of training camp. Now we can take that next step. The next step for us is trying to play meaningful games the whole year and push to see how good we can become.”
Even with some of the excitement surrounding the Coyotes, they still are in search of a permanent home in Arizona which clouds over the organization. However, Armstrong feels that this will not be a distraction for the team and hockey will remain the main focus.
“It's living in the moment now. I think what people don't understand is probably when you're down here, it's a little bit easier to ignore the noise because of the simple fact that when you're in here, it's an all-hockey environment,” Armstrong said. “You get locked into the team and you get locked into everybody's passion around the team starting with our coach, Andre Tourigny, and what he's done to help our culture down here. I think the players ignore the white noise because they're so dug into making themselves better and making the team better. They're involved in the process, and they're locked into becoming the best we can be down here.”