Coyotes Looking to Build Future With Andre Tourigny

Bill Armstrong is confident the Arizona Coyotes could sign Andre Tourigny to a contract extension.

Arizona Coyotes head coach, Andre Tourigny is entering arguably the biggest year of his coaching career.

Tourigny has one year remaining on his contract with the Coyotes. Over the past two seasons Tourigny has done an excellent job mentoring and helping Arizona’s young core grow but now it's time to take a step in the win department.

"He's done Phase 1 very well," Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong said via NHL.com’s Jon Lane. "He has got the players to buy into what he's doing. He's got the players to buy into the culture and he's got the players to buy in to compete every single night here in the desert.

"Now we're entering Phase 2 with adding some good players into the mix and trying to play meaningful games. I think he's done a great job and now I believe we're going to be able to get an extension with him and move into the future, into Phase 2 with him. He's certainly somebody that's infused a tremendous amount of culture and belief in this organization."

This offseason Armstrong took a different approach acquiring players to help the Coyotes become a more competitive team next season including Sean Durzi, Jason Zucker and Alexander Kerfoot.

Through the first two years of the Tourigny era in Arizona, it's easy to tell that the culture has changed. While the Coyotes have been at the bottom of the Western Conference, the team clearly showed improvement since Tourigny has taken over.

There are no stats that can prove how much effort a team puts in but it seems the Coyotes have played with more heart under Tourigny and are a closer unit as a whole. However, this upcoming season Arizona must do more than just show subtle improvements. The Coyotes have to start building a winning culture and they could start establishing that now.

The expectations for Tourigny are still unclear but it will be on him to maximize all the talent on this roster and show the Coyotes could be a competitive team in the years to come.