85 Comments
Jul 29, 2021Liked by Craig Morgan

All Hail the mighty GMBA.

I have been VERY critical of Bill Armstrong but this week has made me a believer. He has made the kinds of trade that I loved watching Chaka perform his first year. Unfortunately then Chayka rushed to be competitive (the same mistake we are seeing Ottawa and New Jersey and Buffalo doing). I hope Armstrong does not fall in to that trap.

I think Dvorak should be a piece that stays, but if he gets a first rounder or someone like Matt Boldy, then so be it. Kessel needs to go for whatever asset.

Excited for the Coyotes again!

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author

And maybe, just maybe an arena...

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Exactly! It’s deja vu to 4 years ago when I felt like all the prospects would hit right as the arena is as built. So PTSD has given me trust issues.

BUT I am hopeful!

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Jul 29, 2021Liked by Craig Morgan

That last line "We feel like when these guys are in the right situations they’re going to overachieve" stands out to me. Do you think the plan is to give Jaškin and Dzingel lots of PP and offensive zone starts to try and pump up their stats and flip for more draft capital at the trade deadline? I'd imagine that would have sold joining a rebuilding team to the players, who both seem to have 'prove it' motives ahead of their next contracts.

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I think that is a distinct possibility.

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Jul 29, 2021Liked by Craig Morgan

This is a really interesting approach I haven’t thought about. Makes a lot of sense to try and increase the value of undervalued assets to get a return at the trade deadline.

I hope it doesn’t interfere with cohesion and formation of a team identity. If a huge part of the team is transient, I could see that hurting. But it doesn’t have to.

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author

I think the Coyotes you see in 2023-24 will look a lot different than the Coyotes in 2021-22.

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Jul 29, 2021Liked by Craig Morgan

Hey Craig, obviously we know the team is going to change drastically over the next few years, but as the roster for this season finalizes I’d love to see a “Armstrong-esque” height and weight piece compared to the end of the GMJC era. Like the team is 13 feet taller overall and 600poinds heavier hahaha. Just an idea.

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author

Haha! I like this idea.

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Yeah I feel like it was last season or the season before we were playing Dallas and something came up saying we were like almost dead last in the league in height and weight and they were like fourth. It probably popped up around the time Kells was getting murdered without recourse who knows.

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Jul 29, 2021Liked by Craig Morgan

The 21/22 Coyotes: Be wrong for Wright!

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Tanking: is it Wright?

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It has to be Wright. Otherwise it's Be Stinko for Miroshnichenko and that just doesn't have the same ring to it.

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Jul 29, 2021Liked by Craig Morgan

Armstrong has done a masterful job so far. We will have at least 8 picks in the top 70 players next year and he's not done yet. If he can trade Kessel for a young goalie prospect like Montembeault or Alnefelt, the coup will be complete.

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Can't argue with the results so far, but there is a long way to go and a lot of work to do.

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Jul 29, 2021Liked by Craig Morgan

Is it fair to think that Chychrun, Timmins, Söderström and Gostisbehere are a legitimate top-4 within the next few seasons?

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author

Sure.

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It's a shame Capo hasn't seemed to pan out. Watching him in Tucson I thought he had an outside chance to be a 2nd defenseman, but he may not even be an NHL regular at this point.

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I'm wondering if Capo was fully recovered last season from that awful injury he sustained two years ago. Maybe this is his bounce back year?

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Chych, Timmons and Soderstrom, yes! Ghost is a 3rd pair specialist, so they need a big draft pick or big trade to land that top pairing defender to complete the foursome.

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May even be overager JJ Moser. A couple of the publications have him as an early contributor in the NHL:

https://lastwordonsports.com/hockey/2021/03/15/2021-nhl-draft-janis-moser-is-ready/

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Jul 29, 2021Liked by Craig Morgan

Couldn't have asked for a better start to the rebuild. The assets are coming together to hopefully have a solid foundation for a contender. Just hope they actually stick with it through to the end this time!

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author

Amen.

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And so the waiting begins again (cue Tom Petty). I'm happy for new fans to watch the new group mature. It was fun last time around.

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IDK, fall of that 2017-2018 season was one of the worst feelings I've had as a hockey fan. I'll be interested to see what the business side has to offer STMs who have been down this road before.

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That's funny. The Waiting is my all time favorite Petty tune.

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Jul 29, 2021Liked by Craig Morgan

Are there any veteran goalies left after yesterday’s K-mart bluelight special shopping? Lol…

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author

Yep. https://www.capfriendly.com/browse/free-agents/2022/caphit/all/goalies?signing-status=ufa

Even more if you open it up to guys who could be dealt.

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I have a sneaky suspicion that GMBA may try to get Koskinen from Edmonton. They really need to unload that contract to improve and there could be an +|- asset swap that gets a deal done.

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I'm wondering if Edmonton just isn't able to put together a package of picks/prospects that GMBA wants. They clearly swung and missed on Kuemper. Do they have what it takes for a Gostisbehere-style trade of "we take your lousy contract and picks too"?

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That would be interesting, but I wonder if the Coyotes would really take on Koskinen's $4.5m cap hit contract for this season. Don't know how much of that is actual cash. Depends on what assets Armstrong could extract from them, as you say.

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Koskinen has a 4.5MM cap hit and a 4.5MM base salary. Why I think this is possible is because he is on an expiring contract and the potential for good prospects/picks for taking on the hit should be pretty substantial. Been reported that the Yotes have a 65MM internal salary cap but I think GMBA could get that up to 70MM for a year to get a haul.

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author

He did tell me that the $65M figure could increase a bit this season.

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That would be nice if Coyotes could take advantage of Edmonton's cap situation and extract good value from them. I believe Craig had reported earlier that the Coyotes internal cash budget was $65m to $68m, so the salary cap hits could conceivably be higher than that.

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Korpisalo is one I've read could be traded. He's RFA next year as is Merzlikins. Korpi is the cheaper of the two however.

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Wow - that is an uninspiring list. Dubnyk or Nilsson could be possible starters but that would be bad. Looks like it will take a trade to get a reasonable low-level starting goalie.

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Jul 29, 2021Liked by Craig Morgan

Twitter comments about Hutton are BRUTAL. Some seriously salty Sabres fans. As if there weren’t numerous other issues with the team…

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author

I have heard that he is a fantastic guy. I have also heard that he is all but done as a goalie. We'll see.

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Jul 29, 2021Liked by Craig Morgan

Was this eye convergence/tracking issue solved for Hutton?  It would seem to be a career-ender for an NHL goalie.

https://buffalonews.com/sports/sabres/inside-the-treatment-that-corrected-sabres-goalie-carter-huttons-vision-problem/article_14e6c6b1-8a6f-5892-85b3-7d77807a85f5.html

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author

Dunno, but that story is already on my radar for when I profile him.

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Jul 30, 2021Liked by Craig Morgan

With Vegas now over the cap, it seems like the option for trading Kessel would be down to Florida as his preferred destination. Coyotes may need to accept less than a 3rd rounder just to get him off the roster and not be a potential negative influence on the culture that Armstrong and Tourigney are trying to build.

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author

I heard Thursday that Vegas is not interested.

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I think everything GMBA has done has been prudent & warranted, but trading Dvorak would be overkill & unwise. Dvorak is homebred, under contract, & pretty damn good.

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I really can't see a reasonable return for DVO that I would like. Even if you get 1st round pick, don't you want your 1st rounders to end up as DVO on average?

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I think the argument is you want to the team to be bad it needs to be bad so we actually pick in the top 3-4 draft spots. if we land in the middle again we'll never get one of the Mackinnon, Mcdavid, Hedman types that we desperately need.

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Only five players are signed after this upcoming 21-22 season. So I’m guessing the team will drastically change every year for the next three years. And the amount of cap space after 21-22 is crazy. It makes me wonder if GMBA is likely going to take on unwanted contracts next off-season as well and even the off-season after that.

I know it’s still so far away as we haven’t even completed this off-season. But it’s fun and interesting to think about.

I’ve heard that he’s had concussion issues previously, but I really like that Timmons was included in the deal.

I know Kirk is a long shot, but fingers crossed. I’m also really excited to watch Tucson next year. In addition to renewing my subscription, I think I need to make it down there for some games too.

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Sit in 205.

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For the Tucson games?

Absolutely. I will keep that in mind. It’d be nice to interact with our fellow insider subscribers. Thanks Sam!

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Oh yes. But NO talking during play unless you are heckling.

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Good points. But actually six players (not five) are signed after the 2021-22 season: Keller, Schmaltz, Chychrun, Dvorak, Gostibehere and Ladd. Crouse and Fischer would be RFAs. As an aside, Hayton, Prosvetov, Korenar and Capobianco would also be RFAs. So there would be a lot of roster cap flexibility.

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I wasn’t counting Ladd since I wasn’t sure if he was going to play.

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True. But they will be stuck paying his salary for the 2 seasons, and he is untradable.

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That doesn’t really bother me. If he goes on long-term IR, I thought insurance paid for most of it.

His cap hit is more of a “concern”. Although, they would still have so much cap space anyway.

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Jul 29, 2021Liked by Craig Morgan

Looks like O'Brien spent some time at Rouyn-Noranda when Tourigny was coach. Is he mostly a player to utilize in Tucson, or will he get a legit shot in NHL?

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I think it will depend on what else they do in free agency/trades. He was signed to a two-way contract for a reason.

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O'Brien likes to fight (a lot). That'll be a different dynamic with the Yotes we haven't seen in a while.

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Jul 29, 2021Liked by Craig Morgan

Nice hook lol

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Thanks for a great article. My view is of you want to watch a winning team, go to Tucson. If your favorite Coyote got traded, go to his new teams games with the Coyotes. If you want to support the Coyotes just enjoy the slide to the bottom.

I'm going to work to get a many Garland fans to wear a Garland jersey from Moncton, Tucson, Yotes or Van to the Stork 7th game to sit behind the goal Van attacks twice so that at the end of warm ups we can sing: we love you Conor, oh yes we do. We love the way you play, the things you do, when they traded you, Boo Who, oh Conor we love you"...and then have everyone turn to show their Garland jersey. I have numerous ones I'll loan for that game. Working on getting RR faithful to come by bus and to get group pricing.

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