Arizona Coyotes at crossroads with direction for next season
The Arizona Coyotes organization must make several critical decisions to change the teams’ fortunes next season. It starts with a GM.
The Arizona Coyotes organization and its fans are still stinging from the teams’ ugly losses to the Colorado Avalanche in playoff Games 4 and 5. It will hurt for a while, and the bad taste those games left in the mouths of Coyotes’ fans everywhere will linger a bit longer while we wonder how the team could play such uninspired hockey in front of an empty arena yet national TV audience.
Our MVP goalkeeper Darcy Kuemper was made to look pretty darn pedestrian by a confused and out-classed defense that had no answers for the Avalanche’s tidal wave of attacking players. That’s evidently what happens when a non-existent offense is mostly invisible on the ice, except when they decide to commit dumb penalties. The rest of the team tries to play defense.
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But alas, we’ve all suffered through a disappointing ending to an up and down season, so let’s start to focus on the ways that the Desert Dogs can improve their roster. Much of it could involve “addition through subtraction.”
Are you a fan that believes that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior? In other words, should we expect different results next season if we retain the bulk of the same players we had this odd season?
Even before we get to discuss our wish list for the active roster, however, we need a general manager who knows the NHL hockey world and has the network connections to barter for players in the best interests of the Coyotes.
Is interim GM Steve Sullivan the answer? If not, how long will it take and who will that inevitably be? I think we all would like “Captain Coyote” Shane Doan to return to the franchise, but would he be interested in a job and, if so, in what capacity?
Is “Doaner” qualified to be a GM? Regardless, having him back with the Coyotes in any capacity as an ambassador would be great for the organization.
The departure of John Chayka was most surprising to Coyotes fans, but we’ll probably never know the real story of “who did what to whom and why.”
Next. Coyotes Need To Make Changes. dark
Do we really care if his absence results in a shiny new era of Coyotes’ hockey along with a new owner, new president and CEO, and a newly-named general manager? I don’t think so. The times they are a changin,’ and soon. Let’s go Coyotes!