The Arizona Coyotes won their first game of the season on Saturday night when they hosted the Seattle Kraken for the first time. The game started like most have these days with the Coyotes giving up a goal at the 15 second and one minute mark to start the game down 2-0 before the water from the Zamboni could dry. Slow starts have been the Achilles heel of the Coyotes in a lot of their games to start the year. But is that such a bad thing?
It’s no secret what the Coyotes are trying to do this year, with the trades of players like Kuemper, OEL, Conor Garland, and letting Annti Raanta walk in free agency GM Bill Armstrong made their direction known to the world. The Yotes are trying to lose as many games as possible and it shows. The new GM turned over 80% of the roster and brought in aging Vets on bad contracts to acquire a litany of draft picks over the next two years. With these moves, the coyotes now own 8 picks in the first two rounds over the next two years. This franchise desperately needs an influx of talent and elite talent especially.
For a team that has peddled through mediocrity for the last 10 years and official tear down and burn it to the ground rebuild is; though it sounds harsh; the best thing for this franchise. The Coyotes have always lacked one thing: Elite Talent, a player that can create offense, or a player that can score 40 goals a year. The closest they have come to this type of player was OEL and even he fizzled out at an above-average top-line defenseman, he never truly developed into that elite player. Players like McDavid, Kane, Crosby, Malkin, and Ovechkin are the types of players that turn franchises around and grow dynasties. Sadly there is only one real way to acquire one of those teams, the Draft Lottery.
Luckily through Bill Armstrong’s first full offseason, he has revamped the draft capital the Yotes had decimated by their former GM John Chayka. IN what people are saying is the deepest draft class in some years the Arizona Coyotes own 8 picks in the first 2 rounds. Now it’s obvious the coyotes will not use all of these selections they own but are entering the draft with a great number of assets. The Coyotes need a player like Shane Wright in the worst way, and the best chance they will have to land him is to get the No.1 pick. Though the Lottery is not a sure thing and the Coyotes lottery luck has been abysmal of late they still at this point with the team they have assembled have the best chance at that no.1 overall pick.
While it may be a long couple of years there is a chance that in a couple of years the Arizona Coyotes will be enjoying a turnaround with the likes of the Blackhawks, Penguins, and Bruins of the 2010s or the recent success of the Lightning. All of those teams had to endure dark times before eventually turning it around and becoming forces throughout the league. It is going to sting but here’s to hoping at the other side of this we will be enjoying a parade through downtown Phoenix that ends at the newly built arena in Tempe.