Finally, the Coyotes are headed in the right direction

BUFFALO - Bill Armstrong settled into a chair in KeyBank Center's empty and dark press box last week, his iPhone and a large Starbucks cup resting on the ledge in front of him. Hours from hosting a Coyotes-Sabres game, the arena was silent save for the sounds of skates, sticks, and pucks on the ice below.

Armstrong, the Coyotes' general manager since fall 2020, watched his team's morning skate through black-rimmed glasses. Or, more broadly, he kept a close eye on Phase 2 of his plan to revive a long-languishing franchise.

Phase 1 saw Armstrong tear down most of what the previous regime built. His initial phase focused on building blocks - revamping the Coyotes' hockey operations department, accumulating as much draft capital as possible, and developing some of those picks into everyday NHL players.

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The second phase, which began this past offseason, revolves around being competitive - every night, no matter the opposition. It's about progress, even in defeat. After a thrilling comeback victory over the Senators on Tuesday, the Coyotes occupy the Western Conference's second wild-card spot thanks to a 16-13-2 record.

"Phase 3 is making the playoffs," Armstrong said between sips of coffee. "The other part of Phase 3 is consistency. Can you be consistent year after year?"

Off the ice, the consistency question is existential. The Coyotes, currently the secondary tenant in a 4,600-seat arena on Arizona State University's campus, desperately need a permanent home. Tempe residents shot down an arena and entertainment district proposal in May, leading ownership to pivot to a plot of land in Phoenix. According to reports, no arena deal is imminent.

With the team playing well, the off-ice drama and subsequent relocation chatter can be put aside for a moment. Here's why the Coyotes - a laughingstock for years - are finally headed in the right direction under Armstrong and head coach Andre Tourigny.

'Sit there and evaluate'

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The Coyotes hired Armstrong a month after getting eliminated in 2020's expanded playoff tournament, the team's first and only postseason berth since 2012. The rookie GM picked the brains of his peers around this time, and the best advice came from his old boss, Blues GM Doug Armstrong (no relation).

"Sit there and evaluate," Doug Armstrong told Bill, a Blues amateur scout, scouting director, and assistant GM for 16 years. "The greatest thing you can do is evaluate for a full year to get a good understanding of where you are."

Armstrong mostly followed that plan. He finalized just one notable trade in his first nine months on the job - Derek Stepan to Ottawa for a second-round pick - before he flipped the switch. He rattled off nine trades around the 2021 draft and free-agency period. Fast-forward to the present, and Armstrong's Coyotes have made 35 trades and used 36 draft picks over a three-year, three-month span.

That's a ton of activity considering the NHL forced Arizona to forfeit a 2020 second-round pick and a 2021 first-rounder for violating combine testing protocol under former GM John Chayka. (The club also wasted a 2020 fourth on Mitchell Miller, renouncing his draft rights after public backlash to a bullying incident.)

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These trades and picks go hand in hand because the roster was never going to be a quick fix. Armstrong knew his best, and perhaps only, chance at building a sustainable winner was to draft in high volume. In Phase 1, he retained salary three times in trades and acquired several retirement-bound players, including Shea Weber and Jakub Voracek ahead of the 2023 trade deadline, not only for the picks but also for financial reasons. Other teams needed to move money to fit under the salary cap ceiling, while the Coyotes needed to reach the cap floor.

Over the past three drafts, Arizona selected double the amount of players in both opening two rounds - six in the first and six in the second. Over the next three drafts, the team has three firsts and a whopping 10 seconds.

"Did I think we could generate that many picks? No. No. No, no, no, I didn't," Armstrong said. "But I'm a big fan of the second-rounders. Back in St. Louis, we had drafted (impact NHLers) Jordan Kyrou and Vince Dunn in the second, so I knew if you had a good staff, you could do some damage in that area."

Being in Phase 2 now, Armstrong signaled this past offseason that there's a finish line to the aggressive pick accumulation when he used a second to acquire promising defenseman Sean Durzi from the Kings. Can Armstrong definitively say the Coyotes are done absorbing other teams' bad business?

"Oh, it's over," Armstrong said with a laugh. "Yeah, it's done."

Brick-by-brick core

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Over the past decade, under Chayka and Armstrong, the Coyotes have, to put it mildly, lowered the bar. They've rarely been competitive, at times icing lineups more worthy of the AHL than the NHL. It's been depressing to watch from afar.

Nevertheless, the seemingly endless rebuild has produced a robust core, led by the four originals - forwards Clayton Keller (acquired in the 2016 draft), Lawson Crouse (acquired in a 2016 trade), Nick Schmaltz (2018 trade), and Barrett Hayton (2018 draft). Forward Matias Maccelli (2019 draft) and defenseman J.J. Moser (2021 draft) joined them during the 2021-22 season.

All six skaters are 27 or younger and under team control for multiple years.

The core's third layer consists of four newcomers - forward Michael Carcone (2021 free agent), forward Logan Cooley (2022 draft), goalie Connor Ingram (2022 waiver claim), and Durzi (2023 trade). The rookie Cooley has flashed superstar potential. Ingram, picked up in October 2022, may be the long-term answer between the pipes. Durzi, an excellent puck-mover, has flourished in an elevated role. Carcone, the AHL's top scorer last year, has broken out this season.

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It's been a grind. But those 10 players represent the present and future.

"Each year, you bring more people into that core," said Crouse, the second-longest-tenured Coyote and an alternate captain. "We've done a great job with having a great locker room. We have a bunch of guys who want to be here and perform well and play their best. In the long run, that's a recipe for success."

As defenseman Travis Dermott explained, an NHL player must check two boxes to become a core piece for a franchise. One, the player must be wanted, and two, the player must be invested. He can't have one foot in and one foot out.

"There's no little cliques among the team," said Dermott, who also played in Vancouver and Toronto. "The superstar guys aren't just hanging out with the superstar guys - they're hanging out with everyone. The Euros are mixing in with the group - it's not their own little group. And that's pretty rare to see."

Tourigny impact

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In talking with a handful of people around the league about Arizona's trajectory, one theme emerged: Tourigny, the third-year bench boss, has been arguably the biggest single driver of on-ice success. He's a core member, too.

"He's a very good teacher of the game. He's very good at communicating," Crouse said of Tourigny, who's tasked with coaching the NHL's fifth-youngest roster. "Nothing's given and everything's earned with him."

Added Dermott: "He's got the respect of everybody on our team. He's hard on you. If you take a shift off, a practice off, you're going to hear about it. But that's what keeps guys honest. On the other side of the coin, he's the one cracking the most jokes, and he's the one making sure guys have smiles on their faces. You don't see that too often from a head coach. He's personable."

Tourigny said he wants the Coyotes - who sit 19th in the league in goals for per game and 11th in goals against per game - to play "in-your-face type of hockey." He's taught his skaters to apply pressure in the neutral zone so the opponent can't get organized and attack in numbers or with speed.

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Of course, Arizona's 2.87 goals-against rate is also a byproduct of Vezina Trophy-caliber goaltending. Ingram boasts a .919 save percentage in 20 games, and his 0.58 goals saved above expected per 60 minutes is seventh among 35 goalies with at least 800 minutes played.

Meanwhile, the Coyotes' offensive identity consists of three pillars. They want to play with pace. They want to control the flow of play in the offensive zone. And they want to funnel pucks to the net from high-leverage spots in the zone.

"We're not a team who will shoot from anywhere," Tourigny said. "We're more a team who will hold onto the puck to create a better opportunity."

While there's progress to be made, the underlying data is starting to align with the pillars. On a per-game basis, the Coyotes rank 22nd in rush chances (up from 30th last season), third in offensive-zone possession time (22nd), second in slot passes (28th), and 29th in slot shots (30th), according to Sportlogiq.

Competent special teams are another marker of a club on the rise, and Arizona owns the 12th-ranked power play and 16th-ranked penalty kill. A strong indicator of a team still very much getting its act together: a poor five-on-five expected-goals share (the Coyotes rank 24th at 47.9%).

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Tourigny's contract expires after the 2026-27 season, and Armstrong's after 2028-29, according to reports. Clearly, ownership is invested in the duo.

They were given plenty of runway for Phase 1. The intensity and pressure will ratchet up through Phases 2 and 3. Phase 4, which involves winning playoff series and challenging for the Stanley Cup, is merely a dream at this point.

The Coyotes aren't one or two pieces away from being a complete team, and not all of their high picks will blossom into everyday NHLers. There are 31 other clubs attempting to maintain or build a sustainable winner at all times.

In other words, nothing's guaranteed.

But, for the first time in forever, there's hope in the desert - on the ice, anyway.

"What I said in my opening press conference is true to this day," Armstrong said from his perch inside KeyBank. "They said, 'How do you change this organization?' I go, 'Just get one good player at a time and stack them on top of each other.' It's really about the players on the ice. It changes everything."

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

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Capitals expect to sign UFA Ethan Bear

The Washington Capitals expect to officially sign unrestricted free-agent defenseman Ethan Bear at a later date, the team announced Wednesday.

Washington paved the way for Bear's arrival by placing rearguard Lucas Johansen on waivers Monday and assigning him to the AHL the following day.

Bear has been recovering from offseason shoulder surgery after sustaining the ailment while representing Canada at the IIHF World Championship this past spring.

He joined the Capitals for morning skate on Wednesday as he continues his rehabilitation. Bear became a free agent after the Vancouver Canucks didn't tender him a qualifying offer this offseason.

The 26-year-old chipped in with three goals and 16 points in 61 games while averaging 18:31 minutes of ice time per contest last campaign. Vancouver acquired Bear and forward Lane Pederson from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for a 2023 fifth-round pick in October 2022.

Earlier in December, Vancouver president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford said he believed the Canucks were the "front-runners" to sign Bear.

"We go back to last year when we brought him here, nobody in the league really wanted to deal for him," the executive said during an appearance on CHEK News' "Donnie and Dhali" show. "We brought him here and kind of helped him along with his game. ... There was regular communication. It got down to the end, and there was a little bit of change, I'm sure it's partly because of money.

"It's a little disappointing because we put a lot of work in, and we really thought that he was coming back to the Canucks. But he has the right to choose, and I take it he chose another place where he feels that it's best for him."

The Edmonton Oilers selected Bear in the fifth round of the 2015 NHL Draft. He has amassed 63 points in 251 career matchups.

His best statistical season came in 2019-20 with Edmonton, when he totaled five goals and 21 points in 71 contests while recording a career-high 21:58 minutes of ice time per game.

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Martin after Sens blow return: It won’t happen all in one day

Jacques Martin took a measured approach after the Ottawa Senators coughed up a three-goal lead and fell 4-3 to the Arizona Coyotes in his return behind the bench Tuesday night.

"The effort was there, it's just that we need to understand a couple areas (of improvement)," the Senators' head coach said postgame. "I'll break down the video and make sure that we have three or four areas (Wednesday) that we need to be better on Thursday night."

The Senators scored three times in the first period but allowed a goal in the second and three more in the third, including two in a 33-second span and then Michael Kesselring's winner with 3:33 remaining.

"It's going to be a process," the bench boss said. "It's not going to happen all in one day, but I think what I want to see is a progression as we move along here."

Despite Ottawa's strong start in the defeat, Arizona held a 13-7 advantage in shots on goal in the opening frame and ultimately prevailed 38-22 in that department. The Coyotes dominated possession as well, with 67.03% of the expected goals at five-on-five in the first period (despite trailing 3-0) and 70.26% of them in the game, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Things don't get any easier for Ottawa, as the Senators conclude their five-game road trip against the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday.

The Senators fired previous head coach D.J. Smith on Monday, replacing him with Martin and franchise icon Daniel Alfredsson as an assistant. Martin guided the club from 1995-96 through 2003-04. He then led the Florida Panthers for three seasons and the Montreal Canadiens for two more full campaigns before they fired him in his third.

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Post Game: Canucks Stylin and Profilin

Sat Shah and Bik Nizzar breakdown the Canucks 5-2 win over the Nashville Predators. Hear from Head Coach Rick Tocchet (38:06) and Elias Pettersson (1:19:10) post game. Plus Randip Janda and IaIn McIntyre (1:24:26) provide their analysis. 

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Avs’ Toews calls out teammates after upset loss to Blackhawks

Colorado Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews had some harsh criticism for his team following Tuesday's 3-2 loss to the Central Division's last-place Chicago Blackhawks.

"I think we got some guys that think they're playing well, and I think they're kidding themselves at this point," Toews said.

"It's frustrating to play out there when you got guys that think they're playing well, and you have no idea what play they're gonna make or where they're gonna be on the ice," Toews continued. "It's tough to play in this league when you don't know where your teammates are gonna be."

Toews played a team-high 29:50 and posted a minus-1 rating in the contest. His usual defense partner, Cale Makar, was out again with a lower-body injury, so Toews was primarily paired with Josh Manson. For his lone goal against at five-on-five, he was out with Jack Johnson.

The forward line of Miles Wood, Ross Colton, and Jonathan Drouin - a trio of offseason acquisitions - were on the ice for both goals against at five-on-five.

Toews was on the ice with Manson - as well as forwards Valeri Nichushkin and Fredrik Olofsson - for the Blackhawks' game-winning power-play goal.

The Avalanche have hit a bit of a rut lately, going 4-5-1 in their last 10 games.

On the season, Toews ranks second on the Avalanche behind Makar in average ice time and fifth on the team with 16 points in 32 games. The 29-year-old has received down-ballot Norris Trophy votes in each of the last three seasons for his two-way efforts.

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Sabres players back Granato after fans chant to fire coach

Don Granato's seat may be heating up.

Buffalo Sabres fans were chanting to fire the head coach and booing the squad throughout Tuesday's 9-4 drubbing at the hands of the Eastern Conference's last-place Columbus Blue Jackets.

As a young team that missed the 2023 playoffs by a point, expectations were high for the Sabres entering the current season. But amid a 13-17-3 start, the postseason appears to be a long shot.

However, captain Kyle Okposo wouldn't stand for any slander toward his bench boss.

"I'm not gonna sit here and bash the coaches," Okposo said, according to the Buffalo News' Lance Lysowski. "I'm not gonna talk about us quitting. I'm not gonna talk about Donnie and us not listening. That's not right. Donnie has our full support. We are gonna play hard for Donnie and that's it."

Forward Tage Thompson echoed his captain's sentiments, stating it's on the players to right the ship.

"He can only do so much," Thompson said. "He can draw the system on the boards, and if he sends guys over the boards and they don't do their jobs, then it's not on him. It's on us. Everyone in this room knows that and we have to take accountability for that."

Granato is in his fourth season as Sabres coach after taking over for Ralph Krueger midway through the 2020-21 campaign. While he's overseen the growth of several core young players, such as Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin, he also owns a poor 96-105-24 record.

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What to Do With Kuzmenko?

Dan and Sat open the show discussing the decision to scratch Andrei Kuzmenko ahead of the game vs Nashville. This is the 4th time Kuzmenko has been a healthy scratch this season. What does Kuzmenko have to do to get back in the lineup? The guys analyze the decision by Coach Tocchet. Irfaan Gaffar, Canucks Insider joins the show. He talks Kuzmenko and a potential trade/what the Canucks should do with him.

 

This Podcast was produced by Josh Elliott-Wolfe & Elan Chark

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

December 19 2023 – John Shannon

The Canucks roll into Nashville on a tear, but not without some drama as Andrei Kuzmenko sits again, so Matt and Blake have lots to talk about! They get into the future of the former 39-goal scorer in Vancouver, and what else might be happening to the roster in the new year.


John Shannon stops by with his latest, including a report card on the busy year for Patrik Allvin, the possibility of a Zadorov extension, and the fabulous season of JT Miller. 


Plus, a recap of the crazy night that was for the Seattle Seahawks, and new home for for former Lions QB Nathan Rourke in New England! Presented by Applewood Auto Group.

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