Most of us have been through it before. You go through a break up and move into friend's spare bedroom, sleeping on an air mattress or futon until you get back on your feet again. It feels like a big low, but if you're determined and focused, you can accomplish that and get back up on your feet again. Maybe even start to thrive with a whole new plan and a whole new attitude. For the Arizona Coyotes, that's their Felix Unger like story as they move on with the future of the franchise that is in a precarious position.
21-22 Expectations: No bones about it. The Coyotes were tearing down the house all the way to the studs. This was a demolition job for anything that could bring back an asset. The Coyotes targets were the top overall picks with Shane Wright in 2022 and Connor Bedard in 2023. The Coyotes were taking on bad contracts to get to the cap floor and competing with a bare bones squad to complement their young stars, but the expectation were to finish dead last.
21-22 Result: The Coyotes started pretty poorly and first impressions were that they were going to challenge for the fewest points in a season with the 2017 Colorado Avalanche, ya know the team that's in the Stanley Cup Finals now. Backed rent and a bad arena agreement led to Gila River Arena moving on from hosting Arizona Coyotes games. The Coyotes, who played at the arena since 2003, have been looking for a new arena for at least a decade. The Coyotes will now play in Arizona State's New Multi-purpose arena in Tempe, where franchise WANTS a new arena. Glendale just wasn't the right place for the Coyotes. Meanwhile on the ice, the team started with 15 points in the 2021 portion of the season. They secured ONE POINT until their first win against expansion Seattle on November 6th. Then before Thanksgiving, the Coyotes enjoyed a 4 game point streak 3-0-1 and oh no, they're ruining the tank job! But that will happen again. The Coyotes finished with 57 points, second least in the NHL behind the Montreal Canadiens, but somehow the Coyotes FELL in the draft YET AGAIN. Shades of 2015 when Arizona was trying to fall into the top spot for Connor McDavid; the Yotes cannot secure the top overall selection that they've never had.
What Went Right: Leading scorer Clayton Keller enjoyed his second 60 points season (28g-35a-63p) and was a plus player on a team with a huge goal deficit. Nick Schmaltz earned a career high 59 points (23g-36a-59p) and was also a positive plus player. Both players only played 63 to 67 games and could have produced more if not for injuries. Former Flyers' point man Shayne Gostisbehere could have been nicknamed Lazarus with his resurgent season. His 14 goal, 37 assist, 51 point season was his best since 2017-18 where he had 65 points for the Flyers; who gave him away to the Coyotes with a 2nd and 7th round draft pick. Gostisbehere produced so well that Jakob Chychrun - and his 17 goals last season - is truly expendable.
What Went Wrong: This is an odd sentence to write, but in the 2022 side of the season, the Coyotes starting scoring and started winning. Hard to believe that success was the problem. The Yotes went 19-29-4 over the last 52 games and scored more goals than 6 teams including the Las Vegas Golden Knights - who were in playoff contention. From December 28th to the end of the season, the Coyotes scored 5 or more goals in a game 11 times! 11 TIMES?!!! Pretty good for a team with the fewest amount of goals in the season with 206. Yes there were injuries too, but to quote Bane from The Dark Knight Rises, "Victory has defeated you."
Reasons to be Optimistic: The Coyotes are still compiling assets for the future. They have 8 draft picks in the first 3 rounds of the 2022 NHL Draft (three 1sts, four 2nds and a third) as well as more prospects and picks when they eventually trade defenseman Jakob Chychrun. The defenseman's past production and affordable cap hit makes him ideal to move and get back a haul. The jury is out on goaltender Karel Vejmelka. At times he looked GREAT, stealing games like a 45 save performance vs the Toronto Maple Leafs for a 2-1, but his season totals of 13-32-3 Save % 0.898 and 3.68 GAA won't light up the message boards. However in wins, he's got a 1.83 GAA and a 0.950 Save %. That's good. In losses, he's got a 4.66 GAA and a 0.870 Save %. That's bad. The Coyotes should try to add cause why tank since there's no guarantee they will win the lottery anyway.
Reasons to be Pessimistic: Well, they're playing in a 5,000 seat arena that they cannot put their logo in. Can't feel too good going from that arena to this unless it's possible that the Yotes can sell it as a luxury invite. Think about it. The WORST seat in the house won't be a nose bleed. It's like everyone sitting in the lower bowl. It's going to be interesting. The other problem is that the plan is not to add and grow THIS season because Connor Bedard could be had and if the Yotes can snag next year's top overall pick that eluded them, they could set up the franchise for ten years.
2022-23 Expectations: There is no doubt that the Coyotes are taking a step back to try to move forward in a better way. It's curious to see how the Arizona State Arena experiment will pan out because the Yotes are in Tempe where they'll draw more fans, but even sellouts are not too many people. Arizona State's program is growing and made the NCAA Tournament in 2019, so hockey is still growing in the desert. Like all seeds, they need to bloom. Can the Coyotes resurrect this franchise next season? It may take one more year of "tanking", but there could be a light at the end of the 2023 season at the NHL Draft.
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