Arizona Coyotes: The Trade Deadline Brings Important Decisions For Don Maloney

The Arizona Coyotes recent downswing could find the Coyotes selling at the trade deadline without a marked turnaround.

With the Arizona Coyotes faltering in their playoff push, the franchise’s immediate future is largely centered around their performance in the three matchups this week.

If the Coyotes have a poor week the writing will already be on the wall.

At the end of January, AZCentral’s Sarah McLellan asked general manager Don Maloney what the plan was for the team at the trade deadline.

After saying, “Let’s see mid-February,” Maloney also implied if the Coyotes were still in the hunt that, “if we can tweak a little bit and help, we’ll help,” he said. “I’m not going to do anything that will box out our younger people from getting meaningful minutes.”

With the team on the outside looking in it seems far more likely we’ll see selling instead of buying.

Regardless, it’s important that the organization is aware that even if they sneak into the playoffs this isn’t their year. Maloney’s quote emphasizes that the experience the youth gains is the most important part of this season or any stretch run. For a team on the rebuild that’s exactly the path they should be taking.

SI.com’s Joshua Kloke wrote an article suggesting that the Arizona Coyotes should already be looking to move on from unrestricted free agents Mikkel Boedker, Nicklas Grossmann, and possibly even Shane Doan.

While he is correct that Doan will neither be moved nor be willing to move, trading of Mikkel Boedker has been a discussion that has picked up a steady rhythm among the fanbase in the past month.

If Boedker cannot be re-signed before the trade deadline he needs to be moved for parts that will help the Coyotes in the future. Particularly defensive ones. It’s that simple.

The only way the loss of Boedker is not palatable is if he is allowed to walk for free at the end of the season. A team like the Arizona Coyotes cannot afford to lose a 50-point scorer and receive no assets in return.

With the offensive pieces the team has in the pipeline, he is ultimately expendable if the need to move him arises over the next few weeks.

Beyond Mikkel Boedker, anything the Coyotes could get for Nick Grossmann at this point has to be seen as a coup.

While he had a good start in Arizona, the arrival of Kevin Connauton and Jarred Tinordi – younger, arguably better options – gives the Arizona Coyotes more of that youth outlook and Dave Tippett and company need to get those guys on the ice more to find out what they’ve got before season’s end.

The Coyotes’ recent play has found the team in a must-win scenario here in the middle of February. Falling more than five points back to the Ducks and Sharks creates a virtually insurmountable deficit for a Yotes team struggling in all facets of the game.

Whether they rise or fall, however, I am hopeful that the future plans win out over the present.

This Arizona Coyotes team is not built to win a Stanley Cup this season. And bar some very hot shooting and a strong youth movement early on that carried them into February in the playoff hunt, it’s not even really prepared to win a playoff series. There are still too many holes to fill moving forward.

The future, though? The future is bright.

Next: Grading The Coyotes' Youth Through The First Half Of The Season

With more good young assets potentially acquired, the continued emergence of Max Domi and Anthony Duclair, and most importantly the impending arrival of Dylan Strome, there are plenty of parts around which to build a perennial contender in the desert.

It’s just not this year.

If it turns out that it’s time to sell, well, I’ve enjoyed the run.

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