Arizona Coyotes Should Pursue Top-Scoring Forward
By Alex Temes
With the Arizona Coyotes sending a 5th round pick to the Dallas Stars Thursday afternoon for the rights to negotiate with pending-UFA Alex Goligoski, it appears as if the Coyotes are decidedly interested in competitive hockey next season.
Newly crowned Arizona Coyotes General Manager John Chayka taught Coyotes fans something very important today; he wants the team to be competitive and he wants that to be sooner rather than later.
We know this because of Thursday’s trade with the Dallas Stars, in which Chayka gambled that he could sell Alex Goligoski into signing with the Coyotes before he has a chance to test he free agent market. Chayka isn’t all in, but he is certainly being more active with the chips he has to play with as opposed to the conservative mannerisms Coyotes fans were accustomed to with former GM Don Maloney.
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But there is another angle to this story with two crucial aspects; one is that Arizona may not be done acquiring talented defenseman.
The other?
Arizona desperately needs a proven, high-scoring talent to mentor the young guns coming out of the development system.
The Coyotes need to be in a winning, playoff environment in order to continually grow the organization, both from a hockey operations standpoint and from a fanbase standpoint. If the Coyotes can not create this environment, who knows what the young pups like Christian Dvorak and Dylan Strome would actually be capable of because their best years would be spoiled at the bottom of the weakest division in the NHL.
Arizona needs to go find this type of forward, and they need to do it this summer.
Sitting at nearly $37 million dollars in cap space according to GeneralFanager.com, the Arizona Coyotes have the room to make moves whether by free agency or by trade.
We’ve compiled a few names that stand out as compelling options for the Coyotes, given their enormous cap space and apparently aggressive new General Manager.
Next: Steven Stamkos