Arizona Coyotes Nearing One-Year Deal With Radim Vrbata
The Arizona Coyotes may be filling one of their holes at forward with former Coyote Radim Vrbata.
Reports indicate that the Arizona Coyotes are nearing a one-year deal with former Coyotes winger Radim Vrbata.
The news was first reported by Craig Morgan of Arizona Sports.
The thirty-five-year-old forward played in the desert for six years before joining the Vancouver Canucks prior to the 2014 season.
After a down campaign in 2015-16, the free agent is apparently heading back to Glendale for a third stint.
There had been a good deal of discussion around a potential return for Vrbata and what that might mean.
Much of that talk centered around the fact that Radim Vrbata scored just 13 goals last season after putting up 31 the year prior. Is he on the downward slope or was he simply on a bad team in Vancouver?
Arizona Coyotes General Manager John Chayka and Head Coach Dave Tippett appear to be betting on the latter scenario.
Vrbata is a pretty decent possession forward and his precipitous scoring drought could easily be attributed to a subpar team and a measly 6.5% shooting percentage.
Vrbata’s career average is 10.1%, so there is significant gulf between his career average and his output last season.
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As Brendan Porter of Five For Howling points out, the quality of Radim Vrbata’s linemates was significantly different in his second year with the Canucks. Bo Harvat and Sven Baertschi are not the Sedin twins, after all.
It is not outside the realm of possibility that Tippett could coax a resurgence out of Vrbata.
We could see him rebound in same manner that Captain Shane Doan bounced back from a 14 goal season – and a well below average shooting percentage – to lead the team in goal scoring with 28 in 2015-16.
Even a 13 or 14 goal season wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world on a one-year flyer.
Radim Vrbata can fill in a hole in the Coyotes roster with a veteran presence. His possession numbers are decent, and on the whole he’s categorically an upgrade on Antoine Vermette.
While Vrbata is not replacing Vermette specifically, he is filling in a spot vacated by the veteran center while simultaneously allowing Chayka and Tippett to insert Dylan Strome and Christian Dvorak into the lineup.
Next: Chayka's Offseason Moves Could Make Huge Difference in 2016-17
The Arizona Coyotes are taking another low risk, high reward flyer on a reclamation project.
The difference is, this time they know the player they are getting.