Why the Arizona Coyotes should take a look at Cory Conacher
Well, the New York Islanders have placed pint-sized Cory Conacher on waivers.
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No one should be particularly shocked; he’s got one goal and two assists in fifteen games, and the team’s been trying to assemble the perfect ‘we’re going to WIN the Stanley Cup this year, damnit!’ roster. He averages WAY too much ice time for the fourth liner he probably is, and he’s skating around with a minus-three on the season.
(But, at the same time, it’s Cory Conacher! LOOK AT HIM.)
For the record, that’s 5-foot-8 Conacher wearing John Scott’s helmet. He’s like a toy. We should all try and pick him up for our teams, and maybe to put in our pockets.
Okay. Done being weird.

Eyes On Isles
Realistically, though, the Arizona Coyotes should be the first team this December to take the Waiver Plunge and pick up one of these guys.
At best, I think that the Coyotes need to make some serious changes — and I don’t just mean changing out Rob Klinkhammer for a defensive prospect. Arizona needs to make some serious roster moves… and if they aren’t willing to try to add some scoring (or, more realistically, if they aren’t able to afford it this season), then they need to drop the players that are too good to allow a roster rotation, but too old to survive a rebuild; in other words, Shane Doan and Keith Yandle.
Doan’s going to be harder to move; he’s a twenty-to-thirty goal scorer who’s a little on the older side for his cap hit ($5.3 million both this season and next), and he’s got a no-movement clause. To swap him, you’d need to convince him to override the contract limitation; that means sending him to a good team, who will probably want him and someone else decent, plus some salary retention.
Enter Conacher.
Worst case, Yandle will want to get moved instead, Conacher will fall flat, and the team will have to pass him to the next best team that tried to pick him up off waivers — or get even worse and just embrace McDavid.
Best case, though, C0nacher’s tiny-man energy (which the Coyotes don’t have a lot of beyond Tobias Rieder, Joe Vitale, and Brandon McMillan) sparks the team’s fourth or third line, permitting the team to move either Martin Hanzal or Antoine Vermette. I’m not a Crombeen fan; if we’re embracing the youth movement, why not pick up a player like Conacher on waivers?
Seriously — there’s nothing to lose.
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