Montreal Canadiens Edition: Coyotes Captions

“So, who thinks I’ll still be on this team by the end of this road trip?” Stone responds — “I do”.  — Keith Yandle, Coyotes defenseman

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably noticed how much coverage the Coyotes have been receiving in trade talks.

It’s well documented that certain Coyotes defensemen have been rumored to be moving on in an effort to improve the team.

Should the Coyotes choose to trade a valuable asset like Keith Yandle, though, we would hope that they would get something of worth in return.

It has been rumored (don’t you love that word?) that Yandle could be heading to the Colorado Avalanche for forward Ryan O’Reilly — their contracts are similar, the Coyotes lack more offense, and the Avalanche covet stronger defense with defenseman Erik Johnson out for 3-8 weeks with a knee injury.

I say be cautious here, though, since O’Reilly is younger than Yandle — and he’s reported to have tantrums when he thinks he’s worth more money. General Manager Don Maloney needs to evaluate if O’Reilly will really contribute to the offense more than what Yandle has thus far shown — the team can’t afford another Mike Ribeiro attitude scenario.