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Arizona Coyotes: Drive To Make Playoffs

By William Grigsby |

Whether It Is Next Year, Or The Following Year — Arizona Coyotes NEED To Make The Playoffs

The journey will begin in about 11 days when the Arizona Coyotes draft third overall, followed by 29th pick (since the Blackhawks won the Cup tonight) in the late first round. They may try to draft Jake Debrusk, to follow their pattern of the draft last year by taking the son of former Coyote players, or the son of other former NHL players. He fits ideally into to Tippett’s system of a two-way player.

Then, they have two second round picks to add to their shopping list. Numbers 32 and 59 will hopefully be lucky numbers for the Arizona Coyotes. They could use a right-handed defenseman to replace the traded Zbynek Michalek, and Nicolas Meloche might just fit the bill.

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At the 59th second round pick why not take a goalie? I mean Mike Smith was horrible last season, but did get a bit of a reprieve in the IIHF. Whether he can play that well anymore is yet to be seen. So, there are several goaltenders who may be available last in the second round. Ilya Samsonov, Mackenzie Blackwood and Daniel Vladar may all be gone by then, but you never know with goalies. Maloney has a knack for picking some sleepers.

Then, after the draft it will be time to try and sign some free agents to supplement the young talent this team will introduce to the NHL. That is of course, if they aren’t chased off by the City of Glendale’s threat to cancel the lease agreement with the team.

It might take GM Don Maloney’s hypnotic trances to wipe out any memory of this embarrassment when attempting to attract free agents to the valley. If teams really want to move players like Nazem Kadri of the rebuilding Maple Leafs, he would be a good addition, and he is a solid puck possession player, one of Arizona’s weaknesses.

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Looking back at the Blackhawks' trades involving Andrew Ladd
Looking back at the Blackhawks' trades involving Andrew Ladd /

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    • He’s only 24, and his $2.9 million cap hit is easily met since the Arizona Coyotes are well under the salary cap, needing to actually spend about $17-19 million to get to the required low limit of the cap. To top it off, he’s a former London Knights player like Max Domi, and Christian Dvorak. How does that suit your fancy?

    Perhaps a trade to include Kadri to move Toronto up to the third choice will be of interest to both teams.

    Another road to improvement might be to concentrate on the teams like the Stanley Cup champs Chicago Blackhawks. Brandon Saad is a free agent, but you know after his excellent performance in the playoffs that Chicago will try their very best to re-sign him. The only trouble is Chicago has that issue with other players like Brad Richards, and Bryan Bickell (who is not a free agent, but the Hawks need to shed salary… someone must go).

    To add any player who has won a Cup to the Arizona Coyotes team, who has not even really come close to winning one, will be a step in the right direction.

    In any case, we all know that GM Don Maloney has his work cut out for him, and we also know he is one of the best at making draft selections. Hopefully he’ll give some of the young prospects some playing time next season to allow them to develop under playing conditions in the NHL. We all are looking forward to marveling at Domi’s speed and scoring touch, Duclair’s hunt for loose pucks in the crease, and Dvorak’s sheer scoring prowess. The only question is how long will it take for these young talents to propel this team into the playoffs? Will the Whiteout just be a distant memory?

    I am going to predict not this next season, but the following season will see the Arizona Coyotes playing in the postseason. After that, they will progress to the levels they aspire to, and that includes skating around the arena (whichever arena they will be playing in) hoisting the Lord Stanley Cup. It can happen — I mean I believe, do you?

    Next: 2015 NHL Mock Draft: Arizona Coyotes First Round Pick

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