Arizona Coyotes: Radim Vrbata Never Wanted To Leave Arizona
Arizona Coyotes forward Radim Vrbata says that he loves Arizona and that he never wanted to leave in free agency.
It’s been a whirlwind offseason for the Arizona Coyotes.
New General Manager John Chayka has put the Coyotes’ ownership’s commitment to spending and winning to a larger test than most might’ve expected.
He’s lured a steady defenseman into the mix when Alex Goligoski had plenty of other suitors. And now Chayka has lured back forward Radim Vrbata.
Or did he?
According to Vrbata, “We never really wanted to leave. We love living in Arizona.”
He goes on further to state that, ““Every time I was a free agent, I always wanted to get it done with Phoenix and for some reason it didn’t happen so we had to go with different options. I never even wanted to let it get to free agency so when that happened, I still always checked if there was one last option not to leave.”
Leave he did, however, and after another 30-goal season in Vancouver, he had quite the miserable season in 2015-16.
Now he’s back in the desert with a contract laden with incentives for performance. General Manager John Chayka says, “We hope he gets his bonuses.”
There seems to be good reason to suspect he might.
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