SPINNING THE WHEELS
FOR THE FIRST three months of the season, it looked as though Arizona was going to do it – make the playoffs for the first time in eight years. When the Coyotes woke up on Jan. 8, they were sitting atop the Pacific Division, tied for second with Colorado in the West and tied for sixth overall in the NHL. They had the league’s third-best defense and coach Rick Tocchet was guiding a confident bunch. But a run of 15 games in which they won just three times put an end to those grandiose aspirations. IMMEDIATE NEEDS: Injuries to Darcy Kuemper and Antti Raanta exposed Arizona as a defense-only team. They just couldn’t win games 5-4 or 4-3 when their two goalies went down because of a pop-gun attack ranked 23rd in the league. New kingpins Taylor Hall and Phil Kessel produced as shadows of their former selves. More snipers are needed. LONG-TERM NEEDS: Reinforcements from top to bottom. The Coyotes aren’t really a young team anymore. One-third of their forwards are in their 30s or set to depart as UFAs, four of their top five D-men by ice time will have an average age of 32 next season. Both goalies will be 30-plus. The window is closing on a team that’s just run-of-the-mill. CAP SITUATION: Big raises for Clayton Keller and Kuemper kick in next season. Arizona is financially top-heavy on the blueline (six defensemen will get $28.7 million) and in the crease ($8.8 million), meaning there isn’t much room to retain UFA Hall and try to lure another top-six UFA forward.
IN THE SYSTEM 2020-21: Barrett Hayton played just 32 games at three levels last season, including only 20 in the NHL. So he’s still Calder-eligible in 2020-21. Put him down as a contender. Defenseman Kyle Capobianco is on the clock. DID YOU KNOW: Center Jan Jenik is one of the fastestrising prospects in hockey. The 2018 third-rounder didn’t rank among Arizona’s top 10 a year ago. He was No. 2 on the Coyotes’ list in Future Watch and No. 36 league-wide.