Coyotes’ Hall deal shows they’re ready to go all in
The Coyotes entered Tuesday night’s game in San Jose tied for second in the Pacific Division.
They have two elite goalies and a stingy defense. But they have trouble scoring at morning skates, which probably would have led to a brief playoff appearance, at best.
So the praise the Coyotes and General Manager John Chayka are receiving for acquiring forward Taylor Hall in a trade on Monday is deserved.
Hall, if he plays as a former league MVP is expected to, fills a need, which is better than the alternative of creating one.
Rarely have Coyotes fans have been given this big a reason to be excited.
It’s the biggest trade the team has made since at least 1996, its first year in Arizona, when Jeremy Roenick came to town from Chicago.
This trade is more important, I think, because the Roenick deal was as much about selling tickets as it was hockey. Roenick was an elite player but also a big personality who helped out at the ticket windows.
Hall is also an elite player and by all accounts, also possesses a personality. And the whole “Hall and Yotes” thing has marketing potential. Maybe the
Coyotes can make “You Make My Dreams Come True” the new “Sweet Caroline” of in-game sing-a-longs.
But Hall’s acquisition says as much about where the Coyotes are headed as an organization as it does about where they are now.
A year ago, it wouldn’t have made sense for Chayka to make this deal. The team was up for sale and operating on a strict budget. Taking a chance on trading for a star player in the last year of his contract would have been malfeasance on Chayka’s part.
Give up prospects and draft picks for a half-year rental player? Then try to convince that player to re-sign with a team that had issues with its ownership, its arena, and as a result, its budget for paying players?
Good luck with that.
The ownership and budget issues were settled last summer when Alex Meruelo bought the team.
Meruelo made a couple of billion dollars by buying struggling businesses and turning them into profitable ones. It was obvious from his initial press conference that Meruelo was competitive. He told us he “sure as s--t” wanted to win.
What Meruelo has proven since is that he wasn’t just trying to be funny. He meant it.
So far, Meruelo has been the best kind of owner. He appears to recognize he knows more about land development, restaurants and casinos than hockey, so he’s placed trust in the people hired to build a good hockey team.
So far, Meruelo hasn’t meddled but he’s been involved. There is a difference between the two.
As Chayka noted Monday, Meruelo thinks strategically, and recognizes the risks in a trade like the one for Hall, as well as the potential long-term benefits.
Meruelo signed off on a trade last summer that brought forward Phil Kessel and a hefty contract to Arizona. Seven months later, Meruelo gave his blessing to acquire Hall, knowing that it’s going to take a huge financial commitment to keep Hall in Arizona beyond 2020. Can the Coyotes do that?
“We want Taylor to want to be here, and the only way for him to understand that is for him to actually be here,” Chayka said on Monday. “We want to showcase what we’re about and what we have. If I just called them up and asked them to extend, I don’t think that would
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❚ Go to for a recap of all the action from the Coyotes’ game against the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night. have been the right process.”
A year ago, I doubt Chayka would have been nearly as confident of the Coyotes’ ability to convince a player to bet on the franchise’s future.
From strictly a hockey standpoint, the hard work now begins. It can be difficult to integrate even an elite player into the lineup, even when that player is as talented as Hall.
We’ve witnessed that this year with Kessel, who hasn’t provided the scoring expected of him. If he had, maybe the Coyotes wouldn’t have traded for Hall.
In a search for scoring, Coach Rick Tocchet has moved his lines around like he’s running a shell game. Nothing has worked consistently.
Hall is expected to help fix that. If he does, the price to re-sign him is likely to increase. And if he does, Meruelo will likely be happy to pay it.