The Bad: 27th in the league. 9 points out of the playoffs. Rinding a 4 game losing streak. 1-8-1 in their last 10 games. Kari Lehtonen - a DISASTER 49+ Million dollars in salaries. Projected to lose millions of dollars this year. 2 Million lost on Tim Hortons spornsorship. (would have earned 4 M) 3 M projected to be lost on Easton spornsorship (based on making playoffs). (would have earned 6 M). Underperformance from many players. A lot of pending UFA's. Not a great core of youth/picks.
The Good: Mats Sundin: The only well-performing Coyote. (29 goals, 3 off the lead) 2.5 M projected to be earned on Dodge sponsorship. (cost of 1 M) Ranking 10th-20th in key team stats categories. (not great, but better than standings suggest anyway) A few players looking to rerate well.
GM Vardy is extremely puzzled with his team's performance. On paper they certainly have the talent, but they just don't seem to be getting the job done. Vardy has been tweaking the roster all season with zero success. Every time he thinks that he has it figured out, the team goes on a huge losing streak. Many have suggested various reasons for the Coyotes failures. The following are a number of possible reasons.
a) Lack of scoring forwards b) Missing top-4 D c) Goaltending d) Coaching e) Chemistry f) Just a bad team
The Coyotes are on the verge of a complete rebuild, but before they do, they are considering all options and looking to see if it is reasonable to make a move to try to get into the playoffs and earn that 6 M sponsorship (plus playoff $). Will they fire the coach? the GM? make a lateral trade? move lehtonen? rebuild?
Go ahead and weigh in with your thoughts on the Coyotes this season.
Steve
The following is a list of the Coyotes trades following this post.
Trade #1: To STL: Brian Pothier To PHO: Mathias Tjarnqvist Pothier really wasn't able to fit into the Coyotes Lineup. He's the type who's good at a number of things, but not great at anything. Plus he's not played in like a year, an it seems his career is in jeopardy. In return the Coyotes get a DF specialist who can kill penalties and play on the 4th line. While Tjarnqvist is really only a 1 year player, they manage to cut nearly a million in salary. Expect Thomas Pock (78DF) to get the call-up to play on D.
Trade #2: To NAS: CBJ2 (2009) To PHO: Radim Vrbata + Jim Slater Phoenix has addressed the need for more scoring with this move. Vrbata will play on one of the Coyotes top 2 lines and should help the team put the puck in the net more often. Additionally, adding offense ensures the Coyotes are playing more in the opposition end than their own end. Slater was included in the deal as a longer term asset to help balance the loss of the 2nd rounder for the next few years.
Trade #3: To DAL: Brendan Morrison + PHO 4 (2010) To PHO: Tom Preissing First and foremost this is a salary cutting move. The previous deal by the Coyotes put the team over the cap. While waivers or buyouts were a possibility the Coyotes decided to sacrifice a 2010 pick to cut salary. Furthermore, the Coyotes defense is thin (especially with trading Pothier) and Preissing will add an offensive option to the lineup. Morrison really struggled to find a home on the team, and it's no surprise he was the guy moved to cut salary.
With no players with at least a 70sc, the team simply doesn't have enough firepower to win games. Couple that with no top end defensive forwards, and your forward group is subpar. The defense is very good, yet Lehtonen has been terrible. It looks like the forward crew has been built based on OV, and not on their attribute strengths, which is a recipe for disaster.
I don't necessarily buy the SC argument: Selanne, Sundin, and Erat all have good SC. Though I could probably use some more SC.
What I do agree with is that I don't have a good mix of key ratings... I need a few more "specialists". I have too many guys who are ok at multiple things, but not great at anything. This goes for offense and defense I think.
As for Lehtonen, well his DU is an issue, but even when healthy, he's been horrible. But maybe that is a function of overall poor team defense. However, my team statistically is not bad as far as shots against per game...
