Don Maloney: Coyotes are a work in progress, but there’s a lot to be excited about

The Arizona Coyotes are ready to put last year behind them after finishing the 2014-15 season with a 24-50-8 record, the worst in franchise history since moving to Arizona.

Coyotes General Manager Don Maloney admits that the team is still a work in progress, but with the season opener in Los Angeles coming up on Friday he said that there is a lot to be excited about following training camp.

“We were really, really genuinely excited about rookie camp, the young kids we had. Just the plethora of talent in that group,” Maloney told the Doug and Wolf Show on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Wednesday. “Part of the challenge for us is the timeline, waiting for that group to get here.”

While the Coyotes will have to wait for some highly-anticipated players like Dylan Strome – their first round pick who made it to the last round of training camp cuts – to be ready for a full NHL season, a few of the rookies did lock down spots on the ‘Yotes Opening Day roster.

“A couple of our young players, Max Domi and Anthony Duclair, are here to start and bring some energy,” Maloney said. “They’re as talented as anybody we have on the roster right now.”

Maloney praised the speed and quickness that they both bring to the Coyotes roster as well as Domi’s strength and Duclair’s skills, but did so gingerly.

“I really try to downplay putting too much focus on 20-year-olds. It’s a men’s league. And we’re really trying to stay away from that. Hopefully they’ll merge as people come and see us play and as they grow their game. But they’re ready,” Maloney said.

Domi and Duclair weren’t the only young players who caught Maloney’s attention.

“We had a young player, Jordy Martinook that came in and just willed himself onto our roster.”

As was the case with Domi and Duclair, Maloney was impressed by the speed of Martinook.

“He plays with quickness and speed,” Maloney said. “That was the real focus for us in the offseason.”

“We know we have to play quicker, and I think we certainly will. Our defense is a stable group, and hopefully the whole will be greater than the sum of the parts and we’ll be one of those surprise teams this year.”

In order for that to happen, the Coyotes can’t only rely on their young guns.

“Our season is going to revolve around the play of our core veteran players. They’re going to have to carry the load again,” Maloney said.

Maloney said that players like Mikkel Boedker, Antoine Vermette, Martin Hanzal and Coyotes captain Shane Doan will be crucial to the team’s success.

“That’s the group that has to kind of keep this thing afloat for a while as our young players emerge and grow and figure out the NHL,” Maloney said. “It’s an exciting time for us.”

Vermette, who began the 2014-15 season with the Coyotes, returns to Arizona with a Stanley Cup on his resume after he was traded to the Blackhawks last year.

“Winning a Cup, knowing what it takes to play hockey in June – as we introduce more young people into our organization you can’t have enough of those kind of players,” Maloney said. “So we’re thrilled he’s back with us.”

With a Stanley Cup under his belt, Maloney said that now Vermette has a new goal.

“Now his goal is to help us get back to the playoffs and get on a winning streak,” Maloney said. “All he wanted to do was play with Max Domi and he was telling Tipp all through camp, ‘let me play with those guys’, those young guys and kind of help them along.”

Vermette will get the opportunity to do just that in the season-opener.

“Friday night we’re going to start up and Max will play with Antoine and Mikkel Boedker. There’s a perfect example of a line with all kinds of quickness and speed and (chemistry) if the chemistry works,” Maloney said.

One of the biggest questions surrounding the Coyotes heading into the season came on the other side of the puck, with goalie Mike Smith being the topic of discussion.

Last season marked Smith’s toughest yet with Arizona, finishing the season with a save percentage of .904 and an average of 3.16 goals allowed per game.

But Maloney doesn’t think that Smith was their biggest issue.

“I think there’s way too much emphasis on Mike last year,” Maloney said. “I think our defense wasn’t good enough.”

This year, Maloney hopes that it will be a different story.

“Tipp has worked very hard in the off season — hundreds of hours with his staff — to try and put a game plan in place that protects our own goal, protects our own end a little bit better so we don’t have to have Mike be All-World every night to be competitive,” Maloney said.  “I’ve really liked the way Mike’s looked so far. He looks comfortable, he looks calm.”

Maloney said that this year, the story isn’t Mike Smith.

“I think collectively as a group, with a lot less emphasis on Mike and a lot more on the team in front of Mike, if everybody does their job then we’ll be a fun team to watch.”