The Hockey News: Coyotes front office ranks seventh in fan confidence
Jul 13, 2016, 9:00 AM
Newly appointed Arizona Coyotes general manager John Chayka speaks at a news conference announcing his promotion as head coach Dave Tippett listens, Thursday, May 5, 2016, in Glendale, Ariz. Chayka is the youngest GM in NHL history. (AP Photo/Matt York)
(AP Photo/Matt York)
The Arizona Coyotes have a brand new general manager in 27-year-old John Chayka, and NHL fans have reacted positively so far to the new-look front office.
The Hockey News ranked every NHL front office based on fan confidence. The results were taken from a survey that queried respondents on six different categories, and the Coyotes finished in seventh place among the 30 NHL teams.
Credit: The Hockey News
The number one team for Future Watch has a lot of cap space and a lush prospect pool with a strong vision. Newly appointed GM John Chayka may not have the experience his contemporaries have, but he brings a fresh new approach to the game that could help the Coyotes build a Cup contender. It’ll be a long road, but most people are pretty confident this is the right group to lead them there.
Arizona hasn’t made the playoffs since 2012, when the Coyotes lost to the Kings in the Western Conference Finals. Last season, the Desert Dogs finished fourth of seven teams in the Pacific Division, going 35-39-8.
Their roster-building (12th), trading (10th) and free-agency (11th) were all only slightly above the league’s median confidence levels, but vision (9th), cap management (3rd) and draft/development (4th) all were in the top ten.
Cap management is indeed a strong point for the Coyotes, who consistently fall well below the league’s salary cap. In a way, it indicates the team isn’t putting the NHL’s top talent on the ice, but their approach of youth and defense does allow them to circumvent spending a pretty penny on the game’s top free agents.
In two straight seasons, the Coyotes have acquired large cap hit contracts to get themselves to the salary floor. They did it last year by acquiring retired Philadelphia Flyer Chris Pronger, and did it again at this year’s NHL Draft by acquiring retired Red Wing Pavel Datsyuk in a trade that also allowed them to move up in the draft.
As for drafting and developing, the Coyotes have a crop of young talent in their minor league system, including forwards Dylan Strome, Christian Fischer and Christian Dvorak. In this year’s draft, they managed to pick the US National 18-U Team’s all-time points leader in Clayton Keller at No. 7 overall, and they traded up from No. 20 to No. 16 (the Datsyuk deal) with the Wings to get defenseman Jakob Chychrun.
Chayka also recently acquired top free agent defenseman Alex Goligoski from the Dallas Stars before signing him to a contract, and re-signed goaltender Louis Domingue and captain Shane Doan.
