2020 NHL Draft Coyotes preview: Arizona not picking until 4th round
Oct 6, 2020, 7:48 AM | Updated: 7:52 am
League and team officials are seen before the NHL hockey draft in Dallas, Friday, June 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Michael Ainsworth)
(AP Photo/Michael Ainsworth)
The 2020 NHL Draft begins Tuesday, but the Arizona Coyotes likely won’t get in on the action until Wednesday.
With Arizona not owning a pick in the first three rounds, it will have to wait until selection No. 111 to draft someone if the team does not make a trade. But Arizona has been a topic of conversation in trade rumors.
Reports indicated there is a growing market for defensemen Oliver Ekman-Larsson. General manager Bill Armstrong has also confirmed to reporters that the team is shopping negotiating rights for soon-to-be free agent Taylor Hall, giving a new team exclusive negotiating rights before Hall becomes a free agent. Moving one of those players could net the Coyotes a pick in one of the first three rounds.
This will be the first draft for a new regime after former general manager John Chayka cut ties with the team and Armstrong replaced him.
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But Armstrong won’t be running the draft due to an agreement with his former team, the St. Louis Blues. Neither will new director of amateur scouting Darryl Plandowski and special assistant to the GM Brian Daccord, who have similar agreements after leaving their former clubs to join Arizona’s front office.
New associate director of amateur scouting Ryan Jankowski will lead the draft for the Coyotes.
Here’s what you need to know for the two-day event.
How to watch
Tuesday will only include the first round, and that will take place on NBC Sports Network starting at 4 p.m.
The remaining six rounds will take place Wednesday beginning at 8:30 a.m. on NHL Network.
Arizona Coyotes 2020 draft picks
No. 111 (fourth round)
No. 142 (fifth round)
No. 173 (sixth round)
No. 204 (seventh round)
What happened to the Coyotes’ picks?
Arizona’s first-round pick in 2020 was traded to the New Jersey Devils for Taylor Hall. That will be the 18th selection.
The Coyotes’ second-round pick was taken away for violating the NHL’s combine testing policy — as was with the team’s first-round selection for 2021.
As for the third round, that was shipped off in the Carl Soderberg deal with the Colorado Avalanche.
