CTC Off-Season Outlook Anthony Wyng Style: PHOENIX COYOTES

Team #23

PHOENIX COYOTES

Rebuilding a club is not an easy task to complete.  Rebuilding a disgruntled club with a bankruptcy problem can make matters a bit more difficult.

The Phoenix Coyotes are currently a very unstable club within the National Hockey League. Rumors are now circulating, that no matter the outcome of the situation at hand, Wayne Gretzky will NOT be back as the bench boss.  The problems just do not seem to end for the ‘Yotes.

As for the upcoming season, the problems lie within the young small roster that the Coyotes will be putting on the ice. There are a lot of bright, positive futures, but how much will be invested into the “immediate” future for this club? Can the Coyotes, the way they are at the moment, be a playoff team? A lot of questions, on top of these, that will only be answered as the summer comes to a close.

Let’s look at the roster.

The Blue Line:

Ed Jovanovski, Kurt Sauer, Zbynek Michalek, David Hale

Cap hit: $10.2 million

UFA: Dmitri Kalinin, Ken Klee

RFA: Keith Yandle

Estimated cap hit with Yandle signing: $11.5 million

The blue line needs some work, and some players.  Sure, there is a shot at some of the kids to make the team out of camp, but that is never a guarentee.  It is going to be something to keep an eye on with the d-men in Phoenix this season.

The Fowards:

Shane Doan, Kyle Turris, Matthew Lombardi, Mikkel Boedker, Peter Mueller, Viktor Tikhonov, Peter Prucha, Todd Fedoruk, Martin Hanzal, Kevin Porter, Joel Perrault

Cap hit: $16.8 million

UFA: Brian McGrattan

RFA: Nigel Dawes, Joakim Lindstrom, Enver Lisin, Scottie Upshall, Daniel Winnik

All the RFA’s need to be brought back, and that needs to happen as soon as Wednesday due to the fact that Wednesday is the day that offer sheets could be thrown around like it’s no one’s business.

estimated cap hit with re-sigings: $23 million

In net:

Ilya Bryzgalov
Al Montoya

Cap hit: $5 million

UFA: none

RFA: Josh Tordjman

Total team cap hit (estimated): $39.5 million

Team needs: Do not pay attention to off-ice issues, potential back-up goaltender (although I think Montoya will win that job

during camp/pre-season), top line sniper, third pairing d-man, another d-man, the youngsters to step it up a notch, Bryzgalov

to be what he was during the IIHF Championships. With a nice amount of cap space available, GM Maloney can attempt to get a few big guns to round out the top six.  But the defensive system is where the most work is needed.  An interesting week ahead for yet another team.