Team Outlook: Arizona Coyotes

Heading into the 2022-23 NHL season, I’m going to look at every team to see how they are looking going into the season.

Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports From: thehockeynews.com

2021-22:

Last season wasn’t the best for the Coyotes. They went 25-50-7 with 57 points and finished last in the Central Division. They were last in Goals For with only 207, and were 2nd last in Goals Against with 313. Clayton Keller had 63 points in the 67 games that he played where he finished first on the Yotes.

Draft: The Coyotes did well in the first round of the draft. They drafted Logan Cooley, Connor Geekie, and defenseman Maveric Lamoureux. Cooley was 4th in the USHL in Points Per Game in only his second season. Geekie, in his second full season in the WHL, finished with 70 points in 63 games. Lamoureux had 24 points in 54 games in his second season in the QMJHL. Unfortunately, all of the players I just mentioned have committed to a junior or college team for the next season, but the Coyotes did just sign Geekie so you may see him this season.

Additions:

The Coyotes were able to get both Zack Kassian and Patrik Nemeth from trades with the Oilers and Rangers respectively. Kassian is known for his hard hitting defensive play which are the things that this Coyote team needs. However, Nemeth didn’t really contribute very well to the Rangers last season. He had a 37.5 CF% and didn’t get many points. The Coyotes were able to sign Nick Bjugstad. Bjugstad had 13 points in 57 games with the Wild last season and could possibly help the Coyotes get those goals that they need to succeed.

Losses: The Coyotes did end up losing Phil Kessel who had 52 points in 82 games last season. They also lost Alex Galchenyuk who had 21 points in 60 games. Finally, they lost Anton Stralman who had 23 points in 74 games as a defenseman last season. The losses that they had will affect them, but it would be hard to be worse than last season.

Who to look for: Forward Jack McBain played 10 games with the Coyotes last season and registered 3 points. He played the last 4 seasons with Boston College of the NCAA and was drafted in the 3rd round of the 2018 draft.

Michael Carcone is a forward that was signed by the Coyotes and played in 21 games and got 6 points last season. The 26 year old is known for being in the AHL, but he got 41 points in the 48 games that he played with Arizona’s affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was able to crack the opening night roster for the Coyotes.

Dylan Guenther was drafted by the Coyotes last season and got 91 points in 59 games with the Edmonton Oil Kings of the WHL last season. He is signed by the Coyotes so there is a chance that we could see him in the NHL this season.

Prediction:

I can’t see it getting much better than it did last season. Keller and Chychrun are going to lead the team in scoring again mainly because they are the best players on the team and there is almost no one else. Karel Vejmelka was a rookie goaltender last season and played 52 games. He wasn’t bad for being a rookie goaltender on the Coyotes, but if he can start to get better, maybe the rest of the team can as well.

Stats from: eliteprospects.com, capfriendly.com, hockey-reference.com