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DD or JDD? Doppelgänger Dilemma

Bruce McCurdy — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:34:36 -0000

More photos » by Jeff McIntosh - AP

Devan Dubnyk

Lowetide asked me an interesting question the other day: if I were building an expansion team, which one of Edmonton's young goalies might I pick: Deslauriers or Dubnyk? Let's rephrase it slightly to put an Oilers spin on the query: if there were an imaginary expansion draft, which one should we protect?

While there's hopefully no expansion to worry about, the Oilers will essentially face such a choice next summer/fall, or pay a premium to put it off. For now there is no hard overlap between the two, but that day is coming fast. Dubnyk is two years younger than Deslauriers and pretty much Exactly two years behind him on the career curve. In fact the two have a whole lot in common:

Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers (JDD) was born on May 15, 1984, the day of Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals (Oilers 7, Islanders 2 :)). A long stringbean at 6'4, 200, he was drafted 31st overall in 2002, the first pick of the second round, acquired in the Jochen Hecht trade. (Pick #36, Jarret Stoll, also came courtesy of what turned out to be a pretty good trade.) He was the fourth goalie of his draft class to be chosen. The top 5 were #2 Kari Lehtonen, #25 Cam Ward, #29 Hannu Toivunen, #31 JDD, #34 Tobias Stephen. JDD appears to be a solid third in this group, behind Ward and the injury-plagued Lehtonen but ahead of the other two who fired and fell back.

Devan Dubnyk (DD) was born on May 4, 1986, when the hockey world was still trying to come to grips with Steve Smith's own goal. A longer stringbean at 6''5, 194, he was drafted 14th overall in 2004. He was the second goalie of his draft class to be chosen. The top 5 were #6 Al Montoya, #14 DD, #17 Marek Schwarz, #26 Cory Schneider, #37 David Shantz. A much less proven fivesome, befitting their younger age. Dubnyk is the fourth to get a cup o' coffee, but none have played as many as 500 minutes in the show. DD clearly ranks ahead of Schwarz and Shantz, and it's a toss-up among the others, with Schneider having the best hype. That said, today DD is the only one of the five in the NHL.

At a glance DD and JDD are mirror images of each other with Dubnyk being the longer, stringbeanier, right-handed one with the slightly higher draft pedigree and the slightly less-bumpy career curve.

Both broke into major junior in 2001-02 so let's start there after the jump:

	JDD				DD
Season	League	GP	Sv%	Season	League	GP	Sv%
2001-02	QMJHL	51	0.900	2001-02	WHL	3	0.838
2002-03	QMJHL	49	0.888	2002-03	WHL	26	0.907
2003-04	QMJHL	50	0.916	2003-04	WHL	44	0.917
2004-05	AHL	22	0.888	2004-05	WHL	65	0.912
	ECHL	11	0.940
2005-06	AHL	13	0.897	2005-06	WHL	54	0.912
	ECHL	6	0.899
2006-07	AHL	40	0.908	2006-07	ECHL	43	0.921
					AHL	4	0.855
2007-08	AHL	57	0.912	2007-08	AHL	33	0.904
2008-09	NHL	10	0.901	2008-09	AHL	62	0.906
2008-09	AHL	5	0.906
2009-10	NHL	6	0.920	2009-10	AHL	18	0.924

Dubnyk was the hotter shot, played in the Dub as a call-up at age 15 and a backup at 16. By 17, however, both were starters (44+ GP) in Major Junior. So let's reorganize our data there, recognize that Dubnyk is two years (less 11 days) younger, and match up their seasons by hockey age.

	JDD				DD
Age	Leagues	GP	Sv%	Age	Leagues	GP	Sv%
17	QMJHL	51	0.900	17	WHL	44	0.917
18	QMJHL	49	0.888	18	WHL	65	0.912
19	QMJHL	50	0.916	19	WHL	54	0.912
20	AHL/ECHL	33	0.911	20	ECHL/AHL	47	0.918
21	AHL/ECHL	19	0.898	21	AHL	33	0.904
22	AHL	40	0.908	22	AHL	62	0.906
23	AHL	57	0.912	23	AHL	18	0.924
24	NHL/AHL	15	0.902
25	NHL	6	0.920

There are a lot more similarities than differences on those career curves. Thanks to the Oilers' inexplicable decision to suspend AHL operations for two seasons, JDD's development was more retarded -- using the word carefully -- than was DD's. Deslauriers was on the outside looking in especially in his 21-year-old season, whereas Dubnyk was still in junior that 2005-06 season, then got an everyday gig in the ECHL the next year which didn't hurt him a bit. By his own 21-year-old season he was backing up JDD in Springfield, and getting a reasonable split (37%) of the ice time, over which the Oilers had finally regained control. As a result DD has substantially more games in the lower league, all in one season, whereas JDD spent parts of two seasons in the ECHL and spent a little more time on the bench at whatever level. Thus even though Dubnyk has just begun his 23-year-old season, his pro experience is already a little greater than JDD's was at the end of his equivalent season. To summarize:

	JDD				DD
Age	Leagues	GP	Sv%	Age	Leagues	GP	Sv%
17-19	Major Jr.	150	0.908	17-19	Major Jr.	163	0.914
20-23	Minor Pro	149	0.909	20-23	Minor Pro	160	0.911

So Dubnyk appears to have a slight edge, with a little more experience at both levels and a slightly greater Sv%. While far from perfect, Sv% is the best single measure we have of goaltender performance. It seems probable that quality of team will affect that Sv%. The two only played on the same team for one full season (2007-08 in Springfield) and little pieces of a couple of others. JDD has the better Pts% ("winning percentage") of the two, .511 to .475 in their last 3 years of junior, .507 to .447 in their first 4 years of pro. Some would argue that JDD is therefore more of a winner; others would counter that DD played on worse teams and if anything that makes his superior Sv% that much more impressive.

Beyond that are the non-save effects, the "soft skills" which are so difficult to measure. I’m talking about game management skills, rebound control, puck retrieval and distribution. At the NHL level I estimate these skills or lack thereof might be the equivalent of a bump in a goalie’s Sv% by as much as ± .005. I’ve seen enough of JDD to lump him in the group I call "chaos goalies"; he better be a good stopper, cuz a sweeper he is not. We know less about this aspect of DD's game; what do the scouting reports say? If he’s a "control goalie" that’s another arrow in his quiver; if on the other hand he’s much worse than JDD, he won’t be able to play in this league.

For now Dubnyk faces two realities. He may be a little further than Deslauriers at the same point in his career, but in real time he’s two years behind. JDD has the 16 games of NHL experience, and the 90 games on the bench and all that accrues to that; he’s the NHLer. DD is where JDD was two years ago, called up for a cup of coffee but not guaranteed to even get a game. Last night we saw the two together in the NHL line-up for the first time, but come game time JDD responded to the challenge in a big way, posting a 36-save shutout. He wants to keep Dubnyk on the bench. (That said, if Khabibulin needs a few more days I personally would like to see the two split the upcoming back-to-back games.)

The other reality is that the club has committed to Nikolai Khabibulin who theoretically will be the starting goalie for the next 2.7 ± 1 years. If the idea – or should I say the ideal – is to gradually grow a youngster into the starting role à la Warren Moon and Tom Wilkinson, the timing may actually work in Dubnyk’s favour. JDD will enter his UFA years in 2011; Dubnyk is eligible to do so in 2013, just as Khabibulin’s hefty pact expires. If Dubnyk blossoms, the Oilers will be in position to pay him then.

Still, there’s precious little to choose between the two long stringbeans. By next fall Dubnyk will be in the exact same position that JDD was last year, out of options and needing to clear waivers. In JDD’s case we saw the undesirable result: a three-headed monster in the crease and a lack of roster flexibility elsewhere. As things shape up now, Oilers will face the exact same situation next fall.

In a perfect world, the organization will reach a decision over the summer or by the end of training camp. In a perfect world, they will deal one of the youngsters for an asset that will help the club elsewhere. And in a perfect world, they will make the right choice of which one to keep. My distant early guess is that will be Devan Dubnyk.

Coyotes at Wild - Game Preview #21

OdinMercer — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:31:42 -0000

More photos » by Matt York - AP

about 1 month ago: Phoenix Coyotes right wing Shane Doan (19) looks to pass as Tampa Bay Lightning center Vincent Lecavalier (4) defends during the third period of an NHL hockey game Monday, Nov. 16, 2009 in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Browse more photos »

After a listless performance against the Lightning, the Coyotes take a short 2 game roadtrip starting tonight against the Minnesota Wild. The Wild are not what one would call a "good" team at the moment. They've gone 7-11-2 so far for 16 points. That puts them just above the Ducks in the Western Conference standings. They have, however been pretty good at home going 5-2 at XCEL. Mikko Koivu leads the Wild in points at 5-13-18 and Andrew Brunette leads in goals with 7.The Coyotes need to take this team seriously though as they have not been playing well as of late. Against the Lightning there was zero energy and though the Wild haven't been all that great this year, if we look past them we'll have another L against us.

Five for Winning:

No More LaBarbera!: Some of those goals that went in on Monday were really soft. while I know Bryz lets those in now and then, I expect Ilya Bryzgalov to get both tonight's game, and unless he gets shelled, the game against St Louis as well. The season started out with myself and others liking Jason LaBarbera, but his recent performance has many calling for Al Montoya to get another shot in the big league.

Make the Wild Stay Minus: A lot of people don't like the +/- statistic, but it can help show patterns in teams and players. For example, Of the 25 skaters that have played games for the Wild this season only 5 are not in the -. 2 of the five left are at an even 0. That goes to show that at least at even strength, they haven't been all that strong.

Power Play woes: Just a few games ago, the Coyotes were one of the better teams in the league when it came to PP%. Now we've slid from a high of 6th in the league to a middling 14th. Minnesota isn't the team we want to face to bust out of that slump as even with a so-so record they still have an 82% PK percentage.

Weathering the Injury Storm: Now we've added Matthew Lombardi to the ever growing list of the Coyotes injured reserve joining Zbynek Michalek, Kurt Sauer and the Day-to-Day Ed Jovanovski. Hopefully we're just getting the injuries out of the way early and everyone will be completely healthy for the rest of the year once they come back because this is starting to get brutal. At least we're not lacking Forward prospects to call up unlike on the blueline.

Look out for the Second Period: Minnesota likes to score and get scored against this year in the second period. 52% of the goals against and 46% of their goals for come in the second period. Those are some pretty lopsided stats in terms of goal distribution. This bodes well for the Coyotes at least as they're usually waking up after a slow first period.

GO YOTES!

Point/Counterpoint with Aaron & Tim: On Trading Kari Lehtonen

aaron b — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:00:31 -0000

by John Bazemore - ASSOCIATED PRESS

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POINT: Trade Kari Lehtonen

1) It's Not Me, It's You.

"Right now, he's not in the mix. Saying he's No. 1, that's not true. I'll put him in when he's actually ready, but right now the No. 1 job is up for grabs. "

Atlanta Thrashers Head Coach John Anderson

"Even when Lehtonen is healthy, he should not assume that the #1 job is his. At this point, I don't think he has earned the right to expect that."

Atlanta Thrashers General Manager Don Waddell

84. That's the number of games missed by Kari Lehtonen since 2005. That's an average of twenty one games a year over Kari's four full seasons in Atlanta. The bulk of these games (41) were missed in the 2005-2006 season, the year the Thrashers fell short of the playoffs by two points. I'm not the strongest stat guy here at BWA, but I feel confident stating the outcome of that season would be a little different had Kari not missed half the year.

$9,700,000. That's the total amount of money paid to Kari Lehtonen over four full seasons, almost a quarter of which he hasn't played. To compound the situation, Kari's rehabilitation never seems to go "as planned." Yes, rehab is very much dependent upon unique personal characteristics, but even when it comes to something as routine as starting training camp in shape, Lehtonen seems to struggle. Take the latest injury - back trouble. It's a relatively simple process: get fixed - get rehab - get back in net. Here's the thing: if rehab is going according to plan, why would your GM give even a whiff of frustration with your position and playing situation?

Goalies are known for their "personality quirks", but most manifest themselves in subtle and non-disruptive ways. Well, let's talk about blue hair for just one minute. Having messed around with more than my fair share of hair dye from my late teens to early twenties, I can't exactly bag on the young man too hard. Maybe it was more the attention paid to the blue hair, and not the hair (or it's blueness) itself that caused such a stir. And I am by no means laying the blame for an opening round playoff sweep at the feet of a Smurfy coif. But one question, how often have you seen Martin Brodeur, Roberto Luongo, or even Marty Turco running around the clubhouse with outrageously dyed hair? Now, no one is saying All-Star goalies can't have outrageously dyed hair. But would an All-Star goalie want to have outrageously dyed hair? Before you start ripping me about this one, riddle me this--how would your coworkers perceive you if you walked in one day during a stressful time, trying to land a big account, and you had dyed your hair an unnatural shade of whatever color? How would that effect "office chemistry?" Right or wrong, regardless of intent, actions have consequences.

2) A Change of Scenery/Light a Fire

In July of 2002, the Atlanta Thrashers traded Ruslan Zainullen (who?...exactly), to the Calgary Flames for a young forward named Marc Savard. Savard was without a doubt talented, but his struggles with Calgary coach Greg Gilbert landed him a ticket to Atlanta. By the end of the 05/06 season, Savvy had lined up with Ilya Kovalchuk and posted 47, 52 & 97 point seasons, leading to a 4 yr./$20 million deal with the Boston Bruins.

In 2000, Martin St. Louis was bought out by Calgary (whoops again) and picked up by the Tampa Bay Lightning for a mere $225,000 (by some hotshot GM named Rick Dudley). Over the past 8 years in Tampa, St. Louis has averaged almost 71 points per season.

Right now Savvy is seething over his being passed over for Canada's Olympic team:

'I feel that I had a chance to at least go to the camp. I didn't really come out and say anything. I had a lot of calls for a couple weeks after that. It's something I didn't want to talk about. I was pretty mad about it. I've had to prove myself over and over again. I'm hoping to get off to a good start. I still haven't counted myself out, so I guess that's all that matters.'

I don't know about you, but I'm not going to get in his way.

My point is simply, a trade is sometimes the best thing to shake a player out of complacency and into a state of productivity. The Atlanta Thrashers have invested: a first round pick, four years of time, and almost $10 million dollars in Kari Lehtonen, and he's responded with nothing more than simmering, unrealized potential. Something needs to change. I propose it is not only in the Thrashers best interest, but also in Kari's best interest for a trade to happen while there is still time for him to flourish.

3) Get While The Getting's Good

At this point in the Thrashers existence, they've got more depth than ever. Their forward corps can no longer be labeled "offensively challenged", and their d-men are a young and very talented group. The only pieces the Thrashers lack are consistent netminding and a dependable penalty kill. Goaltenders reach peak effectiveness later than forwards and defensemen, and that should be used to the Thrashers advantage. Given the potential still possessed by Kari, and the relative in-expense of a penalty killer, one of those needs could be immediately taken care of. As I sit writing, my Twitter feeds are blowing up with players being placed on waivers, demanding trades - now is the time to move. Hey, if the Thrashers act fast, they could probably lock up this guy named Manny Legace. I hear he's pretty good, and doesn't have a contract yet.

All of this bypasses the largest of the elephants in the room--the impending expiration of Ilya Kovalchuk's contract. What kind of message does it send to a star player contemplating his future when the team allows such a large question mark to reside in a key position?

4) Hope Is Not A Marketing Strategy

I recently attended a business conference where the phrase, "Hope Is Not A Marketing Strategy," was pounded into us on a daily basis. You see, the line of work I'm in finds itself floundering, due to a lack of discretionary spending on the part of the general public. Unfortunately, the general response of most people in my industry is one of total stop and stare, like deer in headlights. Apparently, this is not how business gets done. Decisive action is required. You can't be anchored to a proven ineffective method when money is short and time is of the essence.

Any of this sound familiar?

A year ago Thrasherville was faced with a regime change: new coach, new system, and a new mindset. "Team" has been emphasized more than in the past, and leadership has been placed with those who should carry it. The on-ice game plan has changed drastically. Those who couldn't fit have moved on, and the team is (overall) the better for it. A sea-change has occurred everywhere on this team, except in the position that matters most: the goaltending. Why is that? Why are the Thrashers holding on to a complacent player who has yet to deliver on his considerable promise and potential?

If we only knew.

COUNTERPOINT: Keep Kari Lehtonen

Tim's Take: It's hard to argue in favor of Kari Lehtonen. As a guy who was picked 2nd overall in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, you expect him to produce big returns. The Thrashers could have had Jay Bouwmeester! Let us, for a moment, look at other goalies who have been taken high in drafts around the same year as Kari:

Name	Draft Position	GP	Win %	Save %	GAA	Injured G/Yr	09-10 Salary
Lehtonen	2^nd (2002)	204	0.531	0.912	2.87	21	$3MM
DiPietro	1^st (2000)	273	0.511	0.905	2.79	16	$4.5MM
Fleury	1^st (2003)	235	0.566	0.907	2.87	8	$3.5MM
Montoya	6^th (2004)	5	0.750	0.925	2.08	N/A	$0.75MM

What can we gather from this information? Well, Lehtonen has pretty similar stats to these guys. His win percentage is in-between DiPietro and Fleury. I might argue that has something to do with the team that plays in front of each goaltender. Kari's career save percentage is higher than all but Al Montoya... though with only 5 NHL games under his belt, we'll probably have to throw those out due to the small sample size. Kari's GAA is right in line with Fleury and just slightly higher than DiPietro's. He's played the least number of games of the group and been injured the most - a point Aaron made above.

That said, he's also taking home the smallest paycheck of the group. If you look at cap hits, Kari looks even more affordable. (Fleury: 5 million, DiPietro: 15 years at 4.5 million...) Goalies don't typically play every game anyway. Would I like for Kari to be injured less? Sure. He's still playing a reasonable number of games per year with stats that are acceptable for his salary.

So what's the rub against Kari? Is it the games missed due to injury? I keep hearing from fans that Kari shows up to camp in terrible shape. My sense of it is that he's gotten far more serious about conditioning over the past couple years: it was a problem, but he's taken the necessary steps to correct it. In fact, didn't Kari stay in the U.S. last summer to work on his rehab and conditioning? Or am I mis-remembering that?

The real question I have is this: if not Kari, then whom? The uproar over releasing Manny Legace suggests that Thrashers fans are not ready for the Ondrej Pavelec era. Is Manny Legace the solution, then? Should our young, up-and-coming team rely on a goalie who is 36 years old? Does the youth movement stop just short of the goalie's crease?

Name me a team and I can name you problems with their starting goaltender. Roberto Luongo is a pretty talented guy, but he's making $7,500,000 this year. Next year he takes home $10,000,000 on a contract that extends well into his 40s with a cap hit over $5 million. I hear Wings fans complain about Osgood all the time... until the post-season, that is. I could go on.

The fact is, goaltenders are the final line of defense against goals. If the goaltender fails at his job, there's a pretty good chance it's a goal-against. In this way it is all too easy to blame them for failing the team. "If only Kari was the elite goalie we expected him to be!" If only my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle. Guess what, folks? You don't earn a 0.912% save rate over your NHL career by eating Twinkies and blocking pucks with your fatty behind. (Notable exception in Thrashers history: Andy Sutton.)

So folks, let's put the pitchforks and torches down a moment. Kari will be out for several weeks to start the season. During that time, we'll have a chance to see what Ondrej can do. When Kari comes back, we should have some healthy competition.

One more thing to think about: just because we can trade him doesn't mean we'll get something good back. A year ago, a large proportion of Thrashers fans were ready to trade Todd White for a bag of pucks. Last year, he had a career year at a very affordable price. Kari's value is at a low-point right now, and the rule of thumb in stocks applies here as well: buy low, sell high. (Also applicable to fantasy sports.) Trading Kari Lehtonen might be in the long-term interest of the Atlanta Thrashers, but trading him at this point in his career would be a fatal mistake.

Think about it: which team will trade for a frequently-injured goalie who has some personality quirks when Manny Legace is sitting at home without a job?

Poll

What should the Thrashers do with goalie Kari Lehtonen?

Trade him; his time with the Thrashers is up.

105 votes

Give him one more year; if he doesn't improve, move him.

120 votes

Keep him; it'd be foolish to let him go.

46 votes

271 votes | Poll has closed

Stargazing: Fabian Brunnstrom Has a Long Way to Go

Brandon Worley — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:37:17 -0000

Stargazing is a daily assortment of Dallas Stars and Texas Stars news, as well as a look at what's happening around the Pacific division and the rest of the NHL.

Big announcement coming later today on Defending Big D. In the meantime, Fabian Brunnstrom is struggling and should get sent to the AHL (but will he?), Razor chimes in on the preseason, and the players say that it isn't Marc Crawford's system to blame for the inconsistent play.

The Dallas Stars are in Cedar Park, Texas this week for what they hope to be are some intense practices focused on corrected the flurry of mistakes made on Saturday night against St. Louis. On Wednesday, the Dallas Stars will take on the Texas Stars in the Bud Light Battle of the Stars at the brand new Cedar Park Center. You can go here for tickets.

Last week, Defending Big D raised the question of whether Fabian Brunnstrom was in trouble of losing his roster spot to Jamie Benn:

Yet as each game and practice progresses, it becomes more and more obvious how much more valuable Jamie Benn is becoming to the Dallas Stars than Brunnstrom. Benn is versatile on the left and right wing, has tremendous leadership capabilities and is just as good in the defensive zone as he is with the puck. He's a smart hockey player who continues to improve daily and shows the drive that is necessary to learn from his mistakes and move on. Brunnstrom on the other hand has lost confidence, disappears at times for long stretches on the ice and showed last year he is a tremendous defensive liability.

Brunnstrom is in the second year of a two-way entry level contract, with the potential to rack up $1.35 million in performance bonuses on top of a $825,000 salary. Technically, the Stars can send him down to the AHL if they deem necessary and if his level of play continues it will come to that point. If the Stars decide that Benn is more valuable than Brunnstrom the best spot for him to play would be in Austin, where he would get top minutes and have the chance to get his scoring touch and confidence back.

After Jamie Benn started on the third line while Brunnstrom struggled on the fourth Saturday night, it's becoming more and more clear that Brunnstrom is having a harder time than most getting his groove back from a few months off.

Mike Heika covers the question of whether Brunnstrom should get time in the AHL, and what the Stars need to do to get him there and back.

So, if the Stars are healthy, there is a very good chance Brunnstrom could be a healthy scratch when the season starts. Is that the best thing for his development? He had a deal with Les Jackson when he signed with the Stars as a free agent last season that he didn't want to go the minors. So, is that that same situation with new GM Joe Nieuwendyk? (I'll ask around today in Cedar Park).

Near as I can tell, Brunnstrom will become a player who will require waivers to go to the minors when he plays 60 total NHL games (I'll triple check this today because rules change with age and tenure). Once he passes 60 games, there is no chance the Stars send him down because they don't want to lose him to another team (see B.J. Crombeen and last year). Brunnstrom played 55 games last season, so the Stars have to decide if they believe a stint in the minors to start the year would help Brunnstrom (and also whether they can send him there).

Daryl 'Razor' Reaugh always has a good perspective on the Stars and hockey, and does a good job of surmising the consternation that fans have after that debacle on Saturday night.

But before we sharpen the knives to a cut-through-a-can sharpness lets breath in and out a couple times.

It’s a new system.

It’s a new staff.

It’s one game – a preseason game.

And there are a few new players.

But still…that had an odor to it, didn’t it?

Let's trust that four days in the state capital will do wonders for their cohesion and understanding, and that a week from now the group that hits the ice at AAC to start the campaign will have a better, more automatic handle on the expected style of play.

Despite a sore hip that's limited him to just a few preseason games, Mike Modano says he feels good both physically and mentally headed into the season.

"You really want to play as long as the body will let you," he said. "That's where I am right now. I feel good, I'm enjoying the game, and I want to keep playing."

"I used to think I'd never be playing at this age, so you change your perspective on these things," he said. "I could definitely see myself playing again next year if I feel good, but that's something that will have to wait until summer."

After the 5-0 drubbing at the hands of the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night, it seemed that there might have been some frustration by the Stars players over Marc Crawford's new system and the results so far. Yet the players say the issues aren't with the system but more with their lack of execution so far.

"It's not that complicated," Robidas said. "It's do your own job, make sure you do it right and trust that your teammate will do his own job. That's the bottom line. You've got to know the system. But by now, we should know the system."

"You look around this room, and it's a very good team," Robidas said. "You can look at other teams, obviously, and say they are going to be good, and it is never easy in the NHL to win on any given night. But I think you look at our team, and we should be very good, too."

[...]

"We all play with great instincts. We all know the game," [Steve] Ott said. "You change the system a little bit, but it's still Hockey 101, and that's why we're here in this league."

Kukla's Korner has their preseason predictions up, with the Dallas Stars finishing ninth in the West while San Jose gets the top spot in the conference.

Andrew's Dallas Stars Page has a rundown of the preseason stats.

Andrew Hutchinson was officially assigned to the Texas Stars after clearing waivers on Saturday. From the Stars press release:

FRISCO, Tex. -- The Dallas Stars announced today that the club has assigned defenseman Andrew Hutchinson to the Texas Stars, Dallas' primary development affiliate in the American Hockey League (AHL).

Hutchinson appeared in three 2009 pre-season games for Dallas, going scoreless with two penalty minutes.

Texas won it's first preseason game 2-1 over San Antonio on Thursday night:

The Texas Stars defeated the San Antonio Rampage 2-1 in a preseason game on Thursday night at the Ice Center at Northwoods. Stars’ goalie Richard Bachman made 30 saves for the victory, shutting out the Rampage for the first 52:13 of regulation. Forwards Travis Morin and Greg Rallo each scored in the Texas win. The Stars’ penalty kill was flawless, stopping all seven San Antonio power plays. The Texas Stars will make their Cedar Park Center debut on Sunday at 3:00 pm in a rematch with San Antonio.

Yesterday the Stars lost to the Rampage 4-3, with Ivan Vishnevskiy having a strong game for Texas:

The Texas Stars were defeated by the San Antonio Rampage 4-3 in a preseason game on Sunday night at the Cedar Park Center. Rampage forward Chad Kolarik led San Antonio with a goal and an assist. Texas received goals from forwards Perttu Lindgren, Travis Morin and Tyler Shelast in the loss. San Antonio goalie Al Montoya picked up the win with 33 saves. Stars' goalie Brent Krahn suffered the defeat with 22 saves.

Texas will host Houston on Monday at 7:00 pm at the Cedar Park Center.

Dan Hinote has been cut from the San Jose Sharks Roster. [Fear The Fin]
With local news coverage almost non-existent, the LA Kings have hired their own beat writer to cover the team. Mark Cuban approves.
The Coyotes won their first game under Dave Tippett with good goaltending, solid defense and timely scoring. Hmmmm. [TSN]
The Ducks won their final preseason game 5-4 over the Kings [Ducks.com]

Toronto's top draft pick Nazem Kadri has been sent back to the juniors. [TSN]
The Candians are headed to Ontario for a 'bonding' exercise. [TSN]
Sidney Crosby didn't play last night against the Red Wings. Oh darn. [NHL.com]
Jonas Gustavsson is putting on a show up in Toronto. [Pension Plan Puppets]

SBNation NHL Preview: 2009-2010 Phoenix Coyotes

OdinMercer — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 10:00:33 -0000

by Matt York - AP

April 11, 2010: Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan talks about how he helped lead the Phoenix Coyotes into the 6th Seed in the Western Conference... Hopefully.

View full size photo »

The struggles of this NHL franchise in the desert have been well documented all summer long. We're still waiting for a decision as to the long term future of the team, but they're here for this season and all the speculation in the world won't change a preview of the team will it? (No, it won't) We're just one short week away from the season opener so now it's down to the nuts and bolts of what the on ice product is going to look like.

The upside of this team is that with the exception of Olli Jokinen and some fourth line forwards and 5/6 pairing Dmen, this is the same team that went into the All-Star break in 5th place in the Western Conference. The team promptly fell apart after the break with all the rumors about the financial troubles and the general lack of experience. With some more mid-aged experience to bridge the gap between the veteran and the kids, there really is a lot of potential for a breakout year.

Amid all the uncertainty this summer, just on Thursday the Coyotes signed a new head coach in the form of Dave Tippett following Wayne Gretzky's resignation. Tippett brings with him a proven system that has proven results in Dallas. While he's a little late to the party in terms of training camp, there's a lot of talent for him to work with here in Phoenix. This biggest question mark with this team is how they'll react to all the media that will be focused on them, especially at the beginning of the season. If they're able to turn it into an us against the world type of situation then we could have a strong start. If, on the other hand, they react like they did down the stretch last season and turn all that inward and implode it'll be a disaster. There's not a whole lot of room for error this year as the team needs to show outside observers and potential fans in the valley that the team is the real deal.

Without a whole lot of budget room to work with this summer, GM Don Maloney put together a pretty decent lineup. He did especially well filling in the defensive holes that have plagued the team the last few years. The spots that had been held by any combination of Ken Klee, Dimitri Kalinin and David Hale have now been filled with Adrian Aucoin and Jim Vandermeer. Aucoin has some offensive ability but is a good puckmover, while Vandermeer is all about defense. Along with the existing defense of Zbynek Michalek, Kurt Sauer, Ed Jovanovski and Keith Yandle this year's blueline pairs look solid.

At Forward, some of the youth has been sent down to San Antonio already to get a little more experience. Viktor Tikhonov and Kyle Turris are the biggest names to be sent to the farm. Turris needs to just grow since he's a small little twig man and Tikhonov just needs more experience. He had a solid time on the PK with the big club last year, but he had a weak camp and needs more time to develop. I expect to see both at times this year though. In Camp Brett MacLean and Kevin Porter have both played well and will Challenge for a roster spot. MacLean tore up the OHL in the 06-07 and 07-08 seasons (going 47-53-100 and 61-58-119 respectively) before moving to the AHL last year. In 74 games on a pretty bad San Antonio team he was able to go 21-19-40. If he can bring some scoring touch to the team that would be great. Most of the roster though is already set. Shane Doan will once again captain the team and be his usual awesome self.Peter Mueller and Martin Hanzal are now entering their third seasons. Both will be looking for new contracts this summer and both need to pick up their games to get good ones. Mueller hit the Sophomore slump HARD and needs to find his scoring touch again. Hanzal was a solid Defensive forward, and had flashes of offense here and there last season. He needs to simply shoot the puck though, he has a cannon of a shot, but he tends to pass a little too much when he has chances. Other notables are Mikkel Boedker who had a pretty good rookie year, Radim Vrbata, who returns to the club and Scottie Upshall who needs to deliver on the potential everyone says he has.

Ilya Bryzgalov will continue to hold down the starting spot this season. Jason LaBarbera was brought in to back him up, but i'm not seeing anything in LaBarbera that makes me think he's going to give Bryz the competition everyone thinks he needs. Bryz has been on the decline, but with this year's defensive unit he needs to show he can get the job done.

Who's in: C Vernon Fiddler, LW Lauri Korpikoski, D Adrian Aucoin, D Jim Vandermeer, LW Taylor Pyatt, RW Radim Vrbata, D Sami Lepisto, G Jason LaBarbera, D Shaun Heshka,

Who's Out: Enver Lisin, Nigel Dawes, Brandon Prust, Brian McGrattan, Steven Reinprecht, Joakim Lindstrom, Demitri Kalinin, Ken Klee, David Hale, Todd Fedoruk

Who's Up?: (Players up from AHL) Brett MacLean, Kevin Porter and David Schlemko

Who's Down?: (Demotions) Kyle Turris and Viktor Tikhonov

Depth Chart:

C - Matthew Lombardi, Martin Hanzal, Vernon Fiddler, Kevin Porter, Daniel Winnik

LW - Mikkel Boedker, Lauri Korpokoski, Petr Prucha, Taylor Pyatt, Brett MacLean

RW - Shane Doan, Peter Mueller, Scottie Upshall, Radim Vrbata,

D - Zbynek Michalek, Kurt Sauer, Ed Jovanovski, Keith Yandle, Adrian Aucoin, Jim Vandermeer

G - Ilya Bryzgalov, Jason LaBarbera, Al Montoya

Season Prediction: The Coyotes make it into the playoffs. Why? Because they have to. It's the only end that makes sense for this crappy story so far. I'm not saying we win the division or anything crazy like that, but bringing in Tippett and an honest to god system instead of an ever changing one can only do good things for this team. Like I said earlier, this team is packed with potential. We saw small parts of that potential realized in the first part of last season. The key is to keep it going through April and hopefully into May. I think Tippett is able to get them to do just that. He brings the mustache back and leads the Coyotes to a 7th place finish in the West and at least make the playoffs interesting. Feel good story of the year and everything. David Shoalts and Canadian media outlets complain about how our playoff spot wasn't given to Edmonton automatically.

Poll

Where in the Western Conference standings do you think the Phoenix Coyotes will finish in the 2009-2010 season?

1st

5 votes

2nd

3 votes

3rd

2 votes

4th

2 votes

5th

8 votes

6th

12 votes

7th

14 votes

8th

15 votes

9th

6 votes

10th

3 votes

11th

0 votes

12th

7 votes

13th

4 votes

14th

7 votes

15th (Banned)

17 votes

105 votes | Poll has closed

Grant Fuhr Out as Coyotes Goalie Coach - Sean Burke to Step In

OdinMercer — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:48:22 -0000

Andy Strickland is reporting that the Coyotes have relieved Grant Fuhr of his job as Goaltending coach, replacing him with Sean Burke. Burke, who retired from the NHL in 2007, has been on the Coyotes staff for a year and a half as Director of Prospect Development.

Fuhr came in to the Coyotes organization just as Wayne Gretzky was preparing to become head coach. While the Coyotes have added Ilya Bryzgalov and Al Montoya to the roster in that time, among others, the goaltending for the team has been suspect at best and hasn't shown much improvement. Part of the probelm, at least in my opinion, is that Fuhr was a totally different type of goalie from what is currently in our system. We seem to be keen on drafting or getting taller goalies that require a different skill set than what Fuhr was used to. Bringing in Burke, on the other hand, plays to the same physical build at least if not the athletic ability.

Strickland also reports that Fuhr has been reassigned within the team to work with the prospects. Possibly just switching places with Burke for the time being.

Game Recap: Kings v. Coyotes SuperSeries

RudyKelly — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:46:18 -0000

More photos » by Chris Carlson - AP

Man, Opie's really pissed that someone killed his wife.

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-Staples had maybe 8,000 people there for their preseason game against the Coyotes; Peter Mueller remarked, "Hey, this is just like playing at home!"

-Above you'll see young Kevin Westgarth fighting ~~Grendel~~ Mitch Fritz. It was a spirited contest but I think Fritz won the fight because Westgarth tried to block every one of Fritz' punches with his face. Fun fact: Richard Clune got into a fight at the same time as Westgarth and beat the piss out of Stefan Meyer. A Kings goon that I actually like? It may just happen.

-The Kings' top line of Justin Williams-Anze Kopitar-Ryan Smyth played about 20 minutes of the game. Justin Williams had a really nice individual effort that led to a goal, toe-dragging around a sliding Coyote and then getting his own rebound to bury the goal. Ryan Smyth drew a penalty (he just has one of those faces you want to smash) and screened the goaltender on 2 Kings' goals. Kopitar just kind of skated around, he didn't do much.

-Ted Purcell was probably the Kings' best forward on the night, tallying a goal and an assist and making several nice plays to create opportunities, especially on the power play. It'll be interesting to see what happens to him, as he plays the same position on the power play that Kopitar and Frolov usually occupy (that half-wall on the left side). He also won a few good corner battles and looked noticeably bigger than he used to. He's going to make the team, I am almost 100% sure.

-Andrei Loktionov and Oscar Moller were Purcell's linemates and both looked pretty much the same: good skaters, a few nice plays, but very small and easily pushed around. The Kings should put them both in Manchester and let them grow for a year.

-Brayden Schenn had a few nice hits and Kyle Clifford used his body well, but they were kind of invisible for most of the night. Clifford was in front of the net on one play and got pushed in the back by Keith Yandle, then looked like a jackass when he dropped his gloves and Yandle just skated away. We'll see them in a few years.

-Juraj Mikus (pronounced "Mee-koosh," which is incredibly fun to say) had a few nice plays and didn't seem out of place on NHL ice. I don't remember if he can go down to Manchester or if he's going back to Europe and I can't really be bothered to do "research" or whatever it's called, but he didn't look like a dick out there so that's something.

-Drew Doughty looks bigger. He had the biggest hits of the night, including a bomb on Ryan Holweg, although he didn't really try to do too much outside of one nice rush up the ice that resulted in a penalty for the Coyotes.

-Thomas Hickey had one play where he grabbed a puck behind the net by skating backwards, collected the puck when it came between his legs and then passed cross-ice to a streaking Justin Williams. It made my dick flutter. He just looks better than Davis Drewiskie, at least for what the Kings need in a defenseman, but I won't mind if he logs heavy minutes in Manchester for a year.

-Colten Teubert, on the other hand, looked like dog shit. There was a sequence in the 2nd where he got burned to the outside by Taylor Pyatt, slashed Pyatt, punched him in the face, and then got the shit kicked out of him. He ended up with 9 minutes in penalties and gave the Coyotes a 4-minute power play. I don't know what the hell is wrong with him; it's like he thinks the quickest way to the NHL is by being a goon. Just play smart hockey, dickhead, and you'll make the league someday. Right now it's not looking too likely.

-Jack Johnson... is really good in the preseason. He had 2 goals, one a power play slap shot, the other a really nice move on a 4-on-3 for the Coyotes where he burst ahead of Kyle Turris, put it between a Coyote's legs and then roofed it backhand over Al Montoya. He was the Kings' best defenseman last night. Can he do that in the NHL? We'll see.

-Rob Scuderi... huh. He was mostly invisible, which is good for a guy like him, although he made a brutal pass that led to one Coyotes goal (update: it didn't lead to a goal, it led to a penalty shot that missed) and deflected another into his own net. I'll chalk it up to early Cup hangover.

-Joe Piskula is someone we will all soon forget.

-Jon Bernier looked... okay, I guess. I'm dubious about him supplanting Jon Quick someday because he's so small to be a pure butterfly goaltender, but we'll see. He didn't have much to do all night and 2 of the goals were fluky (the Scuderi tip and a ridiculous goal by Michael Boedker that he shot from about 1/2 an inch from the goal line... although Bernier kind of caused that one by leaving it behind the net instead of flipping it to Doughty, so I guess that's his fault).

-The Kings really only had one power play line on the game, but it worked pretty well. They had Smyth in front of the net, Moller around the net to collect rebounds, Purcell on the halfboards to run things, and Johnson and Justin Williams on the backend. I don't necessarily like the idea of having a forward playing defense on both power play units (Jarret Stoll being the other), but Williams did look pretty good back there.

-In the other game at Jobing.com Arena (nice name) the Kings fell, 4-2. Both Kings goals were by Wayne Simmonds, who could have a big year offensively if he's playing with Frolov. The Kings need to re-sign Craig Conroy and run a line of Frolov-Conroy-Simmonds so my heart can swell like the Grinch.

-There was this old couple in front of my brother and me that kept getting more and more hands on with one another the more they drank. It was horrifying. When Johnson scored his beautiful 2nd goal they immediately stood up and started making out. My brother and I thought of showing them up by going down on one another but we wanted to watch the rest of the game.

3 Stars:

1) Jack Johnson

2) Drew Doughty

3) Justin Williams

I'll have a look at the position battles that will kick into high gear this week (with a special guest!) coming up either tonight or tomorrow.

Coyotes Open Training Camp Practices Start Today

OdinMercer — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 07:00:28 -0000

More photos » by Paul Connors - AP

The Great One won't be the one leading camp this year.

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Officially camp actually started yesterday, but the first public practices start today at 9:00 am. Here's a look at those invited to camp this year. There are a few names in there that you might recognize from around the league that have not signed with the Coyotes. Ryan Hollweg formerly with Toronto, Aaron Downey from Detroit, Ross Lupaschuk from Anaheim and the KHL and Mitch Fritz from the Islanders. None of them have particularly impressive resumes, but I imagine they're trying out for the position of "Hey someone got hurt, call us up from San Antonio."

Wayne Gretzky, doesn't look to be coming to camp as of today, Ulf Samuellson will be leading in his place. With Wayne's contract situation in the air due to the bankruptcy mess, he simply decided he wasn't going to be there. But I guess Coyotes fans will be getting what a large portion of them had wanted for some time, Wayne out as head coach.

I'll update and repost the list as cuts are made.

Forwards		Defence		Goaltenders
Justin Bernhardt	Mikkel Boedker	Jonas Ahnelov	Nick Ross	Ilya Bryzgalov
Jeff Hoggan	Peter Mueller	Adrian Aucoin	Ed Jovanovski	Joel Gistedt
Kevin Porter	Taylor Pyatt	Shaun Heshka	Michael Stone	Josh Tordjman
Matt Watkins	Scottie Upshall	Chris Frank	Ross Lupaschuk	Jason LaBarbera
David Spina	Francis Lessard	Mathieu Brodeur	Zbynek Michalek	Al Montoya
Vernon Fiddler	Mitch Fritz	Sean Sullivan	Kurt Sauer
Martin Hanzal	Ryan Hollweg	Sean Zimmerman	Sami Lepisto
Lauri Korpikoski	Jordan Szwarz	Tim Billingsley	Keith Yandle
Daniel Winnik	Radim Vrbata	Justin Weller	Jim Vandermeer
Viktor Tikhonov	Andrew Orpik	David Schlemko	Jeff May
Colin Long	Aaron Downey
Shane Doan	Chad Kolarik
Matthew Lombardi	Brett MacLean
Stefan Meyer	Joel Perrault
Petr Prucha	Jared Staal
Kyle Turris

A Conversation about the Phoenix Coyotes with Five for Howling

John Fischer — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 15:12:34 -0000

More photos » by Marcio Jose Sanchez - AP

These are the Phoenix Coyotes, celebrating a goal. Also pictured: expected salary-eater, Ed Jovanovski. Let's learn more about this team. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

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During this offseason, there is plenty of time available as we await training camp and the 2009-10 season to actually begin. Plenty of time to reflect, to analyze, and to learn. Among the SB Nation hockey blog network, we have decided to ask questions of a team in the opposite conference. Given that the Devils don't play too many Western conference opponents, we may not know much about them. And the only way to find answers is to seek them out (I think that's from a book, but whatever). Call it, a Summer Fill, if you will. It's taking place across the network even as you read this (example: Tampa Bay and Detroit.)

In any case, I had a conversation with Odin Mercer of Five for Howling - a Phoenix Coyotes blog - to learn more about each other's teams. We split up the questions and posted up the our respective responses. Odin has the questions he had about the Devils and my response already up at Five for Howling. What follows after the jump are my questions about the Phoenix Coyotes and his responses.

I encourage you to check out Five for Howling and engage in the discussion there, perhaps you have something to add that I missed about the Devils. I also encourage you to comment on any other questions or thoughts you have about the Coyotes. I'll pass on any interesting questions to Odin and if there's enough, we could have a follow-up to this post.

John Fischer: OK. First question, and it's the obligatory and ONLY one regarding this situation: How long will the Coyotes stay in Phoenix?

Odin Mercer: For the foreseeable future. If the court accepts the Reinsdorf bid, the only official bid that keeps the team in phoenix, then there's no way that the Glendale lease gets broken in the near future. Everyone talks about them bailing after a couple years but Glendale will still be there and won't be putting any out clauses into the lease.

John Fischer: Most recently, Devils fans saw the Coyotes come to the Rock last season and saw a guy by the name of Josh Tordjman get lit up pretty well. [Here's my recap of that game, a 5-2 Devils win.] Not exactly a fair representation of the team, perhaps. So let's start there. Who are the netminders for the Coyotes and how are confident are you in them for this coming season?

Odin Mercer: Well, Ilya Bryzgalov will be the starter the majority of the time. He's solid when the team can play D in front of him, but if teams get to him early he can get in his head and then implode. We also signed Jason LaBarbera in the offseason to back him up. I don't think there's too much danger of him stealing the starting role, but he can at least step up for a game or two if we need him. Al Montoya is the young guy to keep watching. He came in for the last 4 games of the season and went 3-1 with a shutout. They weren't pressure filled games, but he could be in the NHL in the not too distant future. So long as Bryz stays healthy we should be okay in goal though.

John Fischer: Now, speaking of the Islanders, the Coyotes are at least a little similar in that younger players have significant roles on the team. Which of those younger players have been doing well with Phoenix so far?

Odin Mercer: We do have a lot of young guys on the team. I think depending on who was on the roster from game to game we went back and forth with the Hawks on being the youngest in the league. I think Martin Hanzal has been huge for us. He's not scoring tons of goals, but he's a big kid and can be the 2nd or 3rd center. He's very good on the defensive end as well. Mikkel Boedker is probably my favorite of last year's rookies, he wasn't super consistent in his first year, but he's great with the puck and makes some incredible moves.

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Mikkel Boedker	78	11	17	28	-6	18	2	0	3	0	116	9.5

John Fischer: Let's talk a little more about Boedker. He's entering his second season of hockey. Do you think he'll hit the sophomore slump hard, or do you think he'll rise above?

Odin Mercer: It's always hard to tell with young guys. Peter Mueller is an example of one of our kids that really hit that slump in year two. The thing is though, to everyone watching you can tell what the problem is but no one was fixing it. So I think a lot of it will have to do with who's there to help when he hits an inevitable rough patch or two. The other thing he has going for him is that while he played well, he wasn't this massive producer that's going to be leaned on to win the game. With all the young guys that pressure kind of gets spread around so hopefully it won't have too much of an effect.

John Fischer: Fair enough. The Devils got a big taste of that with Zajac, who had an excellent third season which was parlayed into a nice contract for him and a lot of love for him here. Maybe the Coyotes' third year players will have the same effect?

Odin Mercer: They could. Hopefully they don't do too well though so we can sign them to reasonable deals.

John Fischer: Speaking of third year players, how's Kyle Turris?

Odin Mercer: Kyle is small.

Kyle Turris

#91 / Center / Phoenix Coyotes

Height: 6-1

Weight: 180

Born: Aug 14, 1989

How is he: Small

John Fischer: Seriously.

Odin Mercer: He's a good player, but I think he got rushed a bit. He just wasn't ready to be in the NHL full time. His size doesn't help. He's got little chicken legs and especially at the beginning of the year was getting shoved all over the place. He got better about shrugging off the checks as the year went on. He may have to fight for his spot in camp this year - which may not be a bad thing. He'll be a great player at some point, but we'll have to see what shape he is come camp time. If he puts on a little more muscle, then that will help his game a ton.

John Fischer: Now, what do you make of the current Coyote's defense? What would you say their overall style would be (e.g. physically-inclined, etc.)

Odin Mercer: It's hard to say. Every pairing seems to bring something different. The Zbynek Michalek - Kurt Sauer tandem led the league in blocked shots. Keith Yandle is a little more offensive minded and has started to find his Game. Ed Jovanovski just needs to decide who he wants to be again. Does he want to lay the other team out with the hits he can make? Or try and be the scoring defenseman? Last year he couldn't decide and ended up not being either one. We added Adrian Aucoin and Jim Vandermeer who aren't exactly offensive forces in the off season but can eat up minutes. I think if I had to go with a "style" I'd say they're going to prevent a lot of shots from the beginning. Not necessarily from checks, but from blocks and other methods.

John Fischer: What do you expect out of Ed Jovanovski next season?

Odin Mercer: I expect nothing except for him to eat salary at this point. Seriously. I find that it's better to not expect much from him and be surprised. I was so frustrated with him last year. There were times he literally assisted on other team's goals. Not just turned it over or the neutral zone or something, but stick to stick to the other team for a goal. It's aggravating to pay 6 million for that. If he can just get back to hitting and denying the puck and not even thinking about scoring, that will make me happy.

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Ed Jovanovski	82	9	27	36	-15	106	6	0	3	0	194	4.6

John Fischer: Let's talk about the fans. What is the general atmosphere at a Coyotes game?

Odin Mercer: It depends. At the beginning of the year it's pretty good, people are at the games, the arena is mostly full, but once we hit rough spots it becomes harder to fill. The other problem is that I think the casual fan doesn't really know what to do at a hockey game. They don't know what to cheer for or when to do what. I've had friends shushed at the games for cheering by people that don't really get it. I think there's some fan education that needs to happen there. But mainly when the team does well the crowds show up. We had it going pretty well until we tanked after the break last year. We just need some sort of success and the fans will come and make the arena rock. Which it needs to. It's a beautiful arena and one of the best hockey venues in the league, but it needs to be full of fans.

John Fischer: What is Wayne Gretzky's style of coaching? Other than, not good enough?

Odin Mercer: It's hard to say. There are times when he's not even at the practices and lets the assistants do it. On the bench he can be fiery, but like too many coaches these days, he often starts blending up the lines after the first shift. It's hard to keep track of who's playing with whom. The blender gets old really fast. It would be one thing if there wasn't chemistry between guys, but if a line has one or two of games but was previously successful it gets blown up.

John Fischer: That sounds like Brent Sutter in '07-'08.

Odin Mercer: Yeah. It's even hard to tell what style of play he's going for from night to night. Makes me wonder if he even knows what it is. If there's one good thing to come out of this mess it's that if Reinsdorf wins Gretz is done coaching us and we can see if it was him or our guys.

John Fischer: Who would you want coaching the Coyotes?

Odin Mercer: That's a good question. I'm not really sure who would work for us. Dave Tippett is a name I've heard mentioned a few times. He's played against us enough to know what works/doesn't on our team too. He got a raw deal in Dallas for last year too. How much was he supposed to do with half the team on the IR? He might want to pound the Stars 6 times a year.

John Fischer: I would have liked him in NJ, but my understanding is that he wanted some time off?

Odin Mercer: I'm not sure. There have been plenty of other issues to deal with before the looking for a new coach phase.

John Fischer: Of course.

I hope you got plenty of information out that as much as I did. I would like to give a big thanks to Odin at Five for Howling for responding to my questions and for taking part in this effort to fill the summer time up. Again, leave any comments and questions about the Coyotes here.

Building the Coyotes by the Numbers or You Try Having Don Maloney's Job

OdinMercer — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:28:13 -0000

Sometimes people come up with a story idea for their team that's so good you just have to copy it. Well clrkaitken, a reader over at PensionPlanPuppets made this fanshot about how he would build the Maple Leafs and I thought that would be a smashing idea to try on our team. Now, there are some key differences between the two teams that you have to remember when trying to take the idea of building your own team and applying it to the Coyotes. First, is that with all of the courtroom drama and questions over who exactly is funding the team at the moment, do you really think the team can spend any money on big free agents? Not likely. Which means once again we'll likely find ourselves scraping the salary floor this year. So when putting together a roster's worth of players I took the current Cap Floor of 40.7 Million dollars, (Which isn't expected to change much) added a little bit as a cushion, and came up with 42.5 Million as the upper reach of what the team will likely be able to spend. From there you can start making a picture of what exactly you can do.

With those guidelines in place i'm going to put together the best team I can with the budget I have. Sign RFAs, UFAs, make trades, whatever I need to do to make a solid team. Then after you've looked at mine, have a go at making your own using the FanPost function. Take a look after the jump and I'll take you through the rest of this exercise in building a team on the cheap...

So in building our team what exactly are we going to need?

Start with your 4 Forward lines. You don't want to go moving wings around too much, even though Gretzky might, so don't move people around too much. Keep things realistic. In addition to your 12 starting players you should also pick one that will either rotate in or be the guy that sits in the press box just in case. Then put you 3 defensive pairings. Add your 7th Defenseman in because we always carry one. Then add in your goaltenders. Have two. Don't go all crazy saying we're going to sign Biron and still bring Montoya with for good luck. Just 2 goalies.

What about trades? Jovo for Tavares!

Sure, go ahead and trade, but make them realistic. If you're shipping off Jovo's big salary we're going to be getting something similar in return, maybe a better player, but certainly some shedding of cap money.

Can I resign Scottie Upshall for .5 Mil a season?

No. Again, we're being as realistic as possible. If you think the team can get him on a 3 year 1.7 per year deal. Then that works, just try and make everything fair.

I don't know anything about how this stuff works. Where am I supposed to find numbers for this?

There are a few places you can find salary information but the one I use is NHLNumbers.com They have everything you'll need from who the pending free agents are to how much we pay entry level guys. You can also take a look at other teams to see what pay guys of skill level x get. to try and compare what we might sign someone for.

Anything else I need to know??

Just a few notes:

Remember that Don Maloney is very good at finding skilled players and finding them for the right price. he doesn't overpay players so we should be looking at Daniel Briere type contracts.

When adding up how much you spent, don't forget that we're still paying on the buyout of Dave Scatchard. He gets paid 700,000$ a year.

Just do your best and have fun with this, even if it is depressing...

With that, here's a look at how I would put together the Coyotes for the coming year.

Goalies:

Ilya Bryzgalov: Under contract for the 09 season for 4.25 Million. He's still our starter people.

Al Montoya: .75 Million for the kid. He showed that he has some potential at the end of last season. Give him some real starts in games that count and see what the can do.

Forward Lines:

Doan - Mueller - Nik Antropov: Antropovwould be a great free Agent pickup. Last season he made 2.05 million and while he'll be looking for a raise I don't think it's going to be all that much. Who knows, with the FA market a little slim this year, but he's 29 years old and got 28 goals last year. Seems like a GMDM kind of player. I think we could get him for 2.6 Million. Combined Line Salary: 8 Million

Lombardi - Prucha - Upshall: This line was great at the end of last year. We already resigned Prucha, and Upshall is an RFA so hopefully we got something done soon. I say we do at about 2.2 million. Combined Salary: 5.65 Million

Hanzal - Tikhonov - Kevin Porter: Porter showed promise last year and if he can keep it up again in camp he might be able to claim a place on the team. Combined Salary: 2.6 Million

Lisin - Turris - Boedker: This line would move so quickly no one could keep up. They'd also be pretty tiny so hopefully we can get them out before the checking line comes against them. Lisin is RFA but hopefully gets resigned at 1.4 million. Combined Salary: 3.15 million

Fedoruk: Just in case we need a bruiser: 1.05 million

Defensive Pairings:

Mikalek - Sauer: Best shot blocking tandem in the entire league. Breakup the pairing at your own risk. Salary: 3.25 Million

Jovanovski - Steve Montador: Why not? He's a young moderately priced Defenseman who played alright but I don't think he got a lot in terms of a raise for his efforts. Maybe we could get him for 2? Salary: 8 million

Yandle - Anhelov: Yandle will get a raise, but only to 2 million. Ahnelov looks like he might be ready for the big club come training camp. Salary: 2.575

Hale: Still under contract though he's been useless. Salary : .725

If we do all that, give or take a little on the deals, since we have to probably pay a premium to get guys here at the moment., but as I calculated them that put us at exactly 40.7 million dollars in cap money spent. And i'm actually decently happy with that line up. Might Antropov and Montador cost a little more to get here? Sure, but we need to have a cushion above the cap to make sure we're above it anyways. What do you think?

Now go and try making you own in the FanPost area. Make sure you title it with something telling everyone what it is and we can all compare notes...