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And the Best Coyotes Player of All-Time Is....... |
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Thanks to everyone who participated in the conversation about who the best Coyotes player of all time is, well, except for that one guy who said I was biased against Americans, which is ridiculous, you know, since all my favorite bands (REM, The Boss), writers (J.D Salinger, Stephen King, David Foster Wallace), heroes (Jack Kerouac, Jack Baur, Chris Mathews, Fonzie) Comedians (Richard Pryor, Mitch Hedberg) and hockey players (Phil Kessel, Keith Yandle) are American.....Yeah, I live in Ontario, but that is just basically America with Healthcare and less pollution.... So, just to be clear, I love America, and Americans....
......Anyways, even though that was a ridiculous accusation, I still had some fun, but it turns out that I was not swayed to change my mind.....which probably speaks more to the lack of candidates than to my mine being unchangeable.
So, without further ado, the best Coyotes player of all time is.............A total cop-out!
Yes, I am coping-out here, because I think there are three different players who deserve the title, but for different reasons.
Note: I did not include players who were the best for the forger Jets franchise. That would be Dale Hawerchuck and there is no debate, so honorable mention to him, but this is a Phoenix/Glendale/Arizona only list.
The Best Player
Keith Tkachuk is the best player who has ever been a Coyote. He is a player who is highly likely to get into the hall of fame, having scored a whopping 538 career goals, which places him 31st all time.
Tkachuk played 10 seasons in Winnipeg/Phoenix, moving with the team in 1996 and splitting his time evenly between the two cities. His best season - the best season anyone in Phoenix has ever had - came in the team's inaugural season when he posted 52 goals and 86 points. He was injury plagued in his final three campaigns or else he would easily been over 30 goals in all five of his Coyotes seasons. In fact, had he not missed so much time with injuries, Tkachuk would have had a real shot at 600 goals and a top 20 all time ranking. Impressive.
In total, Keith Tkachuk is the best player, statistically, to ever where the Phoenix uniform. Likely he will be the first player to go to the Hall of Fame who was predominately a Coyote.
The Most Beloved Player
Shane Doan was the fan choice for best Coyotes player of all time, but that is a tribute to the man, not the player.
Doan has been a Coyote his entire career, which began in Winnipeg in 1995. He has been remarkably consistent, scoring over 20 goals 13 times. His best two seasons were 07-08 when he got 28 goals and 78 points and 08-09 when he got 31 goals and 78 points.
Doan is the romantic choice- he has played his whole career here, and has been the Captain forever, has done a ton in the community and despite the tumultuous history of the franchise, he has stayed loyal through good and bad times.
Doan is synonymous with Phoenix and even at age 38 he continues to be a solid player who, had he not suffered the mysterious Rocky Mountain Fever and missed 13 games, (plus a few games to recover where he wasn't himself) would have come close to 30 goals yet again, despite the Coyotes being one of the league's most offensively starved teams.
Doan is a class act and the all time greatest Coyote, if we include all the intangibles like leadership, loyalty, community involvement and other such things. He just isn't the Hall of Fame talent that Keith Tkachuk was.
The Most Talented Player
Tkachuk burned brightly for a brief period, and Doan has put in the time, but the most talented player to ever wear the uniform is, in my opinion, Oliver Ekman-Larsson. This is the first time the Coyotes can honestly say they ever have one of the league's true elite players, in terms of talent. Sure, he's young and has only played four seasons, but wow is he good.
The way he skates, passes, plays D with an intelligence that belies his youth....This is a player who is - barring injury - going to easily be the best player to play for the Coyotes by the time his career is done.
How good is he? Good enough that, I would say, if he played in a more NBC/CBC friendly market that he would have already won a Norris Trophy. Sure, I get accused of being in love with him (and there is no truth to the rumour that I have a topless life sized poster of him hanging in my bedroom) but that is because he is sublime in the way he plays the game. He is one of those players, where, if you only watch the highlights, you might not notice him. He does everything well, and even if he didn't score so much he could make a living as a stay-at-home defenseman, despite not really being too physical.
OEL put up 44 points last year in what was a bit of a breakout performance, but that doesn't even tell the whole story. He was on the ice in every situation and he despite injuries to Doan, Mike Smith, his partner (the massively under-appreciated) Zbynek Michalek, and the absence of anything resembling a scoring line, OEl almost single-handedly got the Coyotes into the playoffs.
Mark my words: OEL will win the Norris one of these years , be a first team all-star and hit 70 points. Also, he will go down in history as the best Coyotes of all-time. He is already the most talented player to ever wear the jersey.
Thanks for reading.
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