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Update: Domi Demoted, Full List of Cuts. |
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Update Update
So there is news the Coyotes are being sold again, with Ice Arizona retaining a 49% stake in the team. The same article claims the Coyotes have lost 24 of the 50 million they need to lose to trigger their out clause after five years in the last year alone. The article is from Larry Brooks of the Post, he's pretty legit.
I'll have more on that tomorrow.
The Coyotes also cut Domi, Domingue, Campbell, Gormley, Lessio, Reider and Szwarz.
So get ready for the Martin Erat show, I guess.
Update
According to multiple sources, the Coyotes have sent Max Domi back to London for a fourth Year of Junior.
To be fully up-front, the majority of the Coyotes training camp has been un-televised and so I can't with any confidence say if he had a bad camp or a good camp.I do know he had a three point game and that until today I had only heard positive things about his play and development.
I do know the Coyotes are one of the least threatening offensive teams in the NHL. I do know that Max Domi has more talent than the majority of the forwards on this team and that he skates at an NHL level.
I also know the Coyotes are a very cheap/poor team and that by sending him back, they extend his dirt-cheap entry level contract by a year. If this was a financially motivated decision (which I am not saying it is/was)then that is pretty bad. However, if they don't think they can contend and they did it to maximize value and resources, then it's potentially a good move. (because in a parity filled, salary cap league ELC's are incredibly valuable if the players on them contribute more than a replacement player).
Furthermore, I know that Max Domi has all but dominated the OHL for the last two seasons and has probably nothing to gain by playing another year with players he is much better and older than. The NHL has rules regarding the CHL, designed to keep their leagues competitive, that occasionally work out poorly. Such as in this case where Domi should at the very least be in the AHL but isn't eligible because he is 19 and has played less than 4 season in the OHL.
That being said, I also know that it's better to dominate a league you're too good for than to struggle in a league you aren't good enough to be in.
Based on what I know, I feel that Domi must have had a pretty bad camp or done something wrong in order to not get a chance with the big team. Everyone I know or talked to felt he was a virtual shoe-in to make the team. Certainly I did, so I am shocked they cut him.
The cynic in me wants to jump to some financial conclusions, but the fact is, I didn't see him play much in camp and I don't have the info available to me to draw such a conclusion. I can't sit here and say "he played great, this is an outrage," because Maloney and Tippett are professionals and I trust them to make hockey moves before financial ones. In fact, though this is an easy conclusion to jump to, I don't really think it holds much water.
The Coyotes, while by no means stocked, have quite a few veteran players who make up a top 9. It may not be the best one around, but it certainly is one (!). If you can't compete, and you have to pay guys like Erat, Korpikoski, Doan, Vermette anyways, and if those guys are bound to be as good or better than Domi is likely to be as a rookie, then it does make sense to keep the ECL an extra year, let the kid develop and see which players you want to keep going forward.
Because, make no mistake, as much as I believe that Hanzal and Boedker, even Gagner, have untapped talent and potential, they must produce this year or the team will most likely lose patience and cut bait.
As much as it really dampens my enthusiasm to not be able to see Domi in the NHL this year, you can't argue that it doesn't make sense on multiple levels. In my opinion, they aren't a better team without Domi this year, but they may be better in the long run for the move.
I wish he made the team, but I don't have the hubris to tell you it was the wrong decision. I was rooting for him, but he'll get his chance.
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With only a week to go before the Coyotes and Jets kick off the 2014-15 season in the newly christened Gila River Arena, things are starting to get exciting. October allows us to put aside the terrible memories of last season and start fresh, to focus on the positives.
While nearly 100% of the hockey publications do not believe the Coyotes will make the playoffs, that will only make it so much sweeter come April when we can not only celebrate the end of a thankfully short post-season drought, but we can also say "I told you so."
The Coyotes only missed the playoffs by 3 points, remember. And one of those points was a tie breaker, and they easily would have got them had their best goalie not missed the final month of the season.
It is only made more depressing when you remember the hot start the team had last year and then recall how it all went for naught in a post-Olympic melt-down. So last season wasn't that great. And yes, the team in the desert doesn't get a ton of league-wide respect, but who needs it?
So they missed by 3 points only, they lost no significant players beside the annual 20 goals of the aging and expensive Vrbata,and added Gagner and Domi as well as Joe Vitale (who is underrated and will be a useful player, so I have been lead to believe by his excellent preseason and a friend who is an unusually specific Vitale fan).
The fact is, the Coyotes have a high quality goalie, one of the very best defensemen in the whole league, one of the best coaches and one of the best groups of defensemen. So, if they can avoid being the worst offensive team in hockey, they can probably make the playoffs.
How can they go about doing that?
Well, for one, Yandle, Stone and OEL will allow them to create an insane amount of offense from the back-end. Yes, an elite forward or two would help a lot, but is the difference between, say, Domi-Hanzal-Boedker (the first line I would ice) so far below average that it can't be at least partially made up for by a puck moving group of blue-liners that is way, way above average? I wouldn't think so.
Even granting the weakness of the forwards, the team has enough potential to get the job done. Hanzal and Boedker, Gagner and Domi, even Erat all have room to grow and can score vastly more points then they did last year. Remember that prognosticators never account for internal growth.
I expect Boedker to be one of the NHL's breakout players this year. If he goes from 20/50 to 30/70 the Coyotes are laughing. If Hanzal avoids injury, if Gagner does too, you can pencil them both in for 70 as well.
Suffice to say, this team will score more than people think - if only because they can ice a PP unit that has 2 of the best offensive defensemen in hockey on it, and a second unit that features Stone's certifiable cannon - and if they do that, they should be a lock to make the Playoffs.
So, if you like the Coyotes, if they are your team then don't listen to the so called experts. Just enjoy the fact that the team is young, exciting and that you get to spend the next six months watching Oliver Ekman-Larsson make his case for a Norris Trophy.
They will make the playoffs.
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