Ahead of the deadline, the Coyotes put together a blockbuster to try and turn their season around. I wanted to write about this yesterday, but life and work intervened and I just couldn't get to it. For this, I am sorry. When your team acquires JOSH ARCHIBALD you best get bloggin', playa.
Josh Archibald (please don't let his nickname be 'Archie') is a former 174th overall draft pick from 2011. He has played 14 career NHL games and I have never heard of him before yesterday.
In the press release, the GM referred to him as "Committed to winning," which tells me he too only just heard of him. I mean, 'committed to winning'? Unlike most professional athletes who could just take or leave it.
When a team I follow acquires a player, the first thing I look for is for the GM to gauge his commitment to winning. I just assume that unless he brings it up, the player is half committed at best.
Will Archie's commitment to winning save the Coyotes season? I see no reason why not. He does, after all, usually get a point every three or so games in the AHL.
To make room for Archibald, the Coyotes optioned Dylan Strome (who is still in his mint condition original packaging) back to Portland. Nothing says 'we are turning this thing around' like barely using your top prospect after he tore up the AHL and forced you to call him up and then demoting in favor of a 25 year old journyman who doesn't score.
Can I get a what-what? If there is one thing this team needs, it's more players who can't even score in the AHL. To complete this trade, the Coyotes sent the Penguins Michael Leighton, a goalie. They also got back some other goalie and downgraded a draft pick from a fourth to a sixth. You have to assume the goalie they're getting back is pretty good, cause otherwise this doesn't really make that much sense. Either that or sending Leighton away saves them like six bucks or something. I dunno.
But hey, we got the Arch-man.
The Coyotes will wrap up their pre-Christmas schedule by losing to the Capitals tomorrow and the Avalanche on Sunday. What novel ways will they come up with to lose those games? I'm guessing a Archibald-Richardson-Reider first line with Goligoski for some reason playing more than OEL.
For Christmas, I will be getting coach Rich Tocchet an intro to hockey coaching book written by the master himself, Randy Carlyle. I can't wait to see how this plays out.
I've already ordered my Archibald jersey. Good times!
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