Ignoring the traded Michael Stone, the Coyotes have dressed eight defenseman this year.
In order from the least used to the most, they have played:
Jamie "I'm wearing loafers" McBain
Kevin Connauton
Anthony DeAngelo
Jakob Chychrun
Luke Schenn
Connor Murphy
Alex Goligoski
Oliver Ekman-Larsson
The team can't possibly take another year of being this bad, and one of the ways they'll have to improve is by making their defense better. The challenge in doing that is that most of the spots seem to be already filled. Goligoski and Murphy are signed long-term. OEL is the franchise player. Chychrun and DeAngleo are the future.
Team's defense units are not made or broken on the sixth Dman, so this means either major changes have to occur or major internal improvement has to happen. Possibly both.
Ekman-Larsson
The best Coyote player of all-time, bar none. Undebatable. The Franchise. He's only 25 and just hitting his prime. He is a top-ten, probably top-five NHL dman. He's about to put up his fourth straight 40 point season. He still has a shot at his fourth straight 15 goal season but he's not going to hit 20 goals for the third year in a row.
The narrative is that he's having an off year. That's not really the case. He's still the best player on the Coyotes basically every single game (occasionally it's Mike Smith).
It's hard to use numbers to defend him, because he plays by far the most and toughest minutes on the team, and he usually does it with an AHL quality partner.
His most common partner has been Luke Schenn, followed by Connor Murphy. Having those two on the top line pretty much sums up why the Coyotes are where they are.
Despite the 'off' year, OEL ranks very high in goals-above-replacement, game-score, and wins-above-replacement charts. These are single numbers designed to rate a player's overall performance.
One of these years the Coyotes will be good and he'll have a 58% CF and 60 points and people will be like "has he always been this good?" and I'll be like "totally dudes."
Connor Murphy
His six year contract was a good bet, but it turns out to be a huge error. He's terrible and needs to be cut and/or traded. Back when our gramma's were friends, it would be amusing to think they talked about the future "Hey Claire, won't it be crazy when my grandson is a millionaire and yours is a town-house living hockey-blogger who rips him but makes 100s of times less money?" Oh the fun they could have had!!
Murphy can't defend and he doesn't have the offense to make up for it. They've done everything they can to try and make it work - he's a great-skating right-shooter, afterall - but he's got to go. I will bet almost anything he's not back.
Luke Schenn
Man, I remember how pumped I was when the Leafs drafted him. Then I remember how bummed I was when they traded him for JVR. I will always like Schenn, but it's a joke the Coyotes play him on the top pairing. He's got to go.
Goligoski
He plays OK D and gets you 30 points. Goligoski gives you exactly what you want: a stable second pairing guy who can move down the lineup as he ages and your young guys develop.
He started off rough on the new team, but he's gonna finish with his typical 35 points. Pretty much gave the Coyotes everything they thought they'd get when they signed him.
A solid vet for a young team, Goligoski has been as advertised.
Kevin Connauton
He is underrated. Everytime he plays, he does alright in his sheltered minutes. For whatever reason Tippett won't play him unless he has to, but when he's in I have no complaints about him.
You could do worse for your seventh dman. Then again, he has 1 point in 20 games and you may want a more physical, typically defensive guy. Basically, as a #7 he's fine.
Jacob Chychrun
By far the best move of John Chayka's career has been to trade up to draft Chychrun.
The Coyotes have played him and DeAngleo pretty conservatively, but they've both been solid in their limited roles.
He's outscored OEL at 5v5 17 points to 16, and leads all Coyotes D in 5v5 goals with six. He's done this playing 400 minutes less than OEL.
Overall, he's scored 19 points and he's going to push Goligoski to the 3rd pairing. He already should have, but Tippett babies rookies.
He's going to be a huge star. His play is probably the best thing about this season, Coyotes-wise.
Anthony DeAngelo
He's no good at D and crazy good at O. The Coyotes have a potential weapon who they can either shelter and use on the PP in a worst case scenario. In a best-case scenario he proves to be a capable partner for OEL. Either way, he was a great pick up and has had a mostly positive rookie year.
Next Year
The Coyotes defense is in good shape going forward. In a perfect world, they'll draft a star at the top of the draft who can step directly into the NHL Zach Werenski style.
Can't count on that though. All we know right now is that Schenn and Murphy have to go. Next season the D is shaping up to look like this:
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