Apparently the Coyotes don't believe in cliches, which would normally be refreshing, but this one is of the tried and true variety and bringing back former players was a terrible move by the Coyotes.
Now, let's be thankful Vermette didn't go into the six million dollar range that was being kicked around last year, and let's admit that on short term deals, both he and Michalek are nothing more than stop-gaps. Still, after thinking about it for a while, I don't care for either move.
The Coyotes skated Vermette as their de facto #1 centre and they skated Michalek on the top pairing. If either of those things happen (and at this point, why wouldn't they?) than these moves go from "not desirable" to down right terrible.
I don't like these moves for a variety of reasons. Mainly, it does nothing to change the team, and let it become OEL's. It doesn't allow for the team to dress many young players (they have like ten or so bottom of the roster players and their defense is now somewhat jammed up too). But worst of all, all these are either a) rapidly declining (Vermette, Michalek) b) terrible (Grossman, Vitale, Downie) or c) superfluous (Gordon, Richardson).
Here's one of the worst songs ever recorded, just to show my displeasure with this whole thing.
Also, don't give me that cap-floor crap - the Coyotes would have reached it just by re-signing their own guys and bringing in enough players to fill out a roster.
What he have here now is a team with no top-line players. A team with no room for graduating it's many prospects (unless they shock us by burrying some of the guys they just signed in the minors if they fairly deserve it) and a team that is going to not only be brutal next season, but not even fun to watch.
They really should have just let Vermette and Michalek move on.
Let's look at the roster they might fill out next season (these aren't meant to be line combinations, just twelve guys who'd make the NHL).
Reider - Vermette - Doan
Domi - Hanzal - Boedker
Cunningham - Chipchura - Downie
Shinimin- Gordon - Richardson
So that's one roster spot open. Maybe two or three if you assume Cunningham and Richardson and Dowie could all theoretically be beaten out for jobs. (Though why sign them?)
As for the D:
OEL- Stone
Michalek - Murphy
Grossman - Gormley
Dahlbeck.
Again, one hopes that Grossman won't even play, but knowing the Coyotes and Tippett, one of Murphy or Gormley will be conveniently labeled a bust because they refuse to believe that puck moving and skating trump everything and that in 2015 there's no need or reason to dress a Grossman in your lineup.
The reason I am disappointed is because they've taken the rebuild and made it boring. I can stomach a losing season or three while the team develops it's kids, but I can't lie and say I have any desire to watch the roster they'll be icing next season outside of the fact that OEL and Domi will be there to make it worth while.
I understand that teams are reluctant to rush their young players, but there has to be a balance. In the NHL, part, if not the main reason why kids seem to "fail" is because the coach takes them and puts them on the fourth line where it's a vicious cycle of "you can't move up because you can't score, but you can't score because you get terrible minutes and linemates."
Strome could step into the NHL next season, I have no doubt. Turris and Boedker have as little to do with him (he's the best forward the Coyotes have ever drafted) as previous coin flips have to do with the next one.
They will send him back to the league he just dominated for no reason other than "that's the way it's always done" and he'll waste a year in a league he's too good for.
Besides he and Domi, there's Samuelsson, Dauphin, MacInnis, Letunov, Duclair, Perlini and Dvorak....hell, Brendan Shinnimin will be better than most of the grinders they just signed.
Now, OK, maybe don't put all eight of those guys in the NHL at once - although that would be bold and show creativity and a willingness to do things differently - but creating a situation where only one or two of them can hope to break camp with the team is ridiculous.
I would happily watch a young inexperienced team grow together. The current roster looks like an expansion draft. I'd fire Don Maloney based on his performance this week. I rate it a zero out of ten. BRUTAL.
The main problem with the roster is that it won't actually be that bad. They should be able to grind their way to a lot of 2-1 games and in the process take themselves out of the running for the top pick next season.
The right move would have to be to give a bunch of rookies a year to experience the NHL on their way to a last place finish. Instead they'll give us a team that comes in somewhere below the Playoffs and out of the top ten - basically the worst scenario possible hockey-wise.
What the Coyotes did on Wednesday shows no creativity, imagination or spark. It shows me that Don Maloney and Dave Tippett are just too comfortable with mediocrity.
I mean, if you're going to finish last in the NHL, do it with the kids.
Steve Downie? Hey, might as well go get Bozak too.
Two thumbs down.
Finally let's end this with the musical equivalent to an Old Navy commercial. He if the team is giving up, so am I.
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