The Coyotes are hoping their luck changes today.
In the last couple of years, they missed out on Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel. Much of the blame for that can be given to Don Maloney whose insistence on trying to scrape into the Playoffs as the 8th seed and preventing the team from being bad enough to draft high has cost the Coyotes dearly.
By the time Maloney saw what he had to do it was to late. So, despite missing the Playoffs for five straight seasons, the Coyotes have not been able to benefit from their losing as much they should have.
The second year they missed the Playoffs, and the first year they should have started to rebuild (but didn't) they again picked 12th and selected Brandan Perlini. Again, this looks like a solid pick for where they were.
Even though the Coyotes should have punted after the 2013-14 season, they didn't. The year before, they had only just missed the Playoffs. I begged them all summer to rebuild and punt the season, but they wouldn't do it. Despite their best intentions, they still finished 29th.
Two points ahead of the Sabres. Two ___ points. Had I been the GM instead of Don Maloney, it's very possible Connor McDavid would be a Coyote right now. To make matters worse, they lost the lottery and dropped down. So not only did they miss out on McDavid, they also missed out on Eichel.
While Dylan Strome is an awesome player to have, and would have been the #1 overall pick in almost any other draft, he ended up being a consolation prize. Two points. Tank a week earlier. That's all that had to happen.
Anyways, with the rebuild now fully happening, the Coyotes again missed the Playoffs and new GM John Chayka had a great first draft, picking up Clayton Keller 7th and Chychrun 16th. The problem here was again that inexplicable avoidance of full on tanking. The Coyotes finished 23rd, but if they were smarter they would have made sure to finish lower.
Same thing this year - why they went out and signed Vrbata or Schenn or in anyway attempted to ice a good team is beyond me. They finished third last, but they should have tried harder to be 30th.
So to recap: - five straight seasons out of the playoffs - in the four drafts that have so far occurred: Domi, Perlini, Strome, Keller, Chychrun - one huge draft lottery loss - no superstars
This year, the #1 pick is supposed to be Patrick Nolan. I don't believe he's considered to have the potential of McDavid, Eichel or Matthews. Still, it'd be nice to get the top pick.
They have an 11.5 chance.........so that's a 1/10 shot (basically). To put it in perspective, even the worst first round matchup has a roughly 1 in 3 chance of an upset.