The Coyotes sent Martin Hanzal, aka the one player whose durability is mocked by Joffrey Lupul, to the Wild for a 1st, a 2nd and a conditional 2nd which looks likely to come true.
The deal looks like an absolute steal for the Coyotes, until you remember that the Wild's draft picks will all be super low. Either way, not bad.
Martin Hanzal may only be 30, but he has the decrepit aged body of a 130 year-old. He hasn't played over 65 games since 2010 and while he's "only" missed 10 games so far, all it will take is for a butterfly to land on his shoulder, or for someone to blow some dandylion fuzz his way and he'll be done for the season.
Coyotes GM John Chayka has made another good trade. Now, if he really wanted to help his team he'd get a new coach, but this is a good start.
Martin Hanzal was the Coyotes top centre and possible the worst top C in the NHL. Hanzal isn't as good as he was two years ago, and he's the most injury prone player in hockey.
Chayka ditches two contracts, forces Tippett to play two more young players and gets three draft picks? I don't care if it's a weak draft, don't care if the picks are low, this is a three-way win for the Coyotes.
Now if they can find takers for Vbrata, Doan, Schenn, Goligoski, Murphy, Richardson's good leg, or hell, even Mike Smith, things will really start to get fun.
This is a terrible trade for the Wild though. At least they didn't inexplicably trade for Ben Bishop......though hey might as well have.
I'm out of town businessing, so apologies for the short blog.
Quick Note: The Coyotes played Peter Holland the most at C last night after the trade. Dave Tippett.........