Follow @james_tanner123 It played out like a Disney script: The kid who began the year ranked second overall was in a free fall, before being rescued by the newest, youngest GM in the game, who stepped in at the last second with a surprise trade that basically got his team two top-ten picks and made the Arizona Coyotes the big winners of the first round.
Well, as far as instant analysis goes. We may have to wait years to find out whether or not these two bold moves actually pay off.
However, in a league where safe wins and risk is rarely taken, John Chayka surely just made a name for himself as a bit of a cowboy - going off board with his first pick, Clayton Keller, and paying big to move up four spots to get Jakob Chychrun.
John Chayka said Coyotes were tempted by Chychrun at No. 7 but Keller was the player they wanted at that position. Ended up getting both.
— Craig Morgan (@craigsmorgan) June 25, 2016
When I wrote yesterday about the Coyotes options at 7, I was hoping that one of Nylander (Buf) Dubouis (Clbs) Tkachuk (CGY) or Chychrun would be available to them. I would have been very happy if they took Chychrun with that pick.
Clayton Keller
This is the type of high risk/high reward player I am a huge fan of taking. Sure, there are safer picks, but in my opinion if you don't have a top 3 pick (i.e a guaranteed NHLer) you might as well try to shoot for the moon.
Keller doesn't even turn 18 for another month or so, and is 5'10 170. Given the NHL's size-bias, the fact that he was 5'10 and still ranked in the top ten should give you an idea of his potential.
During the time he spent playing in the US development program, he scored more points than Eichel, Matthews, Kane or Kessel. To be drafted, you have to be 18 before September 15th, so Keller is one of the younger players in the draft, and if the requirements were different and he and another year to develop and grow, he may have been a top 3 pick in 2017.
Keller joins Domi, Strome, Duclair, Dvorak, Fischer, Perlini, Merkley and MacInnis in what has to be the deepest group of forward prospects in the NHL.
Jakob Chychrun
Another American, Chychrun is 6'2, 205, and skates very well. His offense may be limited in the NHL however. That being said, if he can move the puck and play solid D, he'll be fine.
When a player starts to drop, group-think and mob-mentality take over and teams start to panic and think that they don't know something everyone else does. Certainly a very interesting Psychological paper could be written on the subject (may very well have already been, for all I know).
Chychrun started the year as a top pick and quickly feel down the charts to the point where he was the biggest faller and the Coyotes grabbed him at 16. Given that I would have liked the pick at 7, I think this was a great move.
Some people think this is a high price to pay, but they are wrong.
In taking back the Datsyuk contract, the Coyotes take on cap space they were never going to use. They don't actually have to pay any real money to Datsyuk, and in fact save the $1.1 million dollars they owe Joe Vitale, who is terrible and never should have been signed in the first place.
So the advantage here is that they actually save a million dollars, and don't even have to waste one of their 50 contract spaces on Datsyuk because it's a one-for-one swap. They were never using the cap space anyways, and since they play Detroit only twice a year and do not compete for them for a Playoff spot, whether or not they help them by making space on their cap is completely irrelevant.
Since the move saves the Coyotes money, they obviously have to pay a little to get what they want. Enter the #53 pick.
To move up four spots and get a second top-ten worthy player in one draft, the Coyotes, playing with found-money from the Rangers (they already have Duclair in addition to the #20 pick) pay a second round pick (their worst second rounder, since they also had #37) to get Chychrun, a player almost certainly better than his draft position and who instantly becomes their top prospect at D.
This is a win no matter how you slice it. A big, huge, reputation-making win.
The Coyotes made a second very intelligent trade. They sent the #37 pick (second round) to the Lightning in exchange for Anthony DeAngelo.
DeAngleo is a right-handed 20 year old defenseman. He instantly becomes the Coyotes second-best defensive prospect.
Since he's 20, and was drafted two years ago, he is a lot closer to the NHL than anyone they could have picked at 37. He's a gifted puck mover and a victim of Tampa having too many contracts to sign and not enough cap room / space for everyone.
He was Tampa's top-ranked defenseman prospect and was selected 19th overall in 2014. Basically, the Coyotes entered the draft with picks 7, 20, 37 and 53 and came away with a player with top-three skill, a second top-ten pick, and a third top-twenty pick - or the equivalents.
This is an amazing haul and despite being just 27, Chayka has already proven to be a better GM than the guys running Vancouver, Winnipeg, Colorado, Buffalo, Boston, Montreal or Anaheim.
Not too shabby.