Follow @james_tanner123 While I still am reeling over the terrible decision to send the club's second-best left-handed shooting defensemen to the Avalanche in exchange for a player who is now the club's fourth-best right-handed defensemen, I am pretty psyched about the opening of the rookie camp.
Not that I actually care or put any stock into a rookie camp, but the symbolism of all those skilled players and the fact that the Coyotes actually have that many of them is pretty exciting.
But my excitement is somewhat tempered by the lack of trust I have in this team's management, and the recent rash of terrible decisions they have made.
To Wit: Since refusing to swap out the #3 pick for Dougie Hamilton (a fantastic decision, for the record) and then making the excellent selection of Nick Merkley at the end of the first round, the Coyotes have taken a one-way ticket to Crazy Town.
July first saw them inexplicably bring back Antoine Vermette and Zbynek Michalek. It saw them make ridiculous signings in Steve Downie and John Scott. While trading Korpikoski made everyone happy, adding superfluous Boyd Gordon made it at best, a sideways move.
Don't even get me started on Claude Loiselle.
Honestly, if Don Maloney was GM for a team that received critical coverage (instead of people just happy to have a team to write about locally) he would be on the hottest seat imaginable. He should definitely be fired before he can inflict any more damage on this team.
This kind of bad GMing hasn't been seen since the Leafs strapped Dave Nonis to a rocket and sent him to the Moon. (Sadly that is just a metaphor).
It's funny everyone looks at the Coyotes flat-out amazing roster of young talent (I do credit Maloney for being good at drafting, but the guy is too attached to bad players, too old-school and not very good at making trades) and says "don't be like Edmonton and rush your kids".
It looks like Maloney took this to heart and loaded up the roster with unnecessary players (I outlined before the UFA period how easy it would have been to get to the cap floor without doing anything crazy). The problem is, if the Oilers had of had Mike Smith and OEL they never would have been so bad. There problem was never about too much youth. It was no goalie and no D.
Anyways, now I'm hearing rumors that the team isn't happy with Stome's skating (leave him alone, he's kind of awesome and some guys can slow the game down and succeed anyways) and that they are going to trade H.Samuelsson, whose skating they are also not happy with.
Now, I am all for playing fast guys, but what is the point of preaching patience in prospect development if you bail on guys who aren't superstars by the time they're 23? Samuelsson is turning 22 this season and how can they be over him when they've given him all three games in the NHL?
I don't care if you trade him, but don't get an older guy who plays a position you don't need. Also, what's the point of bailing on a former top-prospect when his value is at its nadir? It's just bad asset management and that is what is so frustrating.
The Coyotes have Domi, Perlini, Strome, Duclair, Dvorak, Letunov, MacInnis, Lessio, Rieder, Samuelsson, Merkley, Dauphin and Fischer. That is a ton of forward capital, so moving a guy like Samuelsson does make sense, the only problem is that for a 22 year old who's played only 3 games, he probably doesn't have a lot of value in the trade market.
Oh Well, whatever happens, happens. The team is exciting and despite my criticisms I am really pumped to see how all this shakes out. I would like to see some spots open to rookies this year though, and looking at the roster I don't see how they will exactly fit. (Besides Domi, obviously).
Then again, it's one good thing about being a bad team is you don't exactly have that much trouble making roster space. I can't honestly wait to see what happens next: a trade is clearly necessary, and the Coyotes almost have no choice but to try to convert some of this forward capital into a player they can slot in behind OEL on the second pairing left side.
One concern I do have though, is that at this point, they probably consider Joe Vitale an all-time classic Coyote and are too attached to move him!!!
Thanks for reading.