Follow @james_tanner123 The other day, while speaking on TSN (Canada's ESPN, for American readers) Pierre LeBrun spoke of a meeting between GM Don Maloney and new majority owner Andrew Barroway and said that they are in full agreement to "Blow this up and have a full rebuild in the desert."
Now, to anyone paying even the slightest attention, this has been necessary for a while, but so far, outside of the movement of Klinkhammer and Dubnyk (fringe players) nothing has really suggested it was any more than logic based speculation.
It is now official.
TSN's Darren Dregger takes it a step further saying the mandate is to "get younger, prepare for a strong draft in June and cut payroll," but that, for once, cutting payroll "isn't to protect the bottom-line," but is, rather, a "common sense approach for a club that needs to stabilize it's foundation for long-term success."
Let us celebrate with one of the best songs Keith Richards ever sang lead on:
The idea the team is going to rebuild is not new, but with new ownership coming in, you never really know what they are going to want or do. In this case, it looks like they'll be doing the right thing.
I argued last year that selling off assets at the deadline was the smartest long-term move (and I was right) but the team instead tried to make the playoffs - and failed - a move which was obviously dictated by market conditions and not what is best for the hockey team.
The new ownership sort of creates a grace period where being crappy doesn't really matter and with McDavid available (and Eichal, although I suspect the so called rivalry between the two is to build up interest. I don't believe for a second any NHL team would select Eichal first overall) the planets are aligning into a nearly perfect situation in which to rebuild.
Add in the nice little fact that the team currently holds what projects to be an excellent, if not elite, top four defenseman all of whom are 23 years-old or under in Stone, Murphy, Gormley and OEL and the (according to the redoubtable Craig Button) best already-affiliated-but-not-yet playing-in-the-NHL prospect in Max Domi and you have a team that can potentially be very good very fast.
So what happens next?
Vermette, Yandle and Michalek are almost all certain to be traded by the deadline, but who else?
I mean, who off the roster is untouchable besides the aforementioned defensemen?
Nobody. Not a single player. That means Hanzal could go, Boedker even. You hate to see it, because once traded Hanzal will likely go on to set the NHL record for consecutive games played and Boedker will explode, but it might happen. It might even make sense.
I mean, there are teams who might look at Boedker see this
I don't know why he doesn't do it, and I'd hate to trade him when he could be a vital part of the rebuild, but if I am Don Maloney, I email that goal to every GM in the league and ask what they'd give me for him, even just to see. Caution must be taken, however, you don't want to be Philly in the JVR deal.
The rest of the season promises to be hard to take, like last night, but if you can look forward to OEL, Domi, McDavid or Eichal and whatever Boedker and Yandle bring you, it doesn't seem like it will be long before the Coyotes might actually be contenders.
And hey, with the team now open for business, the last three months of this season might not be so bad after-all......then again, we still have to watch the games, so who knows?
Thanks for reading.