After cutting 11 players yesterday, the Coyotes now have 31 players in camp. Now that there is a manageable number of players left, you can start to get a good idea of what the opening night lineup will look like.
Of the players cut, there were really no surprises unless you are one of the people who were big Craig Cunningham fans. He is good and along with Lessio and Shinnimin will probably be among the first call ups as the season goes on.
Perlini and Dvorak were also cut but that was pretty much expected. They will go back to junior with Merkley, Fischer and MacInnis. To know the Coyotes still have four solid rookies in camp to go along with the five going back to junior is pretty cool and bodes well for the team's future.
As for the present.........
Forwards
The Coyotes have 18 forwards in camp and need to keep 13.
For Sure Making the Team: Vermette, Doan, Downie, Domi, Boedker, Rieder, Hanzal and Richardson.
Most Likely Making the Team: Duclair.
Almost Sure to Be Cut: Matthias Plachta
That means that the Coyotes have to cut/trade/waive four of: Vitale, Gordon, Chipchura
Strome, Schwartz, Scott, Martinhook and Henrik Samuelsson.
Now this should be easy: cut Vitale, Gordon, Schwartz and Scott. Boom! Roasted!
But the Coyotes most likely will not do that. While I feel the four from this group who should make the team are Samuelsson, Strome, Martinhook and Chipchura I do not think that is the foursome they'll leave camp with.
My prediction: Martinhook, Vitale, Gordon, Scott because that typical of what they'd have done in the past.
I fear the team does not properly value Chipchura and that they'll likely be satisfied with two rookie forwards in Domi/Duclair. It would really shock me if they let Strome make the NHL this year, even though I think he should. The one place I could be wrong here is if they keep Samuelsson and cut Vitale.
Anyways, should be interesting.
Defense:
Locks: Ekman-Larsson, Michalek, Stone, Murphy, Dahlbeck, Grossman.
I'd be shocked if Elliott also wasn't the seventh D, making the cuts pretty clear: P.Samuelsson, Corey Potter and Derek Smith. Though, who knows, I've been wrong before and I've heard they like Samuelsson, so maybe he makes it over Elliott.
The bottom line here is that at goalie and defense, the Coyotes don't have a ton of non-NHL depth so there really isn't too much mystery for anything but the forwards. I'd really like to see them go young and I think they'll be a better team with Strome, H.Samuelsson, Chipchura and Martinhook than they will be with the alternative.
Anyways, we'll see how it shakes out.
Thanks for reading.