UPDATE:
From Official Team Website:
The Coyotes have cut five players: Henrik and Philip Samuelsson, Jordan Szwarz, Derek Smith and Corey Potter.
This Leaves 26 players in camp. 13 forwards, 7 D and 2 goalies make up an NHL roster (usually) so that means four more cuts to go.
With Potter and P.Samuelsson gone, the defense is now set with only seven remaining in camp.
Of the four cuts to come, one of the for sure is third goalie Louis Domingue meaning three more forwards have to be eliminated. If I expected logic out of the Coyotes the obvious cuts would be Manuel Plachta, John Scott and Joe Vitale, but I don't so who knows.
The odds of Strome making the team just skyrocketed though.
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If you had of asked me a week ago if I thought Dylan Strome would make the Coyotes opening night roster, I would have said no. Today, however, I think the answer is yes.
The Coyotes lost their fifth straight pre-season game last night. They were shut-out for the second straight game, have scored a total of four goals in five games, and have scored less than two goals in four of the five games.
In total, they've been outscored 17-4 while amassing an 0-5 record.
So, in light of that, how do you send your most talented scoring centre back for a year in a league he already dominated and has nothing left learn in?
Spoke to #Coyotes GM Don Maloney re: Strome. "It's a daily evaluation, but there’s a very good chance he’s part of the opening night roster"
— Michael Traikos (@Michael_Traikos) September 30, 2015OK, that is good news. I hope he makes it because, besides just making it more exciting to watch the Coyotes, they are horrendous at centre and have the worst offense in the NHL. Strome aside, their centres are Hanzal (good but isn't going to score a ton + he'll get injured) Vermette (a below average third line centre on a massive decline) Samuelsson (a rookie who's not close to as talented as Strome) Chipchura, Richardson, Gordon and Vitale (none of whom would centre a third line on a Playoff team, except maybe Chipchura).
My thinking is this: Strome should make the team (and not just for nine games) and the Coyotes should take Samuelsson, Dvorak, Perlini and maybe the NYR 1sts from next year's draft and acquire someone who can play on the top line, because four goals in five games is a joke, pre-season or not.
It's unacceptable.
But it's also what you get when you bring back Vermette, Michalek, Boedker and acquire Downie, Richardson, Gordon, Scott and Grossmann.
The Coyotes failed to change the culture/make-up of their team (Doan, Vermette, Michalek, Smith, Hanzal, Boedker) the core of which have all been part of this team for years and years and with maybe one exception, those teams were pretty crappy.
Last year the Coyotes traded Yandle, Vermette and Michalek. Intelligent fans of the team were hoping that this would lead to an actual rebuilding, but instead, Maloney went back out and got the band back together and supplemented it with:
1. A defensemen no one wants or needs in 2015 (Grossmann) in exchange for their highest scoring forward. 2. At least five third/ fourth liners (Vermette, Downie, Scott, Richardson and Gordon) who weren't needed because they already had third/fourth liners like Cunningham, Shinnimin, Moss, Doan, Chipchura and Martinhook. 3. A seventh defensemen who plays the right side where the team already has three players, in exchange for a better left shooting defensemen who plays a side the Coyotes only have a single established NHL player to play at.
Since last season ended the Coyotes seem unsure whether they want to rebuild or regroup or what. If there is a plan, it's not readily discernible to anyone.
Why do they continue to think they can dress Doan and Vermette so high in the lineup?
Why did they hire "analytics guru" John Chayka only to also hire dinosaur Claude Loiselle and (one assumes) completely ignore everything Chayka says?
Like, I get that the team could ease a few rookies in over the next couple of years and in theory I can get behind that. But, they just ended up with a useless roster chock full of players past their prime or too high up in the lineup. What's the need to get a Vermette or a Downie when you already have Martinhook, Shinnimin and Chipchura?
If signing John Scott wasn't a direct attempt to personally troll me, then it was a pointless move.
The whole thing stinks.
I can get behind a rebuild. What I can't get behind is a schizophrenic, directionless, slow motion crash into the ground.
Four goals in five games? An absolute disgrace.
It's enough to say maybe the GM and Coach need to go.
Let's get rid of some of these duds and hand the reigns to the kids, let them skate, score and grow.
If I have to watch 50 losses, let's not let it be because the team thinks it can get away with using Vermette as a pseudo-#1 centre.
A final aside: People are going to defend some of these moves by saying the Coyotes have to get to the cap floor. That just isn't true. With their cap space, they could have sold what they spent on Vermette, Grossmann etc. to any of the 50% of NHL teams withing 3 million of the cap.
Thanks.