Coyotes' GM Don Maloney came out from under his rock this week to speak to his team, warn them that their terrible play would lead to some consequences and then followed up by making changes to the least used and least important parts of his roster.
Hey, it's a start.
First he traded the opposite of a fan favorite Rob Klinkhammer to the Penguins for the brother of one of his top prospects. While he isn't a highly regarded player by any means, Philip Samuelsson is a defenseman with size and that trumps a fourth-line fringe forward any day.
Secondly, he placed Kyle Chipchura on waivers. Perhaps he realized what I have been saying all year: A team that dresses Klinkhammer, Moss, Crombeen and Chipchura all at once isn't ever going to be any good.
Thirdly, Dave Schlemko was sent to the minors. I never understood playing him over Summers, who I thought played excellent at the end of last season but hasn't been given much of a chance this year. Unclear if Summers gets back in because the GM called up two other guys.
One of them is defenseman Andrew Campbell. He is 26, 6'4" 220 and was drafted in the 3rd round by the Kings in '08. He has 3 games of NHL experience, which he got with the Kings. He's a six year AHL player, and he doesn't put up points, but his promotion suggests the Coyotes won't let pedigree or prospect ranking affect promotions. Said to be the Pirates solid defensive defensmen, he might have something to offer in NHL and surely can't be any less anonymous than Schlemko.
The second call-up is Jordan Martinhook, a 6' 200lbs centre whom the Coyotes drafted in the second round of the 2012 draft. A 40 goal scorer in junior, he seems to have struggled offensively in the AHL and does not project to be a top-of-the-line-up player. However, he's 22 and certainly he can bring anything Klinkhammer was bringing, and hopefully with a little more hunger.
Overall these moves are minor. We're talking about moving out a healthy-scratch grinder for a B level prospect and demoting two other healthy-scratchers in favor of two players who are going to be - at best - the 6/7th D and 12/13th forward.
So it's not quite the "shake-up" some would have you believe. Taking Vermette off the top PP unit and replacing him with Reider would be 10X more significant. And really, until Erat is demoted, and younger players are given more prominent roles, these are all very surface-like moves.
On the good news front, Brandon Gormley is rumoured to be looking at next Thursday for a return to the lineup. As is David Moss, but I could care less about that.
Connor Murphy is back tonight though, and I care a lot about that. Despite some rough patches and some fans scapegoating him unfairly, I think Murphy is going to be a star in the NHL and his return is extremely important to the Coyotes, especially with Gormley also out.
The Bruins are in town tonight, and it appears the game is a late-afternoon affair. Here's hoping the team can avoid losing it's seventh straight at home. The Bruins have lost 3 in a row and it's been like a year and a half since they lost four straight.
The Coyotes have lost two in a row, and five of six overall.
--------- Oilers
I just wanted to talk for two seconds about the Oilers and their decision to basically stand-pat in the face of their terrible losing streak.
Everyone is talking about how their "core" is no good and how their "rebuild" is "stalled" and "not working."
I just want to say all of that is horse____.
The rebuild is going fine. The team's core is solid. In fact, losing all these games is the best thing that can happen to the team since losing builds character and results in another star player being added to the roster. There is literally no downside except that it sucks to watch.
The recent draft picks have nothing to do with how the Oilers are playing. The reason they don't win is pretty damn obvious: Their top pairing of defenseman would be the bottom pairing on most teams and wouldn't play at all on some. Also, their goalies are AHLers.
I don't care how good your forwards are, if you don't have at least one top pairing defensemen and an NHL goalie, you cannot win. Just look at the Leafs, some of the best forwards in hockey, and very deep on the 3rd and 4th lines, and they have a legit NHL starter. And yet, since they only have 1 top pairing dman, they are tooth and nail to get 8th place in the East.
The Oilers can only compete in the NHL right now if they acquire two top pairing dmen and a goalie, but since adding Crosby to the roster today wouldn't be enough to get them back in this year's playoff race, the only thing to do is ride out the storm.
So good for their management. The fact they won't panic and bail on their 53rd coach in the last five years is a good thing. The fact they resist media pressure and fan pressure is a good thing an even better sign.
They might lack the players to compete today, but RNH and Draisaitl down the middle for the next decade is something to be excited about. Amid all this losing, we're losing sight of Hopkin's breakout season. He's gold every game.
Then there is the wings: Hall, Eberle, Yakupov and Perron are a great group of wingers. And they'll all get better.
On D you have Nurse, Klefbom, Shultz, Maracin. The oldest of which is Shultz at 24.
There's also Pitlick, Pakarinen and Yakimov.
AND YOU MIGHT ADD CONNOR MCDAVID TO THIS. At the very least you'll add a potential superstar.
So relax. This season is shot, but the team is assembling the greatest collection of talent in the history of the salary cap era, perhaps even in NHL history if they add McDavid to a team that already has 3 #1 picks.
Currently the rebuild is being doubted. It shouldn't be. The team can't compete this year with a crappy D, a rookie 2C and no goalie. But the depth of the system and the potential elite talent is unparalleled.
Thanks for reading.