It’s that time of year again, the time when the world gets to experience the greatest playoff experience ever- The NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs! Our beloved Coyotes will not be participating, however, I wouldn’t write this season off as a loss at all. This is looking to be the last year of a painful tank which will, starting next season, turn into the actually rebuilding part of the process (or “Pawcess” as we have so eloquently dubbed it on the Chirpin Yotes Podcast). I’m here today to wrap this regular season up and give you plenty of reasons to tune in and “Believe I Believe” as Ted Lasso would put it.
At the beginning of the season the Coyotes looked to be, on paper, the worst team probably ever to take NHL ice which of course is by design. This assembled roster had the mission of acquiring the highest draft pick possible, to get the upcoming phenom Conor Bedard who is looking to be McDavid 2.0 and a franchise megastar. Clayton Keller was coming off an absolutely gruesome injury of breaking the largest bone in the human body, no more Phil Kessel, we also had a new but temporary home in Mullett Arena which is shared with Josh Dean and ASU hockey but when the pucks and skates hit the ice we were all shown flashes of the rebuild and from office which may have pushed us to lesser chances of Bedard but proved we had the right idea to fully rebuild, a move the Coyotes have needed since about 2013-14 season. Keller with the last game tied the franchise record of 86 points with franchise legend Keith Tkachuk, Karel Vejmelka has looked like a solid NHL starter ad kept us I more games than he should, Connor Ingram has revived his career, a combo story with this franchise with Kuemper, Mike Smith and Antti Raanta reviving their games wearing a Coyotes sweater as well.
I previously wrote about how head coach Tourigny has been an amazing hire and Keller likely being a finalist and Maccelli even being in the conversation as a Calder Cup dark horse has proven this new front office can hire and draft far better than previous regimes. Cooley has been an absolute stud for the Golden Gophers, Sam Lipkin the 2021 7th round pick was a big contributor to Quinnipiac University’s NCAA championship, Maccelli has already touched NHL ice and made great impacts despite missing a chunk of games due to injury, Shayne Ghostibehere has had a career resurgence despite his post-deadline play in Carolina has not been as strong, I think a favorite storyline of mine has been the Juuso Valimaki finding his game in the desert after struggling in Calgary. The great puck-moving d-man will definitely be a good piece to the Coyotes blue line in the future!
What’s next now that the season is over you ask? Well we have the Draft Lottery draw on May the 8th where we find out the crucial top 5 picks, the BIG vote on the Tempe Entertainment District will be on May 16th (remember to vote YES on props 301, 302 and 303!)
June 28th will be the NHL Draft then soon after training camps will begin! The Coyotes have an incredibly bright future ahead and now is the time to get on board the wagon.
