In 2021, the Coyotes separated from then-head coach and former player Rick Tocchet after a four year tenure and one playoff bout during the Bubble.
He was previously an interim when Wayne Gretzky took a short leave of absence in 2005 following the death of his mother. It was definitely an era of dump and chase for the Coyotes. In 2021, following the hire of General Manager Bill Armstrong, the Coyotes took a different approach to finding the new bench boss and didn’t follow the trend of constantly recycling head coaches and snagged Team Canada coach Andre Tourigny, who had not had any NHL head coaching experience but plenty for QMJHL with small stints as a defensive coach for the Colorado Avalanche for two years, and a season with Ottawa as an assistant coach.
Even at the time of his hiring my fellow co-hosts and I at The Chirpin Yotes Podcast felt the fresh blood hire would do amazing as the coach is known for developing young talent, exactly what the desert dogs needed and already have we seen the tree of that choice bear fruit.
We’ve seen this most clearly in Clayton Keller, a player who many fans, including myself, were skeptical of due to his contract but seeing that Keller already has 81 points at the time of this article on the year and coming off of a terrible injury late last season, safe to say GMBA knew gold when he saw it.
Keller has truly become the player Coyotes fans can absolutely fall in love with and it is clear he loves them back. He was previously one of the Coyotes players who spoke at the Tempe City meetings along with Captain Coyote himself, Shane Doan, to get the Tempe Entertainment District built to give fans the arena they deserve. He also stuck by the Coyotes following the announcement of the rebuild plan becoming one of the best parts to watch these past two brutal seasons. As mentioned, Keller has 81 points on the year so far, making him second in single-season points in Coyotes HISTORY. It seems to be that his once “overpaid” contract is now one of the best in the NHL in terms of value.
Barrett Hayton, besides having one of the most hockey names ever, had struggled under the Tocchet regime as well but lately has been the piece Coyotes have needed him to be. Hockey players, and really any athlete, aren’t finished products on draft day.
The Coyotes hiring of a fresh coach has paid serious dividends for them already at this stage and many of our up-and-coming players, such as the very talented Logan Cooley, who fell way down in the Coyotes favor, Mattias Maccelli who has been a Calder Cup dark horse as of late and is having one helluva rookie year, and of course Josh Doan, who is a second generation Coyote, who recently has made appearances for the Tucson Roadrunners, the Coyotes AHL affiliate.
Tourigny is a far better coach and I’ll even say right out he may be the best coach in Arizona pro sports as of now. I fully believe he can win Arizona a Stanley Cup and the future is incredibly bright for this once-downtrodden franchise.
