The Arizona Coyotes’ rebuild is over, and now they’re trying to win

The Arizona Coyotes did what any reasonable NHL team does when its future looks bleak: embrace the losing and stock up on young talent. Lacking the personnel to make a run at meaningful success in the short-term, Arizona weathered its stumbles while drafting players it hoped would one day become a championship core.

Except during the 2017 offseason, GM John Chayka and the Coyotes took a notable change in direction. After years of focusing on development over immediate results, the team went out and added a bunch of very good veteran players. They were moves indicative of a team that believes it can make the playoffs, not one shooting to win the lottery.

Whether Chayka’s plan to return the Coyotes to relevance will work remains to be seen, but it’s clear the team doesn’t plan to be a pushover anymore. The days of taking their lumps while hoping for a high draft pick are over. Here’s everything that happened this summer to make that clear.

Instead of using the No. 7 pick to land another primetime prospect for the farm system, the Coyotes traded it to the Rangers for No. 1 center Derek Stepan and goaltender Antti Raanta. It’s a move that potentially fills two major holes with players who’ve had a lot of success elsewhere.

Stepan may not be one of the elite centers in the NHL, but he’s been one of the most reliable with 53-plus points in each of the past four seasons. When you add in the two big-name rookies (more on them soon), Arizona has essentially overhauled its center depth chart from a year ago, when Martin Hanzal was the top center before getting traded.

And while Raanta has never been a full-time starter, he’s been effective with a .917 save percentage in four seasons as a backup between New York and Chicago. Mike Smith was at .914 as Arizona’s starter last season, so that seems like a number Raanta should be able to replicate or improve upon.

The Coyotes’ defense is going to look a lot different. The team won’t have second-year blue liner Jakub Chychrun indefinitely due to a knee injury, but the additions of Hjalmarsson and Demers give the unit an immediate boost.

Arizona already has a very good No. 1 defenseman in Oliver Ekman-Larsson, but struggled to surround him with high-level talent. Now the team can roll out a much more experienced top four with Hjalmarsson and OEL on the first pairing and Demers and Alex Goligoski on the second pairing. Chychrun could anchor the third pairing eventually, although Adam Clendening, Luke Schenn, and Kevin Connauton should be factors there while he’s out.

It looks like a much better group than the one that finished dead last in 5-on-5 shot attempts and shots on goal allowed last season, particularly if Ekman-Larsson can rebound after a difficult year personally.

Arizona never drafted an immediate impact star like Connor McDavid or Auston Matthews, but it has a couple of big-time prospects making the NHL leap this year in Keller and Strome. ESPN rated them No. 1 and No. 6, respectively, among all hockey prospects entering the 2017-18 season.

Both players are naturally centers, and as noted above, that could give the Coyotes some impressive depth up the middle with Stepan around as well. However, it’s possible the team tries one or both players on the wing instead, depending on how their lines come together.

Keller, the No. 7 pick in the 2016 draft, played some wing at Boston College, where he had a big freshman year with 45 points in 31 games. Strome, the No. 3 pick in 2015, primarily played center with the OHL’s Erie Otters, where he put up a ridiculous 75 points in 35 games last season.

Both players have big upside at the NHL level, and as we’ve seen in recent years, it’s a young man’s game. The Coyotes have plenty of talented young forwards, including Max Domi, Christian Dvorak, Lawson Crouse, Brendan Perlini, and Anthony Duclair, but Keller and Strome are the potential studs who could put this franchise over the top.

Doan was one of the longest-tenured players in the NHL, having played for the Coyotes since they moved to Arizona in 1996. However, his numbers took a major dip last season from 28 goals and 47 points to just six goals and 27 points. This summer, the team declined to offer him a new contract and he retired from hockey.

In mid-June, owner Andrew Barroway released a statement explaining the decision to let Doan go.

“The time has come for us to move on and to focus on our young, talented group of players and our very bright future,” Barroway said. “This was a very difficult decision given what Shane has done for the Coyotes and his unparalleled importance to the organization. With that said, this is necessary to move us forward as a franchise.”

The underlying message there seems clear: a 40-year-old Doan no longer fit into the plans of a team trying to transition from rebuilding to winning. It was one thing playing an aging legend in the top-six when there weren’t any other options. Keeping him around and potentially limiting opportunities for Keller, Strome, etc. is a whole different story.

The Coyotes accomplished some great things under Tippett, who coached there for 10 years, but Tocchet arrives from the Penguins hot off winning back-to-back Stanley Cups as an assistant. The move seems part of Chayka’s effort to slowly fashion the team to his vision, as Tippett was a holdover from the previous regime.

If the Coyotes were simply going through another rebuilding year, it seems like they might’ve been content to stick with Tippett, who signed a five-year extension last year. But with the urgency to make changes organizationally, it makes sense to bring in new voices just as the new guard described above arrives.

Between all those veterans, the talented rookies, and a new head coach in Tocchet, these aren’t your old Coyotes. The rebuild appears over, and now the effort to actually win some games with all of that talent begins.