Day Trader: How Detroit Can Do Another Favour for the Arizona Coyotes
6 years ago
It’s no doubt a big part of the Arizona Coyote’s struggles this year is due to their lack of goaltenders to handle the starter’s reigns after Mike Smith went to Calgary. Off to a rocky start before going down with injury, Antti Raanta played only 4 games, posting an underwhelming 4.08 GAA and a .885 SV%. It casts a serious doubt as to whether or not he can handle not playing behind Corey Crawford and Henrik Lundqvist and a decent defense. Louis Domingue came in and wasn’t much better after 7 games, going 0-6-0 with 4.33 GAA and .856 SV%. They experimented with Adin Hill, who went 0-3-0 in his short time called up. They just acquired Scott Wedgewood from New Jersey who only has 4 NHL games played prior to being acquired by the Coyotes. He got the team’s only win of the season so far but has dropped as many as he’s won, with not that impressive numbers (3.41 GAA and .900 SV% in 2 games.)
Next season, 9 contracts come off the books in Athanasiou, Larkin, Mantha, Booth, Frk, Wilson, Green, Mrazek, and Bertuzzi for a total of $15,338,305. Of these, I don’t see Booth, Green, or Wilson coming back, so this totals to $7.325M in spendable cash. We have Larkin (cur: $925k), Mantha ($863k), Frk ($650k), Bertuzzi ($911k), Mrazek ($4M), and Athanasiou ($1.387M) needing new contracts next season with $0 currently in cap space, while we aren’t in a position where we can do any significant damage in any playoff situation.
A trade to the Coyotes seems more than reasonable for both sides. We can offload Mrazek, no worries about salary retaining since they have over $16M in cap space, and they have 22/23 spots filled on their roster. He comes in to assume the starter role, having Antti Raanta as backup. Domingue and Wedgewood go back down to Tucson with ease as no team is desperate enough to take on either of those goaltenders. Raanta, Domingue, and Wedgewood’s contracts all expire after this year, as well as Mrazek’s. This’ll just open up more money for GM John Chayka to throw at Mrazek. It would be a tough sell, but we could trade Petr Mrazek + Scott Wilson to Arizona for D-prospect Kyle Woods (15 goals, 29 assists in 77 AHL games) + 2018 2nd Round (acquired from Minnesota).
Mrazek is currently in a contract year making $4M AAV. He may ask for more at the end of the season and is an arbitration eligible RFA. Getting rid of $3M-$4M next year gives us room to sign Athanasiou and gives us the breathing room that a rebuilding team should have. To back up Howard for the rest of the year, we call up Jared Coreau and sign Howard to a 2-3 year extension.
Mrazek is currently in a contract year making $4M AAV. He may ask for more at the end of the season and is an arbitration eligible RFA. Getting rid of $3M-$4M next year gives us room to sign Athanasiou and gives us the breathing room that a rebuilding team should have. To back up Howard for the rest of the year, we call up Jared Coreau and sign Howard to a 2-3 year extension.
It’s a strong draft year. The November draft reports 0 goalies in the 1st round. Seeing as Detroit currently owns 2 picks in the 2nd round with the possibility of acquiring more 2nd and 3rds before draft day which can be used to nab Detroit another decent goalie prospect along with van Pottelberghe and Petruzzelli. Michigan-born Drew DeRidder is draft eligible this upcoming draft. Currently playing on the U.S. National Development Team posting a 2.45 GAA and a .920 SV% in 9 games. He is committed to Michigan State University for next season.
