Arizona Coyotes Should Be Buyers This Offseason

The rebuild has gone fairly well for the Arizona Coyotes after they finished with 78 points and their young players showed enough for them to consider adding pieces this offseason.

The team has depth at the forward position, especially at center with Dylan Strome and Christian Dvorak poised to move up to the NHL club next year. Anthony Duclair, Max Domi and Mikkel Boedker look like they could be a nice core, and veterans like Martin Hanzal and Shane Doan give Coyotes fans hope (though Doan hasn’t made up his mind about his future yet).

Adding depth on the blueline would be a step in the right direction for the Coyotes. They have a superb defenseman in Oliver Ekman-Larsson and they could use someone to compliment him while moving Connor Murphy to the second pair. There figures to be quite a few names available this offseason that the Coyotes could pursue. The trade market will be very active with Anton Stralman and Kevin Shattenkirk featured prominently in early rumors. There is also the familiar face of Keith Yandle who is set to become a free agent, and the New York Rangers are tight against the salary cap which could squeeze Yandle out.

Of the possible trade targets, it is Stralman who makes the most sense. He might be the most underappreciated defenseman in the NHL right now, though he did suffer a broken leg at the end of the regular season. The Coyotes could use someone of Stralman’s ability on both sides of the puck, especially the defensive side. The Tampa Bay Lightning are faced with losing star Steven Stamkos and could part ways with players like Stralman in an attempt to keep him as well as restricted free agent Nikita Kucherov.

If the Lightning do put Stralman on the block, the Coyotes should pursue him heavily. He has only a $4.5 million cap hit through 2018-19, and the Coyotes certainly have the cap space for him. The only hurdle would be his modified no-trade clause, but that might not be a big issue.

The Coyotes are a team on the rise and this is the offseason for them to start adding pieces and hope they can get into the playoffs. That scenario doesn’t sound as crazy as it did a year ago.