One Fan's Perspective

Phoenix Coyotes General Manager Don Maloney continues to upgrade the team in order to make them better. Today he signed free agent defenseman David Hale who played with the Calgary Flames last season.

Before being traded to the Flames, Hale was a former first round pick in 2000 for the New Jersey Devils.

The two-year contract was not disclosed, but if one looks at the salary cap numbers Hale commanded for the Flames, it looks to be somewhat of a deal. Hale had a reported salary of $590K, and I wouldn’t imagine his services costing a great deal more than that. Keith Ballard signed a two-year $2M deal last season as a restricted free agent, so I could imagine Hale being somewhere in the ballpark between $1M to $2M per season.

Again, it’s pure speculation on my part as I don’t have any inside information to these types of things. I also can’t ascertain what type of defensemen he was for the Flames and I’m sure that Metrognome at Five Hole Fanatics may weigh in.

Maloney had to take stock in what would make the Coyotes better and what it would take to have his young prospects develop in the right ways. He went out and got a player like Olli Jokinen to shore up a bona fide top line and replaced the two defensemen he lost in Ballard and Boynton with Sauer and Hale. In addition, there could be surprises down the line in our affiliate systems in case of injury.

Compared to last season, and I really can’t blame him for this, Maloney is working very diligently to improve his hockey team and to me, is doing a great job. He’s making deals that make sense for the long term and insuring that our young players won’t have to do too much too soon.

I firmly believe that the Coyotes will be even tougher to play against this year.

Tags: Hockey, NHL, Phoenix Coyotes, Unrestricted Free Agents by pbcoyotes
No Comments »

Movement will be happening across the NHL today as Unrestricted Free Agents find new homes or re-sign with their old ones.

So far, the notable departure, if you could call it that, is the recent signing of Radim Vrbata by the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Hopefully, he will do well in his new locale and run better than he did towards the end of the season here.

Phoenix Coyotes General Manager Don Maloney stated that he is in the market for defensemen due to the trade with the Florida Panthers right before the NHL Entry draft that shipped Keith Ballard and Nick Boynton in exchange for Olli Jokinen. He’s looking to spend money and a solid puck moving defensemen to compliment Zbynek Michalek or a solid hitter to support Derek Morris and Ed Jovanovski would probably work well.

As far as evaluating the said trade between the Panthers and the Coyotes for Jokinen’s services, I think time will tell. Jokinen is a solid center with an edge. In addition, he can score goals. But as Richard Nickerson over at Coyotes Corner found, life didn’t go so well for Jokinen towards the end of his tenure with the Panthers.

The Panthers have been a struggling franchise since the Stanley Cup run a decade or so ago. My only question is if Jokinen will add to the leadership structure already in place in the Coyotes’ lockerroom, or will he be discontented when things don’t go according to plan. However, expectations are higher with this group of Coyotes where we can now expect them to win games and compete for the Playoffs and there is no question that Jokinen has the skill to help that mission.

Giving up my favorite defenseman to do it though? Well, I guess that’s business.

More notable news will be placed here in this post when more things happen…

Notable News 11:24 Arizona Time:

It looks like Blake Wheeler has found a home with the Boston Bruins. It seems that his friend Phil Kessel might have been a motivating factor, but I can’t see how this deal here would be different from the one he would have signed out here. Plus, there is no guarantee that he would have played on the NHL team, but that guarantee is not offered in Boston either.

It seems that Cam Neely and Don Sweeny also had a hand in talking to the youngster.

Notable News 1:16pm Arizona Time:

Todd Fedoruk from the Minnesota Wild and Kurt Sauer from the Colorado Avalanche have signed with the Coyotes as Unrestricted Free Agents. Jim Gintonio has the particulars for this transaction.

Kurt Sauer seems to be the player to add support to the defensive corps while winger Fedoruk will obviously make us tougher to play against.

Notable News 5:35pm Arizona Time

Coyotes first round draft picks Mikkel Boedker and Victor Tihkonov were signed to entry level contracts today. Rumor has it that these two kids can skate fast and are ready to play now in the NHL. With the upgrades to the team in the past few days, they should get the support they need to develop.

Tags: Hockey, NHL, Phoenix Coyotes, Unrestricted Free Agents by pbcoyotes
No Comments »

The Phoenix Coyotes sign Mike York to a one year deal worth $1 million.

York comes via free agency from the Philadelphia Flyers. He was part of the New York Islanders organization and went to the Flyers in trade last year in December for Randy Robitaille and a fifth round pick in 2008. York played three years with the Edmonton Oilers before the lockout and he played three years with the New York Rangers. He has played 515 games in the NHL and scored 308 points with 121 goals and 187 assists and a minus 26 rating.

As a second line player, he has the ability to make plays and is solid defensively despite his plus/minus rating. Playing on woeful Islanders and Flyers franchises hasn’t helped his cause.

If he can return to his form that he showed earlier in his career, he can be useful for the Coyotes organization. He won’t be the huge first line goal scorer, but will add lift to the second, third, or fourth lines giving the Coyotes a little balance and depth.

Tags: Hockey, Mike York, NHL, Phoenix Coyotes, Unrestricted Free Agents by pbcoyotes
No Comments »