The 2024 NHL Trade Deadline officially closes on Mar. 8, a date that will illustrate what the rosters of teams including the Arizona Coyotes will look before the regular season draws to a close and the playoffs begin.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!During this time of the season annually, trade speculation is thrown out left and right by media members, analysts and fans.
None of these rumors are true until two teams agree to pull the trigger on a deal that may or may not work out for both sides in the short term and long run.
While there is a couple of weeks until pure mayhem strikes when leading up to the deadline, what will the Coyotes do before it comes and goes?
Rewind to the Past
During the “rebuild” period over the past few years for the ‘Yotes, a superstar generally hasn’t been acquired during this time of the season due to the assumption or the mathematical facts that prove they were eliminated from playoff contention. The last “big name” piece traded to the Coyotes was Taylor Hall back in the 2019-20 season.
The Coyotes have been more known to be sellers than buyers, taking on dead contracts to meet the cap floor and raising draft capital for the future.
Last deadline, players like Jakob Chychrun, Shayne Gostisbehere, Troy Stecher and Nick Bjugstad (albeit the latter two returned via free agency) were dealt by Arizona and the team promoted their youth to round out the final portion of their schedule.
Deadline Dilemma
Finishing 28-40-14 a year ago, the Coyotes then regrouped by signing or trading for new players this past off-season. Jason Zucker, Sean Durzi, Alex Kerfoot and Matt Dumba were just some of the additions brought into the fold as the evolution of Arizona’s rebuild continued.
So far this season, the ‘Yotes have vastly improved from last season as they find themselves 23-24-4 with 50 points in 51 games, at the time of reporting.
Amidst a season-high six-game losing streak however, Arizona are starting to fall out of the Western Conference playoff race fast.
Once being as high as third in the Central Division, they have descended down to seventh and are 13th in their conference.
Additionally, there are four teams ahead of the Coyotes who aren’t even in a playoff spot but still in the chase as well.
The St. Louis Blues and Los Angeles Kings are even in points with 58 as they currently maintain the last two wild-card positions.
With the playoff picture slowly getting smaller and smaller during their recent struggles, how are the Coyotes going to attack the trade deadline?
Do they either keep the majority of the team intact and add or will some of the players pack their bags and be on the move once again?
‘Yotes general manager Bill Armstrong and the rest of the front office will have difficult decisions to make before the clock strikes 1 p.m. MST on Mar. 8.
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Reporter Alec Cipollini covers the Arizona Coyotes, Cardinals and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his X account @AlecCipollini
