Puck Daddy’s Summer Series: The Arizona Coyotes from A to Z
(Ed. Note: August is known to be a very quiet month in the hockey world. As we wait for September to arrive and training camps to begin, let’s learn a little history about all 30 teams. Behold, our summer A-Z series, in which we ask fans of all 30 teams to drop some knowledge on us! Add your own choices in the comments!)
By: Catherine Silverman, news desk operations at Today’s Slapshot
A. Avco World Trophy Champs
The Arizona Coyotes have never made the playoffs. The Phoenix Coyotes never won a Stanley Cup, and the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets never won a Stanley Cup, either… but while a part of the WHA, this particular Jets/Coyotes franchise was arguably the most successful team in the league. From 1972-1979, the Jets won the Avco World Trophy three times — doing it in only four years, nonetheless. Given that all three wins came after the last time the Leafs won the Stanley Cup, they totally count.
B. Butt Goal
Yeah. As if THAT was getting left out.
Like… seriously.
*sigh*
The most Mike Smith thing of all time.
C. College Hockey
For Canadian fans, this may not seem all that significant – but the greater Phoenix Metro area is about to get Division I college hockey, and that’s HUGE. The Arizona State University Sun Devils, who will play their first integrated DI season in 2015-2016, will become the first DI men’s hockey program west of Colorado, excluding Alaska (which isn’t in-market for any NHL franchises). Having a strong athletic program in the area is going to be enormous, particularly given the geographic distance between many of the Western Conference teams.
Obviously, there are cities with D1 hockey that don’t have NHL teams — and vice versa (as the three major California cities know all too well). The influence of the Coyotes on the city, though — and the way that hockey has taken root in the desert — has made a huge impact on the possibility of this. College hockey fans all over the valley are quivering with excitement for next year.
D. Doaner
It’s impossible to think about hockey in the desert without thinking of Shane Doan. Currently the only player who’s been with the franchise longer than the Coyotes have existed – no longer such an easy feat, since the franchise is now older than a good chunk of this year’s draft class – Doan’s 1,320 games in an Arizona uniform put him miles above anyone else in terms of games dressed.
Fans outside of Arizona love to hate Shane Doan, but he’s probably the most iconic player in Arizona’s history – and not just for his play on the ice. Captain Coyote’s impact on the valley has been pretty far-reaching, and the fans don’t forget that.
E. Edmonton Stole Our Draft Pick
If the Coyotes have the worst luck ever, with corrupt owners marring their history and a hastily-signed deal for the league’s most ridiculous goaltender, the Oilers have the best – and they squander it.
As it may or may not be known, I have an unapologetic Boston University bias – so I was totally down to draft Jack Eichel. Edmonton literally ruined everyone’s lives.
If they mess up this first overall pick, they should be exempt from first overall picks forever.
F. Fans
The Coyotes get crapped on a lot by fanbases around the league, which seems insane to me. They have some of the coolest old jerseys ever, and their fans rock.
From projected 2016 first overall pick Auston Matthew’s insistence that the Coyotes made him fall in love with hockey to the impassioned rants some fans have gone on, there’s a lot to love about Coyotes fans.
Of course, they’re also insanely strange. Have you ever heard an arena full of people howl? If you haven’t, you clearly haven’t been to a Coyotes game yet. Find a way to change that.
G. Gretzky Era
It’s near impossible to argue that Wayne Gretzky is one of the greatest hockey players of all time – but in Arizona, his name doesn’t necessarily get spoken with a very reverent connotation. In a textbook case of on-ice success failing to translate into coaching prowess, Gretzky’s tenure as head coach and partial owner of the Coyotes arguably brought about some of the darkest times in team history.
Under Gretzky, who served as head coach from 2005-2009, the team never finished higher than No. 12 in a 15-team Western Conference. Coupled with the corrupt ownership scandal– which took place right around the time Gretzky coached the Coyotes right to the bottom of the league – it’s safe to say the Great One didn’t have such a great time in the desert.
H. Hanzal (he’s so hot right now!)
Martin Hanzal is an absolute giant, and he’s a solid player when he’s not injured. His natural hat trick against the Vancouver Canucks in the 2014-2015 season, though — which occurred prior to the centre being shut down for the year with back surgery — brought back an almost cultish tribute to the world’s weirdest male modeling movie:
No, seriously. It was used as a by-line more times than the hockey media community probably cares to admit.
Then again, here’s hoping that we can pull out that by-line again a few times next year.
I. Impossible (Unless you’re Don Maloney)
Imagine you’re a high school senior, and all your friends have bought amazing, pricey, heavily-advertised prom dresses for the big dance. You, on the other hand, have recently been robbed and can’t afford anything – so the principle takes pity on you and gives you her old curtains to make a dress of your own. Somehow because you’re clearly a wizard, Harry, you manage to turn the old curtains into one of the most beautiful dresses there.
I’m really bad with analogies, but essentially Don Maloney (a.k.a. GMDM) turned those old curtains (league funds) into a gorgeous prom dress (a team that appeared in the 2012 Western Conference Finals). He apparently does this often, fleecing GMs and bringing in underrated talent — although it remains to be seen whether the retirement of Glen Sather will hinder his inner evil genius.
J. Jets
Hard to do a comprehensive guide to the franchise without giving a nod to the original Winnipeg Jets (not to be confused with today’s Winnipeg Jets, who are the former Atlanta Thrashers). One of the franchises relocated in the mid-1990’s due to the economic disparity of Canada and the United States, the Jets moved to the desert in 1996 – where they became the desert dogs we know and love today.
Teams began folding up north, for those with vivid memories of the league’s lockout history, right around the first NHL lockout – because that was right around the time that the league mandated teams pay players in USD. As you can see, that’s totally, absolutely no longer a problem at all.
K. Kachina Jerseys
If you don’t love the Coyotes Kachina Jerseys (used in 2015 as their throwback design, making them literally the coolest looking throwback team ever), your opinions are probably wrong.
Of course, the design isn’t only cool looking – it’s got an awesome history, too. All part of what makes the Coyotes unique.
L. Legal Issues
It sucks to include this, because most Coyotes fans would love to forget about the legal struggles the team has gone through in the last ten years. That would be ignoring a huge part of the team’s history, though, so here it is.
Keeping it short, the team first encountered legal trouble when its former owner, Jerry Moyes, attempted to file for bankruptcy in an attempt to relocate the franchise to Hamilton, Ontario. He’d bled so much money out of the franchise that the league ended up having to file for bankruptcy anyway after taking control of the club; they’re just now starting to see an end to the madness, although the City of Glendale seems determined to keep the team’s legal matters in every hockey publication’s headlines.
In theory, this should make the team stronger. For now, though, at least the team’s owners seem determined to keep hockey in the valley and the NCAA addition in 2015-2016 should go a ways towards doing that.
M. Mike Smith
The Coyotes have had some colorful goaltenders move through their ranks – including both Ilya Bryzgalov and Nikolai Khabibulin, who provide plenty of weirdness to the franchise’s history – but Mike Smith may be the most polarizing member of the team in recent years.
Is he overpaid? Yes.
Did he allow a goal once by backing the puck into the net while it was tucked up in the butt of his pants? Also yes.
Has he developed a reputation for diving like he’s shooting a Michael Bay film? That’s yet another yes.
Does he somehow, despite all this, still have both Olympic and World Championship gold medals?
*sigh*
N. No Deal, Don Sweeney
The Boston Bruins essentially imploded at the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, when the team’s new GM – Don Sweeney – attempted to acquire enough first round picks to move up to the third overall spot. Long story short, it seemed like he wanted to keep at least one of the three consecutive picks he’d acquired (13,14,15 overall) and Don Maloney pretty much told him to get lost.
Don Sweeney, man, that’s what you get for trying to wheel and deal with GMDM while still keeping the upper hand.
O. OEL
Oliver Ekman-Larsson is basically the pride and joy of the Arizona Coyotes, and for good reason. He broke the goal-scoring record for Swedish defensemen in the NHL (in a year where fellow Swede Erik Karlsson’s team actually made the playoffs, and OEL’s finished 29th) and he’s basically one of the most unintentionally hilarious NHL personalities.
Also, he once scored on Jonathan Bernier from center ice. On a Toronto power play.
What a time to be alive.
P. Paul Bissonette
He’s not very good at hockey, but he knows it – and say what you will, but Paul Bissonnette was that player who brought casual, younger fans to the Coyotes with his wild Twitter account and zany antics. Very few people can host a Superbowl prediction video quite like Biznasty:
Q. Quintal, Stephane
In his 1,037 game NHL career, Stephane Quintal was one of those magical players who managed to rack up more penalty minutes than he did games played, all the while failing to hit 100 career goals. He was considered to be a reliable shut-down defender, and he’s now in charge of the Department of Player Safety, but he was also once on the Winnipeg Jets, who acquired him in a trade that sent Phil Housley to the St. Louis Blues.
Although there’s nothing wrong with Quintal, Housley is the part of this deal that I’d like to focus on. Is this also cheating? Yes. Do I care? Once again, no.
Phil Housley spent 232 of his 1,495 game NHL career with the Jets, racking up 64 goals and 259 points in that period alone (to put that in perspective, that’s one more goal than Quintal would score in his entire career).
Housley is the pride and joy of American hockey, coming in second in all-time scoring by an American born player only to Mike Modano. Yes, he did that as a defenseman. Yes, we’re all hoping that Oliver Ekman-Larsson basically becomes the next Phil Housley, only it would be nice if he managed to take home a Stanley Cup while he’s at it. Offensive defenseman have been revered in hockey since the arrival of Bobby Orr on the ice at the old Boston Garden, and Housley set the precedent for this particular Jets/Coyotes franchise when it comes to the numbers players hope to reach.
Oh, and one other thing: when the Buffalo Sabres sent him to Winnipeg in 1990, they sent a draft pick with him. We’ll talk more about the player Winnipeg selected with that pick in a bit.
R. Ribero Buyout
Arizona is a surprisingly excellent place for hockey, with a strong development system and an impending NCAA Division I hockey program coming to the valley in the 2015-2016 season.
That being said, it’s hard for a non-traditional market to pull itself up by it’s bootstraps when a former owner tries to run it into bankruptcy to force relocation – and Mike Ribeiro’s buyout certainly didn’t help matters for the new ownership group. If Shane Doan is the most loved player in the desert, Mike Ribeiro is close to being the most hated – while he’s not popular league-wide regardless, Coyotes fans resent him even more than most.
S. Shutout Streak
As someone who dedicates way too much time to debunking the myth that goaltending is voodoo, I’m still perfectly happy to accept that sometimes things happen with no viable explanation. Brian Boucher recording a 332:01 shutout streak in 2004 – the longest since Montreal’s Bill Durnan 309:21 shutout streak in 1949 – is one of those things.
A side note: Brian Boucher deserves to be a more frequent panelist for NBC. I need this to happen.
T. Tkachuk, Keith
Before Shane Doan, there was… well, there was two seasons of Teppo Numinen, but before that there was Keith Tkachuk.
Tkachuk was a carry-over in Arizona from their days as the Winnipeg Jets, and – like Housley – he’s easily one of the greatest American-born hockey players of all time. That’s also a delightful coincidence, since – sure enough – he’s the player Winnipeg drafted with the 1990 first rounder Buffalo sent to Winnipeg along with Housley. It’s an extremely patriotic circle of life, or something like that.
Like all good American boys, he went to Boston University (I’m not biased at all), and his oldest son is headed to the London Knights next season – where he’ll get to play with top Coyotes prospect Christian Dvorak. Tanking is bad and wrong and terrible, but if the Coyotes don’t select Auston Matthews next summer, another Tkachuk would be a nice consolation prize.
*an aside: when trying to select the best picture of Keith Tkachuk for this letter, I came to the conclusion that it’s literally impossible. Every picture of Keith Tkachuk is hilarious and delightful. Keith Tkachuk is the best.*
U. United Airways Center
I realize that it’s now called Talking Stick Resort Arena. I don’t care. I’m including it for every New York Islanders fan who thinks they’re going to be okay with limited visibility seating at Barclay’s next year.
(Spoiler: You think you’ll be okay with it. You won’t be okay with it.)
V. Vermette, Antoine
Despite not actually being a very good two way forward any longer, Antoine Vermette is a fan favorite in Arizona.
I have no idea why.
In any case, Antoine Vermette seems to be a fan of Arizona too, since he’s back for more after winning a Stanley Cup. There seems to be a trend of players doing well when they come back to the desert for more, so fingers crossed.
W. Whiteout
This season, the Calgary Flames went on a completely unsustainable regular season run to earn a post-season berth, then further bucked all logic and not only made it to the second round but took a game from the Almighty Anaheim Ducks. Back in 2012, though, the Coyotes did this but on a more extreme scale, taking a team assembled on league funds all the way to the Western Conference Finals. Despite having no owner, Coyotes fans made a pretty good showing during those playoffs:
X. eXpectations
Is that cheating on the letter ‘x’? Absolutely. (Fight me on it, I dare you).
The Coyotes need to get better again, and quickly – so the expectations riding on their prospects are pretty high. Max Domi, Anthony Duclair, Christian Dvorak, Brendan Perlini, and Dylan Strome are all being looked to by the fanbase as the future; that’s gotta be pretty nerve-wracking for this group.
Luckily, Domi and Duclair were dynamite on the World Junior team for Canada together last year, Perlini and Strome are expected to be big names this year, and Dvorak has been invited to take a shot at the USA World Juniors team as well.
There may be a lot of expectations riding on this prospect pool, but all signs point to them being pretty capable of living up to them.
Y. Yandle Trade
There’s still a lot of debate about who won the Keith Yandle trade, which was one of Don Maloney’s more evil genius-y trade deadline moves this summer.
Essentially, the Coyotes traded this:
For a lower-pairing defenseman in John Moore, a first round pick, and second round pick, and the option to have more of this:
Losing Yandle was hard for Coyotes fans; he was a former fourth round pick who developed into a strong puck mover, and he was a really great guy to the fans. As one of the trades that signified the Coyotes moving into a new era, though, it had to happen — and it’s hard to find a sweeter return than what the Coyotes ended up getting.
Z. Zbynek Michalek
First, the Coyotes had Derek Morris as a consistent, reassuring presence on the blue line. Now, they have Zbynek Michalek – who becomes yet another skater traded away for assets at the deadline, only to return in free agency anyways. Oh, and it’s his second time to boomerang back to the desert.
If only I had a dollar for every time Don Maloney sharked prospects and high draft picks for players who came right back barely four months later….
Meet the author: Cat Silverman operates the news desk for Today’s Slapshot and contributes to The Leafs Nation. Part of the Department of Amateur Hockey Development for the Arizona Coyotes, where she works with kids in the valley in hopes she’ll help discover the next Auston Matthews. Once called one of her youth goalies Ilya Bryzgalov. Find her on Twitter @CataCarryOn.
Previous A to Z Guides: Anaheim
