A busy free agency has left many impressed by the moves the Arizona Coyotes made as they head forward into year three of general manager Bill Armstrong’s rebuild.
Jason Zucker
Let’s get the big name out of the way. Jason Zucker, who signed a one-year, $5.3 million contract, is arguably the biggest name in the league that will play for the Coyotes since Taylor Hall. The 31-year-old Newport, California native posted 48 points with the Pittsburgh Penguins last season. It was his best season offensively since the 2017-18 season, when he put up a career-high 64 points with the Minnesota Wild. His offense will help the Coyotes put more pucks in the back of the net, something they really need as they scored a combined 225 goals all season long. That ranked them 27th in that category in the whole league.
It’s not just the scoring that Armstrong most likely picked up Zucker for. It’s his locker room presence. Zucker is a guy who will leave everything on the ice to assist his team and then some. He’s someone who will fight through injury to do everything for his team. It was most noticeable in Pittsburgh when he took a high glove from goaltender Jordan Binnington, which resulted in Zucker scoring a goal shortly after.
Zucker will probably slot into one of the top two lines, though it depends if head coach Andre Tourigny wants to mess with his first line of Clayton Keller, Barrett Hayton, and Nick Schmaltz that found chemistry last season.
“I’m really excited,” Zucker said in his media interview. “It’s an unbelievable organization with a lot of great young talent. Everyone from Keller to Schmaltz to Maccelli, Barrett Hayton, Cooley, I mean all the way down the lineup, they’ve gotten some amazing talent, so I’m really looking forward to getting there and getting to know the guys and now being the old guy on the team, I’m looking forward to hopefully helping bring a little bit of leadership to that side and just excited to be a part of it.”
If Armstrong chooses as well, Zucker could fetch some good assets during trade deadline day with his one-year contract if the Coyotes are nowhere near the play Armstrong hopes them to be.
The Returnees
Fan favorite Nick Bjugstad returns for his second tour in the desert with a two-year, $2.1 million contract. He signed with the Coyotes last offseason and put up 23 points in 59 games with the Yotes before getting traded to the Edmonton Oilers during the trade deadline.
Bjugstad is an excellent bottom-six center that plays well physically and offensively. He isn’t the best on the penalty kill, but he makes up for it with his smart plays. He’ll most likely slot in as the third-line center with someone like Alex Kerfoot or Lawson Crouse on his wings.
Troy Stecher also returns to Tempe. Stecher, like Bjugstad, played for the Coyotes earlier last season before getting dealt away to the Calgary Flames during the trade deadline. He signed a one-year deal worth $1.1 million.
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Stecher is a decent option to put on a bottom defensive pairing. With the Coyotes needing bodies on the blue line as their prospects develop, Stecher is a perfect fill-in to play with someone like Jusso Valimaki or JJ Moser on the second pair. He won’t put up a massive amount of points, but he’ll chip in on offensive plays. He’s better paired with a defensive-minded defenseman as well.
The aforementioned two signings aren’t just great for on-the-ice reasons. It shows that players want to come to Arizona due to the good culture and the overall team despite playing out of the smallest arena in the league and not being a contending team.
“That’s great for us because it shows how much a player likes to play here,” Tourigny said about the signings in an interview with NHL.com. “They had opportunities to go elsewhere, they had offers elsewhere, and they chose to come back here. They chose to come back to our environment, and they chose to come back to play for their teammates in our brotherhood, in our group.
Alex Kerfoot
The final big signing by the Coyotes thus far has been Alex Kerfoot signing a two-year, $3.5 million AAV contract with the organization. He comes from the Toronto Maple Leafs, where he put up a career-high in points during the 2021-22 season with 51. He mainly plays center and spends most of his time occupying the third and second lines. He can chip in points here and there and is an excellent skater, but he’s not the best at anything. He’s just solid all around.
Another con about Kerfoot is that he’s not the best in the face-off circle and isn’t that great at the center position, which resulted in him playing wing for most of his time with the Maple Leafs.
Kerfoot most likely won’t put up 51 points with the Coyotes, as he spent time playing mainly with players like William Nylander and John Tavares, but there’s potential there. He’ll most likely be called upon to be a winger, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him on a line with Dylan Guenther, especially considering the players Kerfoot has played for over his career, like Nylander in Toronto and Nathan MacKinnon in Colorado.
The team is also expecting to have Guenther and Matias Maccelli in full-time NHL roles next season. Top prospect Logan Cooley is also expected to go pro sometime next season. Armstrong surrounding them with players that can score and players that will protect them is the smartest thing to do in order to further their development and build towards the Stanley Cup contender Armstrong is hoping them to be.
Related: 2023 NHL Free Agency Tracker
“It provides us with a competitive lineup that has a chance to push to play meaningful games and we’ve shown signs of it last year and now we’ve got to build off that and take it to the next level and I think that’s what the Kerfoots and the Durzis and the Stechers and the Bjugstads and the Zuckers do for us,” Armstrong said in his media interview. “They allow the Kellers and the Schmaltzs and the Haytons and the Maccellis and the Crouses to now get better and produce a better quality of hockey for the Coyotes.”
This is the first free agency where it feels like GM Armstrong has gone out and spent a decent amount of money on good players for the rebuilding team. In all honesty, the Coyotes need and deserve it. They exceeded many expectations last season by playing competitive and hard-nosed hockey. This resulted in them not finishing last in their division and getting some big wins against top-tier teams like the President’s Trophy-winning Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning, and the 2022 Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche.