When general manager Bill Armstrong was hired in September 2020, he had a lot on his plate. He had an aging team, bad contracts, and a roster that was nowhere near competing for a Stanley Cup. Especially considering that teams such as the Colorado Avalanche, Tampa Bay Lightning, and many more were far more down the line than the Arizona Coyotes were at the time. Thus, a rebuild was ultimately necessary, and he stripped the team down to its roots.
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Those roots included Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, and Lawson Crouse. There weren’t many, but entering a rebuild, that’s expected. The accumulation of draft capital also comes with entering a significant rebuild, eventually leading to prospects. Armstrong has done an excellent job at this, as the draft capital and prospects have flourished since he arrived.
As Armstrong and company enter year four of the rebuild, they’ve built quite the prospect pool with many intriguing names from Round 1 to Round 7. In this piece, we’ll dive in and look at three prospects to keep an eye on for 2024-25 and why this season will prove to be vital for them.
Jonathan Castagna
At this time last year, Jonathan Castagna was entering his freshman season at Cornell University, a school that competes with elite collegiate-level schools, including Minnesota Duluth, Boston University, and Arizona State University. Understanding Cornell had their hands full this past season with a demanding schedule was an understatement, to say the least.
When I spoke to Castagna last year, he wanted to learn but simultaneously make the jump to being a difference-maker at the NCAA level. He did that as he recorded 11 goals and 25 points in 34 games with Cornell last season. Additionally, he made the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Hockey All-Rookie Team and was a Second Team All-Ivy selection.
Castagana will be returning for his sophomore season with Cornell, and he has the potential to take a big leap forward. Being drafted just one summer ago, the 19-year-old can make an even bigger difference this season, having one already under his belt. He will be intriguing to watch as he progresses this season, and if all goes well, he’ll likely be with the Tucson Roadrunners for the 2025-26 season, where the Roadrunners will have plenty of talent in the pipeline.
Dmitri Simashev
When Armstrong drafted Russian Dmitri Simashev sixth overall in 2023, the Nashville crowd was blown away, as they should have been, considering Matvei Michkov was waiting to hear his name, too. At the time, it was a head-scratching move, but Armstrong and company desperately needed a number one defenseman, and now they have hopes Simashev could provide them with just that.
Simashev could become a top-pairing defenseman, but with the arrival of Mikhail Sergachev, the pressure isn’t as high as it appeared to be when he was initially drafted. Simashev has one more year left on his Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) contract, and after a strong camp with Utah and the other draftees, he could crack the opening night roster as soon as the 2025-26 season.
While Simashev has been praised for his defensive capabilities, his offensive upside should hopefully increase with another season in the KHL, which most deem to be the second-best league behind the NHL. The 19-year-old enters a pivotal season regarding his development and will have lots of fans keeping tabs on the 2023 first-rounder.
Maveric Lamoureux
The 2022 NHL Draft showcased plenty of talents ranging from back-to-back Slovaks being taken at one and two in Juraj Slafkovsky and Simon Nemec to Shane Wright dropping to the Seattle Kraken at four. The Coyotes at the time took Logan Cooley and Conor Geekie with picks three and 11 but also took lengthy defenseman Maveric Lamoureux towards the latter half of the first round.
When watching the film, it’s easy to see Lamoureux due to his enormous size, standing at 6-foot-7, making him one of the tallest prospects in the Utah system. This past season in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), injuries riddled him, as he only played 39 games, notching nine goals and 33 points. Speaking of injuries, throughout his junior career, there’s always been something nagging the 20-year-old, which is a concern.
Though, it clearly didn’t faze Armstrong and company when they took him. Lamoureux will take to new heights in the American Hockey League (AHL) with the Roadrunners this season. The talent in Tucson will be unlike any other in 2024-25, with an abundance of prospects flowing through the system and making their way to the AHL. He will have all the resources necessary to produce and develop, which has proved critical for defensemen in the past.
Plenty of Prospects Headline Utah’s Ever-Growing System
While these three names listed above must be closely followed this season, plenty of other names stand out. One of them is netminder Michael Hrabal, a second-round pick in 2023. As it stands, he is the team’s future in the net, so continuing to see his development will be critical to his success. You also have a guy like Sam Lipkin, who was taken in the seventh round of the 2021 NHL Draft and, with the odds stacked against him, has proven everyone wrong. Needless to say, there are tons of names in Utah’s prospect pool that will make for a fun team to watch down the line.
