Ryan Smiths New Toy

Team: 2024-25 Arizona Coyotes

Initial Creation Date: Apr. 17, 2024

Published: Apr. 17, 2024

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

The cost-cutting days are over in Arizona, or at least they should be as soon as Ryan Smith takes over in Utah. And just like all new owners, Smith will want to augment this team as fast as possible, cost be damned.

Sean Durzi - Comparable to Sandin age-wise and positionally. Contract will probably look similar.

J.J Moser - Could see a Mattias Samuelson situation here where he doesn't have much more to prove so Arizona locks him up and just trusts he will be useful wherever he ends up.

Pesce & Skjei - I think Carolina would like to keep one of them, but I also think that multiple teams with cap space will pursue them as a pairing this off-season. I wanted to give them matching deals, but it's not quite fair because Skjei has produced so much more. Instead, I settled on 30m apiece, but over more years for Pesce, and thus higher AAV for Skjei.

Huberdeau - He is not Conroy's guy. He is not an especially good player. His contract can be classified as one of the worst in the league. The only reason Calgary should want to hang on to him is pride, and that is never somewhere you should be as a management team. If Conroy were smart, he would get Huberdeau out of town as soon as possible, especially if it came with the return offered here. For Arizona, it is still relatively low risk, and the upside is worth it. Sure, they could go after a different top-six forward, but no one offers the combination of upside and cheap cost that Huby would.

Hayton - Now that the Coyotes are in Utah, they won't throw any good money after bad. I could see them making trade like this to try something else in the forward group

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