32 Teams In 32 Days: Arizona Coyotes

They are on the long path to contention, and it will be a bumpy road for them to get there.

• In Today’s 32 Team outlook we wrap up our look across the league by examining the Arizona Coyotes

• Be sure to check out yesterday’s look at the Anaheim Ducks, a team that finally seems to have some direction and is worth watching.

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You have to feel bad for Arizona Coyotes fans.

For the past decade their team has been a constant punchline across the league.  

Off the ice their future has seemingly always been in doubt. The arena situation is always a disaster, and now they are set to play the next couple of years in a college rink that has a seating capacity of under 5,000 people while a new permanent home is constructed. That actually is going to be fascinating to watch, and as much as people joke about it or think it is embarrassing for the league the atmosphere in there is probably going to be great. A jam-packed small arena is going to provide an infinitely better environment than a sparsely attended big arena. But that is all another argument and discussion for another day.

On the ice the team has had just one playoff appearance in 10 years, and even that was in the expanded bubble year where the only got in by winning a qualifying round series that would not have existed in a normal season.  They have been stuck in a perpetual rebuild that has made them the league’s dumping ground for bad contracts in exchange for collecting boat loads of future draft picks.

All of this news always makes them a target for “just move them to Quebec or Houston” comments, and more griping about the NHL’s expansion into the sun belt and southern markets. It is constantly a brutal situation, and the short-term situation on and off the ice is pretty grim. 

But I do think there is the potential for something to work here, and it all starts with actually building a good team. 

There is a pathway to that happening, but it is going to take some time.

Let’s dig into that.