Pool Outlook for Phoenix

The Phoenix Coyotes are smack-dab in the middle of their rebuilding process and they are getting to the point where progress is very apparent, but their lack of successes of late are getting harder and harder to blame on the youth of the team. With all of this youth, does come some inexperience, but with all of these high draft picks coming into the league, they should be bringing enough skill to the table that the team should be a little more competitive. However, the 2009 season is now over and they won't have to reflect on that year in a negative way, despite not making the playoffs, as they did introduce a number of good, talented young player to the NHL and this team could be one that breeds a lot of good fantasy players in the near future.

Looking back at the 2009 season, it should come as no surprise that Shane Doan led the team in pool points again. Doan, when healthy, can be one of the more consistent scorers in the league, which makes him a very safe pool pick in the Fall. In 2009, Doan finished the year with 73 points in all 82 GP, which ranked him 40th in pool scoring for the year. His production was down in the overall sense, being ranked 28th in 2008, but that could have been a bit of a result of some new linemates that didn't mesh quite as well through the year. Overall, Doan's fantasy value has remained about the same and would be a safe pick in the 30s or 40s.

Going down the list of forwards for the Coyotes, there wasn't a lot of players that finished the year with more than 75 games up front. The team did bring in a number of new faces and really was trying to mix & match those new players with some of their young up & comers to get the best results possible. Matthew Lombardi, Scottie Upshall, Nigel Dawes, Petr Prucha and Brandon Prust all came over through trades and needed to be meshed in, while Peter Mueller, Martin Hanzal, Mikael Boedker and Kyle Turris were all still getting used to Pacific Division play. All of these players do have talent, which a good training camp and a plan from the outset could really bring this crew together.

On the blueline, the Coyotes were led by Ed Jovanovski, who suffered a hit to his overall production, likely due to the inconsistent line-up he saw. Jovanovski did manage to play in all 82 games as well, which is great for him after a couple of injury-plagued years in his career, but only managed 36 points. That meant a pretty big drop in his pool rankings, down from 131st to 247th. The defense did get a boost from both Keith Yandle and Zbynek Michalek, both of whom improved their pool rankings in the year and coulb e considered decent picks for your fantasy blueline. Both players are set to get better and better with more experience.

In net, Ilya Bryzgalov had another reasonable year for the Coyotes, registering 26 wins, 3 shutouts and 2 assists for 60 points. That did put him in 80th in pool rankings, 18th among goalies, which is a very reasonable year for a goalie outside of the playoffs. The Coyotes also decided to dress Al Montoya for the last number games of the year, when the team was already out of the playoff picture. Montoya won 3 games and had 1 shutout. It could be suggested that Montoya will give Bryzgalov a run for his money in training camp.

2010 Season Outlook
Overall, I would be starting to get excited if I was a Coyotes fan, because you can really see how this team is getting built and what direction the management is steering the team in. With all the young talent that is under the Coyotes roof, it does look like it'll be an interesting summer, especially for all the names that remain unsigned.

Forwards	Defense	Goaltenders
Shane Doan	Ed Jovanovski	Ilya Bryzgalov
Matthew Lombardi	Zbynek Michalek
Peter Mueller	David Hale
Martin Hanzal	Kurt Sauer
Mikael Boedker
Kyle Turris
Viktor Tikhonov
Todd Fedoruk

You can see, only 13 players are signed on for next season, which is just under the middle of the pack, in terms of average, but they also have a lot of room to move in 2010. Right now, the 13 players under contract have a cap value of approximately $30.1 million, which is still way under the cap floor, even without knowing what the true number is today.

The list of RFAs in Phoenix may have a chance at filling the a great portion of the roster. This list includes, Scottie Upshall, Keith Yandle, Enver Lisin, Nigel Dawes, Joakim Lindstrom, Peter Prucha and Daniel Winnik, among other youthful players in their system. Upshall and Yandle may get a nice payday this summer, which will increase the Coyotes' cap hit significantly closer to the floor, while the rest should get a raise of some sorts, doing their part to help the team as well.

The UFAs in Phoenix may have a harder time getting a new deal this summer, with all the young kids getting new deals. Steve Reinprecht, Dimitri Kalinin, Ken Klee and Brian McGrattan are all set to become unrestricted on July 1st and none of them are making a strong point to stay, in my head anyways. Reinprecht and Klee were both healthy scratches on a semi-regular basis at the end of the year, so there shouldn't be much buzz there.

Well, the Coyotes have a lot of their best prospects already up in their system as we speak, making this portion of the outlook a little harder to write. Of course, we have touched on Al Montoya, who will get a long look in camp, as he moves towards de-throning Ilya Bryzgalov for the starting job this year. The last of the Staal brothers, Jared Staal, got a look in the AHL this Spring with San Antonio, seeing 5 games before the team finished their season out of the playoffs. Montoya does look like the guy to look for as a sleeper in 2010.

I can't honestly believe that the Coyotes won't be a better team next season. Peter Mueller has now had his sophomore slump, as did Martin Hanzal, so on those two alone, they should be getting a bit better. Kyle Turris didn't have a great year to begin with, so a summer of training should make him better equipped for the rigors of the league. There is a lot to look forward to in Phoenix and hopefully, with the right budget, the team can survive one more year in the desert, hopefully winning enough games to attract some of the locals.