Friday, September 25, 2009

Coyotes Down to 25 Now

Of course, wouldn't you know. You provide an update on a team and then they go ahead and update their roster only hours after you wrote about them. Figures as much.

The Coyotes decided to send down five more players to San Antonio to bring their roster down to 25 players, two more than the 23-man limit. Al Montoya, Shaun Heshka, Jeff Hoggan, Joel Perrault and David Spina all didn't make the cut on Thursday and they'll be starting the season in the AHL.

ForwardsDefenseGoaltenders
Shane DoanEd JovanovskiIlya Bryzgalov
Matthew LombardiAdrian AucoinJason LaBarbera
Peter MuellerKeith Yandle
Scottie UpshallZbynek Michalek
Martin HanzalKurt Sauer
Mikael BoedkerJim Vandermeer
Taylor PyattSami Lepisto
Petr PruchaDavid Schlemko
Vern FiddlerMatt Jones
Lauri Korpikoski

Kevin Porter

Daniel Winnik

Radim Vrbata

Brett MacLean


None of the cuts should come as a surprise. Those surprise cuts came much earlier in the week, when the Coyotes sent both Kyle Turris and Viktor Tihkonov down to the AHL. I'm not sure who saw that one coming. I would wonder if the new coaching staff wouldn't call both of them up to see what they can do for themselves. You have to know that they are both talented enough to play in the NHL and Dave Tippett should be able to find a system for them to thrive in. Still, for now they are in the minors and should not be considered right away.

Salary CapLike I said in the post yesterday, the Coyotes have nothing to worry about when it comes to their cap situation. The 25 players I have listed above are running a cap hit of $43.4 million, just above the cap floor. If the Coyotes get any lower, the league will be using them to clean the floor, since they are already that low. Frankly, who's to say that they aren't doing it already, with these court battles going the way that they are.

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