The Arizona Coyotes have moved a step closer to becoming a bit more relevant in the Western Conference, convincing Alex Goligoski to put pen to paper on a 5-year deal on Tuesday night.
Goligoski was snapped up by the Coyotes from the Dallas Stars last week, trying to take advantage of their cap crunch by offering a little compensation for the chance to talk to the veteran defender. The move paid off, as their exclusive negotiation rights kept their eyes on the prize and now they have wrapped him up for a cap hit of $5.475 million per year, just a shade under their premier defender, Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
The 30-year old defender should bring a little bit more offensive flair to the Coyotes' blueline for the new season, as he was the 33rd ranked defenseman in scoring last season, picking up 37 points in all 82 games for the Stars last year. I wouldn't expect quite those sort of numbers in year one in Arizona, since the Coyotes' offense isn't anything close to what the Stars have, but he should still give a boost to some of their young scorers and a definite shot in the arm on the power play.
As for cap numbers, the new cap floor number is $54 million and Arizona still has some work to do to fill up that space. I would say that this team currently has 10 locks on their roster, they are holding onto Chris Pronger's remaining year on his deal and they still have $16.1 million left to even get to the floor at the moment. Goligoski's cap hit is certainly a welcome one to their books and their roster, there's no doubt.
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