NHL trade deadline could help contenders, Coyotes’ rebuild at same time

When you consider the mess on and off the ice, it clearly wouldn’t be pleasant to run the Arizona Coyotes right now. Yet, for musty, nerdy armchair GMs, the Coyotes present a fascinating test case in running a full-on rebuild. And the Coyotes may indeed accelerate that rebuild, depending upon how the 2022 NHL Trade Deadline works out.

During the latest edition of TSN’s Insider Trading, Chris Johnston reported that the Coyotes would be willing to take on “contracts or money in exchange for future assets” heading into the 2022 NHL Trade Deadline.

Let’s take a look at how the Coyotes have already used trades to enhance their rebuild, then ponder how they might try to repeat those steps during the 2022 NHL Trade Deadline.

Honestly, the Coyotes handled the offseason a lot like I thought the Seattle Kraken should have. And Arizona didn’t even have the expansion draft as leverage.

That thought was especially prominent when the Coyotes made a deal that sure felt like it was something the Kraken could’ve embraced. The Flyers bribed the Coyotes to take Shayne Gostisbehere in a trade featuring a second-rounder going to Arizona.

Such a deal is already a win for the Coyotes, and it could get better if Arizona can flip the defenseman for even more picks/prospects in a future trade. (Someone, somewhere, may notice that Gostisbehere’s 28 points leaves him tied with Charlie McAvoy and Rasmus Dahlin.)

Rather than listing each pick, just consider how robust the Coyotes rebuild war chest is getting in visual form, via Cap Friendly:

That’s impressive, especially since they managed to jump into the first round of the 2021 NHL Draft thanks to bold trading.

Sure, some moves were easier to make than others. Giving up Conor Garland, a 25-year-old