A dozen notable Coyotes trade deadline deals from 27 seasons in the Valley

Unless another team offers an unexpectedly sweet deal, the moves that the Coyotes make at the 2024 NHL trade deadline won’t go down in the history books as major moves, good or bad.

Defenseman Matt Dumba and forward Jason Zucker — who was held out of Tuesday’s lineup against Chicago for trade-related reasons — may fetch some important assets in the overall scheme of the rebuild, but these Coyotes transactions are not meant to bolster the team for a playoff push, and they are not quite the level of moves that will bring back top-tier assets.

There have been some deals, however, that qualified in each category in the Coyotes’ past. Here’s a look at a dozen of the more notable trade-deadline deals in the Coyotes’ Arizona history.

Notable Coyotes trade-deadline deals

1. March 6, 2001: There will be some disagreement on the success of this one, but GM Cliff Fletcher traded holdout goalie Nikolai Khabibulin to Tampa Bay for defensemen Stan Neckar, Paul Mara, wing Mike Johnson and a second-round draft pick (Matthew Spiller).

Johnson had a pair of good seasons with the Coyotes in 2002-03 (63 points) and 2005-06 (54 points). Neckar played two more unmemorable seasons in Arizona, and Mara had a couple 40-plus point seasons but his career declined dramatically after 2006. The Coyotes absolutely got some value from the trade, most notably Johnson, but…

Khabibulin was a 2002 NHL All-Star and won a Stanley Cup with Tampa in 2004. The Coyotes lost a franchise goaltender, who may also be the best goalie in franchise history.

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2. March 13, 2001: Ending the honeymoon era of the Coyotes that began in 1996, Fletcher traded forward Keith Tkachuk to the St. Louis Blues for center Michal Handzuš, right wing Ladislav Nagy, forward Jeff Taffe and a first-round pick (forward Ben Eager).

Tkachuk was and still is the best player in franchise history. He played 543 more games after the trade, recording 208 goals and 427 more points for the Blues. 

Handzuš (19 goals, 53 points in 89 games in Arizona) was a decent two-way center who gave the Coyotes size up the middle. Taffe only managed 180 NHL games total (98 with the Coyotes). Nagy was the most talented of the trio. In his third season in Arizona, he had 52 points in 55 games, but injuries derailed a truly special talent. Eager won a Cup as a fourth-line player in Chicago in 2010; a role that he held for 407 NHL games with five teams. He never played for the Coyotes.  

3. March 10, 2003: GM Mike Barnett traded center Daniel Brière and a 2004 third-round pick to Buffalo that ended up being defenseman Andrej Sekera. In return, the Coyotes got center Chris Gratton and a 2004 fourth-round pick that ended up being forward Liam Reddox.

Brière had 28 goals and 65 points the next season for Buffalo, 32 goals and a career-high 95 points in 2006-07, and managed 233 goals and 546 points after he left Arizona. Sekera had 51 goals and 253 points in a 16-season career.

Gratton played the rest of that season and one more with the Coyotes, scoring 11 goals and 30 points. At least the Coyotes later traded him to Colorado along with defenseman Ossi Vaananen and a second-round pick for defensemen Derek Morris and Keith Ballard. Reddox never played a game for the Coyotes but played 100 for Edmonton, managing six goals and 24 points.

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4. March 3, 2010: GM Don Maloney sent forwards Peter Mueller and Kevin Porter to Colorado for forward Wojtek Wolski.

Mueller never regained his rookie-year form when he had 22 goals and 54 points. After part of another season in Colorado and part of another in Florida he played in the Swiss and Swedish leagues before returning to the AHL and then launching a rewarding and ongoing career in Europe. Porter managed 249 NHL games before retiring in 2020. His career high for a season was 25 points.

Wolski was a point machine in the Coyotes’ playoff push. In 18 regular-season games, he had six goals and 18 points. He followed that up with four goals and five points in a seven-game, playoff-series loss to Detroit. The following January, Maloney traded Wolski to the Rangers for defenseman Michal Rozsival.

5. March 3, 2010: Maloney traded defenseman Matt Jones, a fourth- and a seventh-round draft pick in 2010 to Toronto for forward Lee Stempniak.

Stempniak had 14 goals and 18 points in 18 games after the trade, helping the Coyotes post the best single-season in Arizona franchise history with 107 points. Stempniak had 19 goals and 38 points the following season. He now serves as the franchise’s director of player development.

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6. Feb. 22, 2012: Maloney traded a second-round pick in 2012 (goalie Anthony Stolarz), a conditional fifth-round pick in 2013 and goaltender Curtis McElhinney for center Antoine Vermette.

Other than a second-round pick, the Coyotes gave up almost nothing. McElhinney had a decent career as a backup with 249 NHL games. Stolarz has played 100 games as a backup.

Vermette was a strong two-way center with excellent faceoff skills who helped lead the Coyotes to the 2012 Western Conference Final. He had five goals and 10 points in 16 playoff games that season and became a staple in the middle. In two stints with the Coyotes, Vermette played 291 games and had 70 goals and 149 points.

7. March 4, 2014: Maloney acquired forward Martin Erat and forward John Mitchell from the Washington Capitals for forward Chris Brown, defenseman Rusty Klesla and a fourth-round selection in the 2015 draft.

The Coyotes didn’t give up much in this deal. Klesla’s career was all but over after an unpenalized head shot from L.A. ‘s Jordan Nolan in a preseason game. Brown played just 23 NHL games between Arizona and Washington.

The reason this trade ranks as a sour one is the impact it had on the team. The Coyotes were on the cusp of playoff contention at the time of the deal (one point back) but Maloney did little or nothing to improve the roster, opening a rift with coach Dave Tippett that only grew wider the following season when Arizona fielded a talent-challenged roster. Mitchell never played a game for the Coyotes. Erat had 11 goals and 37 points in 96 games over two seasons with Arizona. He was out of the NHL after that, playing stints in the KHL and the Czech league.

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8. March 1, 2015: Maloney sent defenseman Keith Yandle, defenseman Chris Summers and a 2016 fourth-round pick to the New York Rangers for right wing Anthony Duclair, defenseman John Moore, New York’s first-round pick (traded to select defenseman Jakob Chychrun) and a second-round pick that was flipped for two third-round picks (goalie Adin Hill, forward Brendan Warren). 

Yandle continued to produce offense including a 62-point season for Florida in 2018-19. While Duclair showed flashes, he didn’t last with the Coyotes. He had a 31-goal, 58-point season with Florida in 2018-19. Chychrun was also once viewed as a cornerstone of the franchise, but eventually the Coyotes approached him about a trade and he agreed, going to Ottawa at last season’s deadline. Adin Hill won a Cup with Vegas last season in one of the most unexpected rags-to-riches stories in recent memory. 

9. Feb. 29, 2016: Maloney traded forward Mikkel Bødker to Colorado for forward Alex Tanguay, center prospect Conner Bleackley and defensive prospect Kyle Wood. 

Boedker had four goals and 12 points in 18 games for the Avs, but signed with San José the next summer. He never came close to matching his 51-point season in 2013-14 with the Coyotes and retired from Ottawa in 2020.

Tanguay had four goals and 13 points in 18 games for the Coyotes, but he retired after the season. The Coyotes did not sign Bleackley, but the compensatory, second-round pick they acquired by not doing so was traded to Detroit to help Arizona draft Chychrun. Wood, a right-handed defenseman with a big shot, never panned out. He is playing in Europe.

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10. Feb. 26, 2017: Maloney traded center Martin Hanzal (plus forward Ryan White and a fourth-round pick) to the Minnesota Wild for a 2017 first-round pick (defenseman PO Joseph), a 2018 second-round pick (defenseman Kevin Bahl), a conditional 2019 fourth-round pick plus minor-leaguer Grayson Downing.

Hanzal only played 20 games for the Wild and then 45 more for Dallas before retiring due to chronic back issues.

Joseph (Pittsburgh) and Bahl (New Jersey) have both made their way to the NHL as serviceable defensemen, but neither had the chance to make any impact on the Coyotes before being traded.

11. Dec. 16. 2019: This wasn’t quite a deadline deal because the Coyotes got it done early, but with his team in first place, GM John Chayka acquired forward Taylor Hall from the New Jersey Devils for defenseman Kevin Bahl, forwards Nick Merkley and Nate Schnarr, a 2020 conditional first-round pick (center Dawson Mercer) and a 2021 conditional third-round pick.

Hall was never a great fit although he did have 10 goals and 27 points in 35 games of his only season in Arizona. His style didn’t mesh with the Coyotes forwards and system and he left in free agency the next summer after Chayka departed the team in a stunning break-up.

Injuries have limited Merkley to 41 NHL games and Schnarr is an AHL player, but Mercer and Bahl are regulars in the New Jersey lineup. In hindsight, the Coyotes simple didn’t have the centers that warranted this level of move and it cost them some key assets, but Chayka wanted to reward a team that was playing well at the time.

Side note: The Coyotes were rumoured to be pursuing Tyler Toffoli instead of Hall. Many Coyotes players felt he would have been a better fit for a team that made the playoff bubble and upset Nashville in the qualifying round.

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12. March 1, 2023: GM Bill Armstrong traded defenseman Jakob Chychrun to the Ottawa Senators for a first-round draft pick in 2023 (forward Daniil But), a 2024 second-round selection and a 2026 second-round pick.

Chychrun is having a good first full season in Ottawa with nine goals and 31 points, but he’s playing on a crowded left side behind Jake Sanderson and Thomas Chabot, and despite what national pundits are suggesting, he doesn’t fit well on the right side and hasn’t played it much. His name has been swirling in trade rumors — a surprise given how much the Ottawa front office and media were gloating about the deal at the time.

But is developing well with Yaroslavl Lokomotiv. He has 10 goals and 21 points in his first full season in the KHL; widely regarded as the second best league in the world. We’ll see what the other picks produce.

Top photo of Danny Brière via Getty Images

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