Coyotes break-up day notebook: Chychrun’s candor carries the day

Jakob Chychrun has been a bit of a ghost since sustaining a high-ankle sprain in a 3-2 loss in Boston on March 12. Break-up day on Saturday was the first time that media had spotted him in seven weeks.

If things go according to plan this summer, the erstwhile key piece of the Coyotes’ rebuild could haunt the franchise for years to come.

GM Bill Armstrong has noted multiple times that the Coyotes explored a trade for the 24-year-old defenseman at the trade deadline, and that they would explore that possibility again this summer at the NHL Draft in Montréal. The thing that has never been clear to outsiders is why Chychrun would want a trade.

I have noted multiple times that you can’t blame Chychrun for wanting a chance to win now. He has entered the prime of his career and the Coyotes are in the midst of another rebuild while the team prepares to move from 17,125-seat Gila River Arena to Arizona State University’s 5,100-seat multi-purpose arena. Multiple sources have told me that the prospect of a lengthy rebuild was the main sticking point, but on Saturday, Chychrun laid it bare.

“I want to win more than anybody,” he said. “Everybody says that, but I truly believe it, and so, at times, that can be tough.

“I’ve been here my whole career. I absolutely love it here, and it seems like every time we get to a point where it looks like we’re gonna be getting there, it just gets torn down again. That was kind of tough on me a bit this year, just naturally as a human being and a competitive person.”

Chychrun hasn’t gone so far as to demand a trade, but his representation has made it clear to Armstrong that he is open to that possibility; even hopeful that it will happen.

“A lot of it is out of my control,” Chychrun said. “There’s stuff that goes on that is going to work itself out this summer. My mentality, my preparation isn’t going to change.” 

I asked Chychrun what would happen if the Coyotes were not able to get the premium value that Armstrong is seeking in a trade, forcing him to return to Arizona.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m signed for three more years so we’ll see. The trajectory of where the team is going and a lot of that stuff is important to me. I want to be in a position where I’m getting ready to play a week from now, not packing up and leaving the boys. That’s really the biggest thing for me is just having that competitive drive in me; a burning desire to win a Stanley Cup.

“I’ll never forget my first year with Mike Smith. He was so passionate in the room about just preaching to us: ‘You only have so many chances at this and you can’t let them just go by every year and say, Oh, it’s another year.’ Wash your hands and move on, get ready for the summer. You really have to take advantage of the short time you have in this league because it flies.”

Here’s what I expect to happen this summer. Armstrong will explore trading Chychrun at the draft, but he won’t budge off of his initial asking price and if the Coyotes do not get the sort of offer that Armstrong feels will move the team forward, he won’t trade Chychrun.

Based on the trade market at the 2022 deadline and the emphasis that teams are placing on protecting their assets in a tight-cap era, I think there’s a good chance that Chychrun could be back next season. 

If a trade doesn’t materialize, expect Armstrong to make every effort possible to repair the relationship with Chychrun, who can still be an elite piece of the core with three years remaining on a team-friendly contract with an average annual value of $4.6 million and $16.4 million due in real dollars.

Chychrun expected to play before the end of the season — even by the trade deadline —but his ankle did not respond as well as he had hoped. 

“The injury itself is doing great,” he said. “Some stuff just needs to settle down in there. I’m trying to get back to where it was before the injury. I had an injection not long ago and it responded pretty well. I’m sure it just needs a little bit more time and I’ll be back on the ice soon.”

While he was injured he spent a lot of time working out and it really shows in his upper body, which is noticeably bigger and more chiseled. 

“I’ve been working hard,” he said. “I feel like I’m in the best shape I’ve been in all year so I’m excited for the summer. I’m excited to hopefully be on the ice soon. I haven’t had a summer where I have been able to get on the ice right away in a long time so I’m hoping in a short period of time, I’ll be able to get back to it and work on my game and work on some things that I haven’t been able to in a while.”

While Chychrun was on the shelf and rumors were swirling, he also learned a valuable lesson about the information age.

“I deleted Twitter for a while,” he said, laughing. “I had never done that. At the start, I was checking in on it a lot and then I tried to just turn my brain off and just focus on what I could control. That seemed to help me a bit. If I learned anything about it, that’s probably what it is. Stay off the phone. That’s hard to do these days, but I think the more you do that, the clearer your mind is going to be.”

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Free agency

Armstrong reiterated his plans to revamp the roster again this offseason by taking on more contracts from cap-strapped teams that are also willing to include draft assets or prospects.

“I think the core will be back,” Armstrong said, “but there’s going to be probably a lot of new faces. Probably half of the team will change and that’s part of the process that we go through at this point.”

Here is a list of the Coyotes’ and Roadrunners’ free agents:

RFAs (restricted free agents)
C Barrett Hayton
F Lawson Crouse
F Christian Fischer
D Kyle Capobianco
D Cam Dineen
D Cole Hults
G Ivan Prosvetov
G Josef Kořenář

UFAs (unrestricted free agents)
F Andrew Ladd
F Loui Eriksson
F Phil Kessel
F Jay Beagle
F Antoine Roussel
F Alex Galchenyuk
F Dmitrij Jaškin
D Anton Strålman
G Harri Säteri

Group 6 UFAs
F Boko Imama
F Hudson Fasching
F Blake Speers

Armstrong said that the management staff’s focus right now is on preparing the draft. That means that most of the free agency questions will slide into the summer, leaving many of these players’ futures up in the air.

Here is my sense of the players who will be back and the ones who will not.

The Coyotes are already engaged in contract talks with Crouse’s camp. It may take a bit but that deal will get done. I also expect the Coyotes to bring back Hayton, Fischer, and they will explore re-signing Strålman as well because they love his influence on the young players.

Jaškin will not be back. I don’t think that Eriksson, Beagle, Kessel, Capobianco or Kořenář will be back either, but we will see how the summer plays out.

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Kessel addresses future

Phil Kessel was close to a clean getaway at about 8:15 a.m. on Saturday morning, but azcentral.com’s José Romero and I literally chased him down to see if we could talk to him for a few minutes.

“How did you guys even see me?” Kessel quipped with a grin on his face.

It has been a wild season for Kessel. He and his girlfriend, Sandra Pereira, had a baby (Kapri Mary Kessel). Per a source, he dealt with an illness this season that was far worse than anybody knew, he wanted but did not get a trade to a contender, and he struggled to find the net, falling one goal short of his 400th career goal.

How do you summarize your time here?

“The first year here it was, okay and then, honestly, since then we went downhill a little bit, but there’s a great group of guys; players in there and I had a lot of fun with them in my time here.”

Why have you become such a cult hero in that dressing room?

“I don’t know, I don’t think I do anything. I just think I try to get along with everyone and I like being around them. I like being around the guys. It’s a good group of guys here and we just enjoyed our time, you know?”

What does the future hold for you as an unrestricted free agent?

“I’m going to try to play as long as I can. I feel good. I love to play the games and I’m going to try to go as long as I can go.”

Do you think about where that might be?

“I don’t even think about it. Honestly. It’s summer, take some time off, relax, rest up, spend some time with my kid and my girl and just have a good summer and get ready to go next year.

“I’ll go to Florida, but I’ll be here, too. I like living here. I set up a little kind of base here, too, that I come to now. There’s good skates and the guys are around and I like to golf, so we’ll golf some and just enjoy the offseason here.”

Was this season a mixed bag for you? You had 44 assists but only eight goals? 

“I wish I could have had a little better year. It is what it is. I can still play for a long time. I feel good about my game, where it’s at. I’m just gonna have a good summer and get back at it next year, wherever that may be.”

At the trade deadline did you hope for a shot with a contender?

“I knew it was gonna (be tough with) my deal. I have a big cap (hit). I’ve won a couple of Cups, so I didn’t mind staying either. Like I said, we’ve got a good group of guys. It is what it is. It’s just part of the deal.”

Could you envision coming back here? 

“I don’t know. You never shut a door anywhere. I said I want to play as long as I can and who knows where that’s going to be?”

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Keller on the mend

Before Clayton Keller spoke to the media on Saturday, teammate Christian Fischer referred to him as his “peg-legged friend.” That moniker apparently won’t fit much longer. Keller said that he could resume skating in as little as three weeks. 

Keller broke his femur completely when he crashed into the boards in a game against the San Jose Sharks on March 30. He has been on crutches ever since the surgery.

“They said around six to eight weeks (after surgery) as long as I feel strong enough, I can start skating again,” Keller said. “So that’s definitely intriguing to get on the ice as soon as I can and get in the gym as well. It’s definitely motivating and exciting.”

Keller plans to spend most of the summer in Arizona now that his house is complete. He likes to golf and he often golfs with Kessel. When it was noted that golf might be a big part of his summer plans, Keller smiled: “Undercover.”

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Ladd mulls future

Andrew Ladd accomplished a lot this season, against long odds. His willingness to toil for three years in the minors and on his own allowed him the opportunity to return and cross the 1,000-games played threshold — long a goal of his.

Ladd was the Arizona chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association’s nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, presented annually to the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.

Ladd’s trials did not end this season, however. He missed six weeks earlier this season to have surgery on the same knee on which he had two previous surgeries. He has one more year remaining on a contract with a cap hit of $5.5 million that will pay him $4 million in actual dollars.

“When you get to my age you have to see how how you feel,” he said. “The last two or three weeks was a big grind just to get through those games, and a third surgery on that knee is not good, but it is what it is.

“I don’t know what I want to do yet. It’s easy to make quick, emotional decisions. I think it’s better just to take some time, let everything settle and then make a decision from there.”

I think there is a fair chance that Ladd will call it a career based on the shape of his body and the fact that he has already reached the 1,000 games milestone and won two Stanley Cups (Carolina, Chicago). A final decision will be made in the coming months.

The Islanders traded Ladd to the Coyotes along with a 2021 second-round pick (JJ Moser), a conditional 2022 second-round pick and a conditional 2023 third-round pick. If he plays any professional games in 2022-23 while under his current contract, or if he retires before the season, the Coyotes will lose the conditional 2023 third-round pick that they acquired from New York.

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Ghost’s renaissance 

I don’t know who would win a comeback player of the year award in the NHL, but Shayne Gostisbehere would be the candidate for the Coyotes. On July 22, the Flyers sent Gostisbehere, a 2022 second-round pick and 2022 seventh-round pick to Arizona with nothing going back. 

All that Philadelphia wanted was the cap relief of $4.5 million this season and next season. The Flyers were convinced that Gostisbehere had lost his dynamic first step and was no longer the offensive force that he had been earlier in his career.

In response, Gostisbehere finished tied for 15th among NHL defensemen in points (51) and tied for seventh in goals (14).

“I think it was something I always had in me,” Gostisbehere said. “I’m forever grateful to the Arizona Coyotes for giving me that opportunity to find my game. They told me from day one they know what type of player I am and they allowed me to go play my game.”

Interim arena opinions

A couple of Coyotes were asked for their thoughts about playing in ASU’s cozy multi-purpose arena.

Lawson Crouse: “I’m approaching it with an open mind. Obviously, it’s going to be a huge adjustment. It’s gonna be very different but from everything that they’re saying, and what we’re hearing, they’re going to try and make it as best they can for us with what’s going on with the 5,000 seats or whatever. I’m going in with an open mind, I’m excited. It kind of reminds me of a junior rink. I had a lot of fun in juniors so it’s gonna be good, I think.”

Clayton Keller: “It’s definitely interesting that we’re playing there, but I think everyone’s excited. Hopefully the fans come out and it’s sold out every night and they’re loud and it’s a good atmosphere for us and for the team.”

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Loose pucks

Per sources, both goalie coach Corey Schwab and assistant coach Cory Stillman will return to coach André Tourigny’s staff, along with his longtime right-hand man, Mario Duhamel. There has been no official word from the team.

The Coyotes announced Saturday that the team and assistant coach Phil Housley mutually agreed to part ways. Housley is in the final year of his three-year contract. “On behalf of the entire organization, I would like to thank Phil for everything he did for the Coyotes on and off the ice the past three seasons,” Armstrong said in a news release. “Phil is very well respected, a true professional and a good coach. We wish him and his family all the best in the future.”

Christian Fischer dealt with both a concussion and, more recently, a high-ankle sprain this season; the latter of which sidelined him from March 22 to the end of the season. “I got on the ice three or four times in the last 10 days here so I got to feel it out,” he said Saturday. “I’d say it’s almost around 90, 95 percent; won’t linger into the summer. These next two, three weeks, I’ll take off and by June, everybody said that I’ll be completely fine.”

Impending free agent Antoine Roussel on his future: “Well, I have to be honest. I’d love to come back. It’s fun here. My family loves it. I don’t know what’s coming up, but we loved it. I hope to be back here. A lot of credit goes to the guys who I played with this year. That’s why I loved it so much and it’s not just those old guys that I mentioned, it’s the whole team. It’s fun to have a good group of guys. It makes it easier to work in tough times.”

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