Sports. Honestly. Since 2011

Arizona Coyotes Biggest Draft Boom and Bust Since 2000

Arizona Coyotes draft

Welcome to Last Word’s Draft Boom and Bust series. As the 2020 NHL Entry Draft approaches, we decided to examine each team’s best and worst pick since the 2000 NHL Entry Draft. The biggest boom is a player that had the best value relative to where they were selected. Meaning, no one in the first round will be considered a team’s best value pick. However, the biggest bust picks will almost always be in the first round. We will examine each player, why they were picked where they were, and what their NHL career was like. Today, we look at the Arizona Coyotes draft, and their biggest boom and bust.

Arizona Coyotes Draft Boom and Bust

Biggest Boom

Keith Yandle

NHL Career

Keith Yandle spent his pre-draft time with Cushing Academy Prep playing in a prep-school hockey league in the US. There, he established himself as a league-best, netting a combined 146 points through three seasons. While it was an impressive tally, it wasn’t enough to earn Yandle the ranking his NHL career may lead one to believe. He was ranked 55th among all North American skaters heading into the 2005 NHL Draft, 25th among North American defencemen.

This isn’t a particularly exciting ranking. While it was above players like Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Paul Stastny, it still meant Yandle would likely be a mid-to-late round selection. That’s exactly what happened come to Draft Day, with the Coyotes picking up the sound defenceman with their fourth-round selection, 105th overall.

Yandle spent the season after the draft in the QMJHL, where he netted 84 points in 66 games, before officially moving to professional hockey in the 2006-07 season; albeit in an AHL role. It wasn’t until the following year that Yandle’s NHL career truly kickstarted, with a 43-game 2007-08 NHL season officially marking the start to his journey.

 

During his career with the Coyotes, Yandle provided a much-needed spark. He appeared in 495 games with 270 points through eight seasons. He was then traded to the New York Rangers in March of 2015, where he played for two seasons. Amazingly enough, the Rangers unloaded him to the Florida Panthers for a fourth and sixth-round pick in June of 2016: an incredibly cheap price for such a reliable defenceman.

In June of 2016, Yandle inked a lucrative $44.45 million seven-year contract with the Panthers. He will be 36-years-old in the last year of his deal, ending following the 2022-23 season. He hasn’t slowed down with Florida, though, still proving to be instrumental on the point and in controlling the power play. In total, through the last three seasons with the Panthers, Yandle has 37 goals and 227 assists.

Other Notable Booms

Conor Garland

Conor Garland was the 123rd selection in the 2015 draft. Like Yandle, he too played for the Moncton Wildcats of the QMJHL and was one of their leading scorers with 104 goals, 224 assists through a combined 206 career games. He then played in the AHL and only grabbed 41 points in 110 games.

He was relentless on the forecheck and displayed an endless amount of energy on the ice. After finally reaching the Coyotes, he has scored 35 goals, 22 assists in 115 games. He was the goal scoring leader of the team before play was suspended this season with 22 tallies. Not bad for a 123rd pick.

Christian Dvorak

Christian Dvorak came to the Coyotes as the 58th overall pick in the 2014 NHL Draft. He was a great OHL player with 244 points in three seasons. He has settled in as the second-line centre for the Coyotes averaging over 30 points a season. His excellent two-way play and 51.6 percent faceoff success makes him worth the six-year $26.7 million contract he signed in 2018. He’s a tireless working centre, and can only blossom further with more experience.

Biggest Bust

Peter Mueller

NHL Career

Peter Mueller was selected by the Coyotes in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft with the eighth overall pick. He started out his NHL career during the 2007-08 season, where he tallied great statistics, netting 54 points in 81 games. It appeared Mueller was shaping up to be the strong scoring centre the Coyotes were searching for. He finished third in scoring on the team in his rookie season and things seemed ideal. His next two seasons would prove weary, though, as the hopeful-high-scorer would only net 36 and 37 points respectfully.

The 2010-11 season is where he met his downfall. In a game on April 4, 2010, then apart of the Colorado Avalanche, Mueller suffered a head injury that would hinder his play going forward. He missed the rest of that season and the playoffs.

The head injury also held Mueller entirely out of the 2010-11 season and only allowed him 32 games in the 2011-12 season. Following that year, he signed as a free agent with the Panthers. That year, he tallied only 17 points in 43 games. It would prove to be his last in the NHL.

His career was spiralling downward and he joined the Swiss League, Sweden’s top league, and even joined the Providence Bruins of the AHL for 56 games. Currently, he is playing in the Czech League and is quite successful with 38 points in 33 games this season. While not being successful in the NHL, Mueller was the victim of an injury which decimated his chances. We may never know just how skilled an NHL player he could have been.

Other Notable Busts

Fredrik Sjostrom

Frederik Sjostrom was the 11th overall selection in the 2001 draft. He certainly didn’t tear up the NHL during his short seven-year career. With the Coyotes he only managed 32 goals and 41 assists in 261 games. He also played for the Rangers, Calgary Flames, and Toronto Maple Leafs and had just 46 goals, 58 assists in 489 NHL games. Obviously, the Coyotes saw something in his ability to play at the highest level, but Sjostrom never got to that level. He has been the general manager of Frölunda HC in the Swedish League since 2015.

Dylan Strome

While Dylan Strome has turned around his NHL career after being traded to the Chicago Blackhawks, it remains a mystery why he didn’t show any ability with the Coyotes. The Desert Dogs selected him third overall in 2015, and he was a bust in Arizona. He tallied just seven goals nine assists in 48 games. This is even after the Coyotes gave him every chance to succeed.

What hurts worse is that the Arizona club could have selected none other than Mitch Marner at third-overall. Instead, they went with the bigger player, and that theory has been trashed by Marner’s production of 83 goals and 208 assists in 300 career games. Just think of what kind of team the Coyotes could have had if they had only chosen Marner instead. It’s certain that the general manager Don Maloney wakes up in a cold sweat thinking about it.

Main Photo:

Embed from Getty Images

Share:

More Posts

Send Us A Message