The Coyotes played two games against the LA Kings last night.
They won them both!
For the home game, the Coyotes kept most of their best players on one roster. They had Panik, Keller, Stepan, OEL and Raanta.
In the away game, they had Strome, Perlini, Richardson, Cousins and Grabner. This roster seemed to feature the new players and the borderline players.
It's great he team won both games, but the score isn't the relevant thing in the preseason.
The Coyotes have several roster battles going on, and are expected to make some cuts later today (I'll update as they come out).
The main question on everyone's mind is Dylan Strome. The Coyotes most prized prospect is three years post draft and hasn't had the same level of success as most of his fellow top ten draft picks from that year.
With Galchenyuk, Stepan and Dvorak seemingly locked in at centre, there is questions on if Strome can make the team. In my opinion, this is dumb and he should be guaranteed a spot because he needs to develop and can't really accomplish anything else outside the NHL.
He would have won the AHL scoring title if he got enough games, and he was nearly a point per game in the NHL last year during his final ten game audition. If there isn't a roster spot for him at centre, I say move a less important player to the wing.
Strome has earned a spot, and he's their most important prospect, so hopefully the storyline about him making the team is just for motivational purposes. He should definitely be on the team.
"Lowest scoring team sends highest scoring player (by p/60) back to AHL" isn't exactly a good look.
Anyways, with Dvorak injured to start the year, it's probably a moot point.
The other main battle at camp is for the final two defensive jobs.
OEL, Demers, Goligoski and Hjalmarsson are your top four. Connauton is a lock to be on the roster, whether or not he's a regular, he most likely will be until Chychrun is back.
With Chychrun injured to start the year, Kyle Capobianco, Illya Lyubushkin, Trevor Murphy, Robbie Russo and Jordan Oesterle are all in the mix.
Since the Coyotes blue line lacks both right handers and physical presence I would put my money on 24 year old UFA Lyubushkin, along with Jordan Oesterle, who is a quietly effective NHL player.
Oesterle must really want this job because he scored in the first game while leading the Coyotes in ice time, and last night he added three assists.
Lyubushkin - as mentioned right handed and physical - is clearly a favorite too after playing 23 minutes last night.
In the other game, OEL had three assists and Galchenyuk scored twice, while Raanta only allowed one goal on 19 shots.
Not bad!!
Worth noting: the game in Phoenix featured 17 minor penalties!!
So good start for Coyotes, a few interesting stat lines and I can't wait to actually watch a game in action!