Craig Morgan: Arizona Coyotes GM Bill Armstrong on trading Jakob Chychrun to the Ottawa Senators: “More important in this deal is an opportunity to get a pick somewhere between 6 & 18. Those are hard to get to in the draft so that has a lot of value for us. We had a couple of deals where there were two firsts but they were really late firsts. This has the possibility of being a pretty good pick.”
NHL News: Jakob Chychrun traded to the Ottawa Senators
Craig Morgan: Armstrong on the salary cap world: “Nowadays with the salary cap, as much as the Coyotes have made out from a flat cap, it also makes it hard to do deals because it’s money in, money out with a lot of teams. To escape with no money taken back was huge for us.”
David Pagnotta: After talking to some people around the league, the Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals were in a similar situation to the Ottawa Senators in that they didn’t need the Arizona Coyotes to retain salary for Jakob Chychrun.
Both the Hurricanes and Capitals just felt the price was too high. When they and others pulled out by making other moves, the Senators re-entered after turning down the prior prices a few times.
David Pagnotta: Yes, the Coyotes waited too long, but they made it clear that they did not want to retain any money beyond this year, which factored into trade talks.
David Pagnotta: The Pittsburgh Penguins were also involved in Chychrun talks but they need to move salary or send a bad contract to the Coyotes. They then decided to pivot elsewhere.
PHNX Coyotes: Craig Morgan on why the Coyotes got what they got from the Senators for Jakob Chychrun.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
“People are just reacting to, we didn’t get the two firsts we want, so it’s a fail. It’s a fail. You got to understand the market. You have to understand the situation.
And I’ve tried to prepare people for this over the last couple weeks that if the Coyotes can’t retain salary in a flat cap era where tons of teams are bumping up against the cap, you might have to modify the situation, the deal that you make because teams need to send money back.
Well, Ottawa didn’t need for the Coyotes to retain but they’re in a position that very few teams are in so they were able to bargain with that and get the deal that they wanted. That’s just the reality of the situation.
NHL Rumors: Minnesota Wild, and the Carolina Hurricanes
This is not the same situation as the Chicago Blackhawks were, well they should get a couple first-round picks. No, Chicago retained a ton of salary. The Coyotes can’t do that because of their financial situation. That is going to impact the deals you can make.
In a sense, I hate to say it, but it’s almost as if Bill Armstrong has one hand tied behind his back when he’s making some of these deals. So, sorry, his jobs a little bit harder than Kyle Davidson’s.”
