From the NHL catwalk: Coyotes

As the NHL and Rbk release the new updated uniforms for the NHL this year, we'll provide a link to the NHL shop page and a preview of the new look.

Here's the new clothing choice for discriminating Phoenix Coyote fans. .
Coyotes shop page.

Phoenix cleans out the doghouse

Wayne Gretzky may be the only recognizable name left in Phoenix today, after the Coyotes took the broom to the bulk of the front office staff of the woeful Desert Dogs on Wednesday.

Gone are long time friend Ron Barnett who had been the teams GM, assistant GM Laurence Gilman and senior executive vice-president of hockey operations Cliff Fletcher.

Barnett was Gretzky's long time agent and joined the Coyotes when Gretzky became a part owner and eventual head coach of the franchise. Gretzky will take on his job as well as those of the others fired on a temporary basis, while the Coyotes seek out a new team of managers to guide the team into 2007-08.

While it's expected that Gretzky will remain behind the bench next year, the resumes will begin to arrive from those looking for a challenge. The Coyotes were last in the NHL's western conference this year and featured a line up of young rookies and aging veterans which never seemed to mesh together on the ice very well.

It will be interesting to watch which names come forward for the position of GM, one to keep an eye for might be Pat Quinn, former GM of Toronto and Vancouver in recent years. He is said to have a good relationship with Gretzky and may provide the kind of stability in the upper office that the team will require to climb its way back into the win columns in the Western Division.

Depending on the fate of the Ottawa Senators, Gretzky's old coach John Muckler may want to trade the heat of the Ottawa scene for the heat of the Arizona sunshine.

And since Mark Messier has already nominated himself as heir apparent to Glen Sather, perhaps a parachute can be packed for Slats to land on a sand dune.

There very well may be other names out there anxious to put their stamp on a team and try to make hockey work in the desert.

Though short of putting the coach back into uniform, Phoenix is definitely a major rebuilding project, which will require patience from all.

Coyotes clean house

Canadian Press
Wednesday, April 11. 2007

PHOENIX — The Phoenix Coyotes have cleaned house.

The NHL club announced Wednesday that GM Mike Barnett, assistant GM Laurence Gilman and Cliff Fletcher, senior executive vice-president of hockey operations, have all been fired. Head coach and part-owner Wayne Gretzky remains on board and will oversee all aspects of hockey operations in the interim.

"Our entire organization wishes each of them good luck in their future endeavours, and we sincerely thank them for their contributions to this franchise," Jeff Shumway, the Coyotes chief executive officer, said in a statement. "The organization will conduct a complete and thorough search for a general manager."

The Coyotes finished last in the Western Conference this season with a 31-46-5 record, missing the playoffs for the fourth straight season.

Barnett became Coyotes GM in August 2001, leaving the player agency business. He was Gretzky's longtime agent.

Fletcher joined the Coyotes in February 2001. Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2004, Fletcher was GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1991 to 1997 following 19 years as GM with the Calgary Flames.

Gilman had served 13 seasons with the Coyotes — previously Winnipeg Jets — organization.

The Dogs that ran away

My friend Sean from over at seanincognito has tipped me off to a interesting point of view about Winnipeg’s former NHL hockey team, now wandering the desert of Arizona looking for a sign of better days to come.

With a woeful record so far this year and every indication that things are going to be worse before they get much better. The Coyotes travel through the NHL wilderness looking for a little love, while they look they should keep their eyes south, for from the old hometown there's not much coming their way. With a better them than us approach, Randy Turner of the Winnipeg Free Press recounts the days of the Dogs since they left Manitoba.

And while he provides a pretty solid case for absence not making a heart grow fonder, my guess is, as as bad as the Coyotes appear to be (and yes they do look that bad), they would be welcomed back to the Peg with open arms.

Mind you I’m pretty sure that the affection would not be returned, many of the soldiers (and managers too) in the current platoon of Dogs most likely wouldn’t be particularly keen on being based in Winnipeg.

After all, what better way to get away and forget about how bad you’re playing than to sit by the pool, play a round of golf or duck over to Vegas for a day or two. None of which you can do in Manitoba in a cold January.

In Winnipeg you might have to work on your hockey game, not your golf game. And that just isn’t right now is it?

They say on the prairies that you can watch your dog run away from home for miles, seems like that’s exactly what their doing from their vantage point at Portage and Main.

Good thing we lost Jets Can you imagine paying
to watch the Coyotes they morphed into?
Thu Oct 26 2006
Randy Turner
The Winnipeg Free Press

MAYBE it was the agony etched on Wayne Gretzky's face as he watched in horror while his Phoenix Coyotes were stomped 6-1 by the Calgary Flames the other night.

Perhaps it was taking note that the Coyotes are now 2-8-2 on the season, were a pathetic 0-9 on the power play versus Calgary, and are now dead-last in the Western Conference.

Or maybe it was just being reminded that Phoenix hasn't made the playoffs since 2002, and despite considerable optimism this year -- what with the signings of Ed Jovanovski and Jeremy Roenick -- seem destined for another season of utter futility.

Regardless, it got me to thinking: Geez, that could have been us.

You know, there still remains much bitterness and a pang of loss about the departed Jets, but maybe at least one way it was a blessing in disguise.

Really, can you imagine having shelled out upwards of $12,000 on season tickets over the last nine seasons to watch THAT?

The average season ticket in Phoenix this year is US$1,300. Top-end seats are worth $2,700. All for the pleasure of watching a team now ranked 27th on the power play and 27th in penalty-killing.

Hey, you can't say the Coyotes aren't consistent.

"I think we hit rock-bottom about a week ago," lamented Roenick after the loss in Calgary. "We're just remaining there. It's something I've never seen in my life. It's utterly embarrassing."

And to think, we could have been paying through the nose for the privilege of sharing in Roenick's pain. Think of all the forests that would have been sacrificed this last decade to document a franchise with a draft record rivalled only by the Oakland Seals.
Take the year 1998, for instance, when the Coyotes selected a goaltender named Patrick DesRochers 14th overall.

Five picks later, the Colorado Avalanche chose defenceman Robyn Regehr. Three picks after that, the Philadelphia Flyers drafted forward Simon Gagné. Both Regehr, now with the Flames, and Gagné are NHL all-stars and mainstays on Team Canada.

Later, the New Jersey Devils took Scott Gomez 27th, while the San Jose Sharks, not to be outdone, selected Jonathon Cheechoo, who led the NHL in goal-scoring last season, with the 29th pick.

Today, DesRochers is toiling for ETC Crimmitschau, a second-tier professional team in Germany (No, really).

And so it has gone for the Coyotes, whose only draft function seems to be supplying the ECHL with a healthy stock of prospects. In fact, the Coyotes' only decent first-round pick, Daniel Briere, waited until he was traded to Buffalo before exploding to NHL stardom.

So if the Jets hadn't left, that could have been you breathlessly watching that same 1998 entry draft as your home team proudly selected Pat O'Leary in the third round (73rd overall), just before the Devils took a young prospect named Brian Gionta.

Last season, Gionta scored 48 goals for the Devils. O'Leary scored one goal in nine games for the ECHL's Reading Royals.

In fairness, we should point out that the Coyotes made the playoffs in four consecutive seasons after moving to the desert. Which meant you could have paid even more money to watch them lose every time in the first round of the post-season.

You could have had a front-row seat to the franchise's demise since 2002, as the Coyotes haven't made the playoffs since, all the while cobbling together a tedious 93-118-29-16 record.
You could have seen the club dismantle, dumping former Jets stars Nikolai Khabibulin, Keith Tkachuk and Teppo Numminen, to be replaced by a revolving door of underachievers and burnouts like Brett Hull, who retired after just a handful of games in a Phoenix jersey, itself another tragedy for which the Coyotes are responsible.

Think you've missed anything, Jets fans? Well, consider that every single individual franchise record -- most goals, points, assists, penalty minutes, etc. -- is still held by a Winnipeg Jet, almost all high marks established in the early 1990s.

How bad are the Coyotes? They can even drag down the reputation of the Great One. Indeed, it's like everything that touches this franchise turns to crap.

Of course, there's no guarantee that had the Jets stayed, Winnipeg hockey fans would have been subjected to -- and had to pay dearly for -- this level of spectacular incompetence. But just consider the possibility for a moment.

It's good for the soul.

randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca

They're in a desert in more ways than one
The Phoenix Coyotes' record since leaving Winnipeg:
* 1996-97: 38-37-7, lost in conference quarter-finals to Ducks (3-4)
* 1997-98: 35-35-12, lost in conference quarter-finals to Red Wings (2-4)
* 1998-99: 39-31-12, lost in conference quarter-finals to Blues (3-4).
* 1999-00: 39-31-8-4, lost in conference quarter-finals to Avalanche (1-4).
* 2000-01: 35-27-17-3, did not qualify for post-season.
* 2001-02: 40-27-9-6, lost in conference quarter-finals to Sharks (1-4)
* 2002-03: 31-35-11-5, did not qualify for post-season.
* 2003-04: 22-36-18-6, did not qualify for post-season.
* 2005-06: 38-39-0-5, did not qualify for post-season.
* 2006-07: Currently 2-8-0.

© 2006 Winnipeg Free Press. All Rights Reserved.

Old Dogs, few tricks!

Wayne Gretzky’s touring old timer squad is having a wee bit of trouble getting untracked early on in this NHL season. Currently holding down the last spot in the Pacific and finding that goals against might be a slight problem in the early going, the Coyotes are to say the least finding things a bit challenging.

Wednesday night proved to be a rather tiring night for the gang, as the Detroit Red Wings put the pedal to the metal and stomped on the Dogs by a score of 9-2. Curtis Joseph found that his return to Detroit would not be assisted by any form of defence or back checking and since offence has already been proven to be a bit of a problem, Wednesday night was abandon Curtis night.

By the time that Wayne Gretzky had done the humane thing and replaced Joseph in the nets at the start of the third, the Wings were already far ahead and thinking of double digits.

The experiment of age and youth so far is showing some strains as veterans like Owen Nolan and Jeremy Roenick find it a challenge to get back into the groove of a faster paced and less hitting NHL. Greztky to be fair realizes that Nolan is two years off the shelf is gently easing his former Team Canada team mate into the Coyote lineup, likewise Jeremy Roenick is slowly picking up his game but is nowhere near the level that will bring a Stanley Cup bid to Phoenix anytime soon.

The Phoenix line up is definitely something from that Seventies show, besides Roenick and Nolan who were born in 1970 and 1972 respectively, the Graying Dogs feature Mike Ricci (est.) 1971, as well as ten other Coyotes who were born between 1975 and 1980, while another ten celebrated the years of their birth after 1981 and there’s even one relic of the sixties in Cujo who was a Centennial year baby! As Austin Powers would say, behave baby!

The way that the more seasoned of Coyotes are struggling so far, it’s a good thing that Brett Hull hung up his blades before the season began, if only to give a younger player, say in the late twenties a chance to break into the line up.

The rough start is going to be a test not only for the Coyotes but for their coach as well, a known competitor who must find it frustrating to see his team struggle so much in the early going. The question is will they recover and regroup in time to make things matter at the end of the season or will Wayne just pick up his skates and grab a stick and join the tour himself?

There’s a lot of wisdom and experience on that Coyote line up, sometimes though it’s a case that the mind willing but the body struggles. They aren’t the only team that is having its problems in the early going, Carolina, Calgary and Ottawa are likewise having their troubles, though few if any suspect that those problems will linger over the long haul.

The Coyotes are like the family car, it’s got some good memories and you're rather used to it, but it seems it is having a hard time getting started in the morning.

And maybe, as they learned in Detroit on Wednesday, you don’t want to take it out on the road too far or too often!