New Look Arizona Coyotes

Add Roman Josi, Cam Atkinson, Matthew Beniers

The 2021 DCHL season started off with Seattle Kraken expansion draft. There was a lot of anticipation with regards to who GM Bryce Shuck would take from the Coyotes as Arizona left veterans David Krejci (C), Danton Heinen (W), and Cody Ceci (D) exposed for the taking. After careful consideration, the Kraken elected to pick Ceci, who was coming off a 37-point season. 

‘He was a great player for us during his time as a Coyote,” said the GM. “It left us with a hole in our D corps and we knew if we wanted to be competitive in the Central division this year that we were going to have to bring someone in from outside our organization”.

As a result, the Coyotes traded David Krejci, Cam Fowler, and 15^th overall (Fyodor Svechkov) to the Florida Panthers for defenseman Roman Josi. 

“He’s going to be a great addition to our team. He’s the kind of player you can put in every situation and will bring a great deal of leadership as well”. 

Josi, who has 269 points in 406 games, will be expected to contribute in the offensive zone and will be likely running the top powerplay unit. 

                                                       Expected Starting Lineup
                                                                   Josi – Krug
                                                          Provorov – Fabbro
                                                               Miller – Larsson

The Coyotes also made another splash in free agency, acquiring winger Cam Atkinson, who is expected to play on the top line alongside Captain Aleksander Barkov and Andrei Svechnikov.

“He’s incredibly well rounded,” said Peter Laviolette. “It’s always exciting to bring in a player of his calibre”.

Atkinson has recorded 175 goals and 196 assists through 406 games in this DCHL career.

                                                        Expected Starting Lineup
                                                   Atkinson – Barkov – Svechnikov
                                                         Kane – Dvorak – Pearson
                                                Nichushkin – Lowry – Heinen
                                                    Bellows – Stenlund – Erne

The Coyotes also managed to grab Matthew Beniers in the 2021 DCHL with the 2^nd overall pick. Beniers had 24 points in 24 games with the University of Michigan this past season and has elected to return Wolverines for the 2021-22 season. He is expected to project into a solid two-way center who can drive play positively and make his line mates better.

The present and future continues to look bright for this organization as we head into the start of the 2021-22 season.