Confirmed with Link: Bill Armstrong agrees to contract extension (UPD: Signed through 2028-29)

[Foggy1097]

I don’t know if BA was exaggerating any of that stuff at all, but the dehumidifier thing for the ice….is honestly bananas. Like…off the charts incompetence. I always knew everyone liked to give the Coyotes a hard time and it was all funny ha ha ya know and we all kind of laughed but also knew like, “ok this is still a professional sports organization…it can’t really be THAT bad can it?” But yes…yes it does in fact seem like it can be that bad. Yikes man.

 

[JasonDemersWasOkay]

It’s fun to learn that before he came on board this organization was, in fact, being run like a clown show beyond our worst nightmares.

 

[Grimes]

one GM was trying to win and one was trying to get a better draft pick.

we need to judge BA on what he's building. Right now that means we judge contracts, trades, and draft picks.

the trades are lopsided because we managed to leverage cap space during the pandemic for a boatload of picks. We turned a bad situation in OEL's contract into Guenther.

Cooley has turned out to be probably the top pick of his draft class. I don't even think BA had him at #1 overall but we will take it. Moser has been a solid pick. Some of the russians we took over the past few drafts look very promising but we will likely be scrutinizing Simashev and But for a year or two against other prospects who were ranked higher by most media.

I know this is the Internet and context (along with irony) has been dead for ages now, but man, just throwing out the stats without any reference at all to any other factors is just terrible.

It's is a bit shocking that BA's record was this much worse, but I think that is mostly a reflection of just how miserable it was to watch the team in the Tochett years. A lot of the pain came.from the fact that we KNEW the talent on the roster did circles around the Tippett teams. Yet the results were worse and the hockey was like watching a 50 year old trying to impress his friends by playing 'Smoke on The Water' (poorly) on his overpriced mid-life crisis guitar.

It's been said here before but man Chayka could have been the perfect AGM to Maloney. Get Maloney's charm with Chaykas spreadsheets. We are very fortunate he wasn't a complete snake oil salesman or we could be in a deeper hole right now without the likes of Hayton, Maccelli and having signed Chychrun and Keller to forward thinking contracts.

I don’t know if BA was exaggerating any of that stuff at all, but the dehumidifier thing for the ice….is honestly bananas. Like…off the charts incompetence. I always knew everyone liked to give the Coyotes a hard time and it was all funny ha ha ya know and we all kind of laughed but also knew like, “ok this is still a professional sports organization…it can’t really be THAT bad can it?” But yes…yes it does in fact seem like it can be that bad. Yikes man.

Who was the major goon on the team from Pittsburgh that called out the org near the end of the Tippett years? About the team sending him to the wrong type of doctors for his injury? I remember it being oddly specific. To the point where I didn't doubt it. And I hated reading it. Chayka inherited this, and unfortunately we probably will never get to see what his full potential was as a GM/AGM or head scout.

The GM role would have always been over his head. I don't believe he is a good communicator and seeing Dubas have success, don't think age is the only reason he was poor at it. But I would have enjoyed seeing him in a lesser role and will be curious to see how he does if he ever gets another gig. But as far as it goes in AZ, good riddance

But enough about Chayka, because I'm thrilled we got BA locked up but more importantly that we are holding onto an entire staff to see their plan through

 

[rt]

It's is a bit shocking that BA's record was this much worse, but I think that is mostly a reflection of just how miserable it was to watch the team in the Tochett years. A lot of the pain came.from the fact that we KNEW the talent on the roster did circles around the Tippett teams. Yet the results were worse and the hockey was like watching a 50 year old trying to impress his friends by playing 'Smoke on The Water' (poorly) on his overpriced mid-life crisis guitar.

It's been said here before but man Chayka could have been the perfect AGM to Maloney. Get Maloney's charm with Chaykas spreadsheets. We are very fortunate he wasn't a complete snake oil salesman or we could be in a deeper hole right now without the likes of Hayton, Maccelli and having signed Chychrun and Keller to forward thinking contracts.

Great points.

Who was the major goon on the team from Pittsburgh that called out the org near the end of the Tippett years? About the team sending him to the wrong type of doctors for his injury? I remember it being oddly specific. To the point where I didn't doubt it. And I hated reading it. Chayka inherited this, and unfortunately we probably will never get to see what his full potential was as a GM/AGM or head scout.

Steve Downie I believe.

The GM role would have always been over his head. I don't believe he is a good communicator and seeing Dubas have success, don't think age is the only reason he was poor at it. But I would have enjoyed seeing him in a lesser role and will be curious to see how he does if he ever gets another gig. But as far as it goes in AZ, good riddance

But enough about Chayka, because I'm thrilled we got BA locked up but more importantly that we are holding onto an entire staff to see their plan through

Totally agree.

It’s fun to learn that before he came on board this organization was, in fact, being run like a clown show beyond our worst nightmares.

And that’s why Peters stayed for so long but exited so quickly.

 

[TheLegend]

How Coyotes GM Bill Armstrong earned an extension in 3 years

When Bill Armstrong began the arduous task of rebuilding the Coyotes nearly three years ago, some critics took aim at the first-time GM's early work.

gophnx.com

 

[cobra427]

Keep in mind most on this board were enamored with Chayka initially and Murello extended Chayka before the major problems surfaced. I have disagreed with BA on the time it took to start an obvious rebuild, trade Chych/DVO, etc, but I do like the direction the team is going by building through the draft.

Murello is making his bet on an unproven coach and unproven GM, but Murello has a history in his business ventures of playing the long game and sticking with his managers. The GM bet is a safer one, given BAs experience within the Blues organization, they were a proven winner for 10+ years, built the team mostly through the draft.

So far, expectations have been very low. That starts to change this year. We have a lot of young players, some of them should get better naturally, some of them won't pan out. As a team, we haven't caught lightening in a bottle since the WCF run. We are due to beat expectations one of these years, I hope its this year. It's going to be fun to watch, we have a lot of hope with all the young players.

What is the bogie for this year? 75 points? Or is it higher? We will need 95ish points to make the playoffs, That would be way above expectations, 70 points or less and we are way under expectations.

 

[The Feckless Puck]

I don’t know if BA was exaggerating any of that stuff at all, but the dehumidifier thing for the ice….is honestly bananas. Like…off the charts incompetence. I always knew everyone liked to give the Coyotes a hard time and it was all funny ha ha ya know and we all kind of laughed but also knew like, “ok this is still a professional sports organization…it can’t really be THAT bad can it?” But yes…yes it does in fact seem like it can be that bad. Yikes man.

I don't think BA was exaggerating at all, and in fact I think he has more anecdotes that are even more stupefying about the state of affairs this franchise was in when he came on board that he can't or won't share on a call or in a presser.

A very valid argument can be made that this franchise has not been run like an actual sporting franchise, much less a competent business, since before the team moved to Glendale. I call the LeBlanc/Gosbee years "The Ice Clowns" but I don't think that even in my most pessimistic and caustic criticisms I would ever have imagined that they couldn't be bothered to hire someone who would have enough common sense to run a dehumidifier to safeguard the f***ing ice surface.

So when people throw out stats about win % under Chayka vs. Armstrong, for example, without any context, it annoys me - because Armstrong and Meruelo have basically started this entire franchise over from scratch. It's an expansion team without any of the benefits that expansion teams get (extra draft picks, expansion draft, the "new guy on the block" PR boost, etc.). Drafting Simashev and But is not just an example of exploiting other teams' prejudices or oversights; it's also a landmark moment in our scouting department, in that it's probably the first time anyone in the franchise has done more than pick Russian names out of a goddamned hat to fill in the team's draft board (third rounder Dmitri Pestunov, wherefore art thou??).

I'm just afraid that all of this is going to bear fruit after I'm already dead.

 

[Foggy1097]

I don't think BA was exaggerating at all, and in fact I think he has more anecdotes that are even more stupefying about the state of affairs this franchise was in when he came on board that he can't or won't share on a call or in a presser.

A very valid argument can be made that this franchise has not been run like an actual sporting franchise, much less a competent business, since before the team moved to Glendale. I call the LeBlanc/Gosbee years "The Ice Clowns" but I don't think that even in my most pessimistic and caustic criticisms I would ever have imagined that they couldn't be bothered to hire someone who would have enough common sense to run a dehumidifier to safeguard the f***ing ice surface.

So when people throw out stats about win % under Chayka vs. Armstrong, for example, without any context, it annoys me - because Armstrong and Meruelo have basically started this entire franchise over from scratch. It's an expansion team without any of the benefits that expansion teams get (extra draft picks, expansion draft, the "new guy on the block" PR boost, etc.). Drafting Simashev and But is not just an example of exploiting other teams' prejudices or oversights; it's also a landmark moment in our scouting department, in that it's probably the first time anyone in the franchise has done more than pick Russian names out of a goddamned hat to fill in the team's draft board (third rounder Dmitri Pestunov, wherefore art thou??).

I'm just afraid that all of this is going to bear fruit after I'm already dead.

Yeah…I mean I knew it wasn’t great. But those things are honestly shocking to hear. Especially because it’s not like Meruelo wasn’t in place for part of the Chayka era. I know he inherited Chayka and had never run a sports business before, so he was probably mostly in evaluation mode during that time, but he was already a very experienced business man and should have been able to spot some inefficiencies. Had to just be in evaluation mode and didn’t want to immediately jump to micro managing. It is odd that an anal retentive type A guy like Chayka wouldn’t be looking into the finer details of things though. Very surprising. I imagine that once BA had been here for a few months it was very eye opening to Meruelo and company…like, “Ohhhhh so this is how things are supposed to be getting done…”

I would imagine that we start seeing the fruits of their work in the next few years. Keller leveling up has already been the start…shifting the culture. Cooley will be the next step, and then over the next 2-3 years we are going to hopefully see several new quality prospects start to get integrated into the team and become the new core. They need to be a bubble team this year…pushing hard for and maybe getting a playoff spot the season after this one, and then be on their way to being one of those teams that is going to be in the playoffs for 5,6,7 years in a row. A lot has to go right obviously, but it seems like that’s the kind of trajectory BA is looking for.

 

[BAdvocate]

Coyotes: Armstrong's Moves Pave Way for Future Success - The Hockey Writers Coyotes Management Latest News, Analysis & More

Coyotes GM Bill Armstrong has done a great job rebuilding the team, but it finally seems those days are over entering 2023-24.

thehockeywriters.com