Whitney was also part of one of our best lines ever, Whitney - Hanzal - Vrbata. That line was better, at least equally entertaining, and helped kick off the Jets 1st round curse. The latter I think easily makes up for a couple seasons of not playing here.
Whitney's 11-12 season wasn't just really good it was one of the best any Coyote has ever had.
Whitney's line was decent. But it wasn't as entertaining. Were you there when the Coyotes were four goals down to LA and Nagy-Langkow-Johnson rallied us back to win 6-5? Whitney's line was fairly classic and simplistic.. playmaker to sniper and playing opposite Vrbata's 35 goal season clearly helped his stats. They helped each other. Whitney is getting a lot of reflected glory from how well the team did and other players having great years. He helped that happen but conversely he was also simply a veteran who slotted in well into a veteran laden team. He came to us only because nobody else wanted him at the end of his career and he left as soon as someone offered more money. We're probably not even in his top 3 of favorite teams. He should be on the Hurricanes all time list. Feels kinda embarrassing to try and make him a "greatest ever" Coyote based on one season and say it "makes up for not playing that much for us".
Nagy-Langkow-Johnson was just a fantastic story. The team was falling apart. Langkow was failing to click with Doan or Briere as he was supposed to. Johnson was a 4th line scrub and on the verge of being booted out of the team. Nagy was talented but inexperienced and small playing like a deer in headlights. All three undersized players came together in adversity almost by accident and the chemistry was just amazing to watch. Every game they would outplay better and bigger opposition. They were the definition of chemistry and team spirit.
Looking back, that lockout really hurt Nagy's profile. We had seen him develop from rookie into an All Star level forward for us, the Coyotes. That's a very short list. He did that as a Coyote so that's the decisive factor for me.