John Chayka: "We’re probably the most improved team in the league.”

[HenrikW]

Arizona has tons of interesting names, given proper coaching and patience they could very well be playoff contenders in a few years. Signing or trading OEL is crucial though, they can't let such a great asset go away for free in the UFA market.

If they win the lottery I would really start considering an OEL trade. Chychrun and Dahlin should be their future LHD and they OEL could return key additions to increase their depth.

I'm intrigued

 

[Healthy DiPietro]

Whos their Nate Mckinnon who’s going to throw the team on his back offensively? Yotes are not Colorado.

Raanta is a hell of an upgrade from the garbage Arizona iced in net for half this season, I wouldn't be surprised if he's a Vezina finalist next year. The point is, neither Colorado nor Arizona are/were nearly as bad as they've seemed.

 

[Wats]

Weren't they playing pretty good in 2nd half? Raanta's numbers are really impressive.

 

[IPreferPi]

Whos their Nate Mckinnon who’s going to throw the team on his back offensively? Yotes are not Colorado.

Did any of you predict that MacKinnon would have a Hart-level season where he nearly doubles his points compared to his past two seasons?

Keller is likely a Calder finalist and had 65 points on a lottery team. He may hit a sophomore slump but he clearly has the gamebreaking talent too. If we manage to draft a sniper like Svechnikov/Zadina/Wahlstrom, watch out.

 

[IPreferPi]

Weren't they playing pretty good in 2nd half? Raanta's numbers are really impressive.

Yotes were 20-14-7 since January 1st.

 

[The Burdened]

Whos their Nate Mckinnon who’s going to throw the team on his back offensively? Yotes are not Colorado.

Dylan Strome

 

[HenrikW]

Dylan Strome

That would be funny half a season ago

 

[Wats]

Yotes were 20-14-7 since January 1st.

That's actually better than I thought. I have Keller in my keeper league so mostly paid attention to his +/- improve drastically as the season went on.

 

[GOilers88]

They brought in good players, and after a terrible start they finally started to gel together. Chayka will probably acquire more good players in the offseason too. Wouldn’t be surprised to see them take a big forward next season.

Hear it every year.

 

[FinnishCoyote]

The irony is delicious given his comments at the start of the season.

Yotes were 20-14-7 since January 1st.

Yotes went 16-6-4 in 2018 with Raanta in net. If he can stay healthy next year, Yotes could be a very dangerous team.

 

[pomx]

This guy is delusional as it gets. He’s up there with Bergevin and Chia as worst GMs.

 

[Tom ServoMST3K]

Bubble team next year.

 

[Seanaconda]

That would be funny half a season ago

Its obv keller anyways

 

[hohosaregood]

Chaykas done a good job considering he basically did a rebuild from scratch and deprogramming Tippett hockey out of his players

 

[tsujimoto74]

They had a strong second half. Wish Buffalo could throw together even half of a respectable season.

 

[McKappa]

They went from like last year colorado bad to a wild card level team.

 

[Peiskos]

Its obvious that the Avalanche are the most improved, to go from 22-56-4 & 48 points to 43-30-9 & 95 points is an incredible 47 point improvement.

With regards to the Coyotes, I'll be forever grateful for this franchise passing up on Mitch Marner with their #3 pick.

 

[MessierII]

Chaykas done a good job considering he basically did a rebuild from scratch and deprogramming Tippett hockey out of his players

There is no metric by which Chaya has done a good job.

 

[Rorschach]

At the beginning of the year, we just had to show up to beat the Yotes. By the end of the year when every win or loss could change your playoff chances, we actually had to show up and play against the Yotes.

They certainly were better by the end of the season.

 

[Beezeral]

He's obviously talking about the second half, and I think everyone knows that, but people just look for a reason to crucify this guy because he's a #nerd

but that isn't even true. Panthers were in 27th place at the all star break. They finished in 16th

 

[pabst blue ribbon]

For all the talk about how bad there goaltending was at the start (it was). AZ managed to hover around league average SV%.

For reference Raanta posted .930 sv% while posting a 21-17-6 record.

Any significant improvment implies relies on Raanta starting 60+games and sustaining a similar SV%

 

[Newsworthy]

Arizona has done bad drafting period and Chayka hasnt reversed that trend either.

 

[Cleatus]

Avs? Devils? Winnipeg?

Unless you mean from January 1st on, which Chayka may have a point with. But, it seems like classic GM speak.

This is what I’m thinking he means, too. No way someone that high up in management can be dumb enough to think the Coyotes are the most improved team from last year, or really any year prior.

 

[IPreferPi]

Arizona has done bad drafting period and Chayka hasnt reversed that trend either.

Keller is a a 65 point Calder finalist and Chychrun has been very solid in a top 4 capacity despite knee injuries. POJ has also had a solid D+1 year.

In other words, the assertion that Chayka has drafted poorly isn't really rooted in reality. Not that Maloney is chopped liver either, as Domi, Dvorak, Fischer, and Perlini are all on the roster, while Strome was a PPG in his last call-up to close the season.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Funny claim to make when you consider the fact that the Coyotes finished this season with the exact same amount of points as they did last season with 70. Oh, and they had one less win this season than the year prior.

Maybe there's some advanced stat that makes him feel better about the job he is doing? Regardless of that, it's a rather silly comment to make when you look at how much teams like the Avs and Devils improved compared to last season.

well lets look at the nuts and bolts

17/18 vs 16/17
29 wins vs 30 wins -1 in wins
70 pts vs 69 pts +1 in pts
208 gf vs 197 gf +11
245 GA vs 243 -2 goal against


those are the most improve stats of the year?