Worst Era of Coyotes Hockey?

[SniperHF]

Had this random thought pop into my head, I'm not sure what it is logically but I know which one at a visceral level I hate the most.

So I'm looking for more subjective gut feeling here rather than W/L, but if you wanna go by that knock yourself out


Here's my reasoning for the eras in question:
The Decline - 2002-2004
The "original" Coyotes are gone, sure there are some bright spots but after the dead cat bounce of 2002's playoff run on the back of Sean Burke it's mostly suck and lament of our loss of starpower.

The FoG - 2005-2009
Arguably some overlap between the prior era, but I think when Wayne takes over as HC it's a different feel.
In addition to lacking starpower and winning, there's no coherence at all.

Race to the Bottom - 2012-2015
After the 3 year playoff streak the Coyotes would begin their long downward slide into the basement. But not into the basement enough for the prize.

Tip in Charge - 2016-2017
This is a pretty short era but I think it bears inclusion given the stakes at the time. The rebuild was halted in a power struggle, promising young players regressed, and at least to me at the time it felt like there was no strategy at all to get out of mediocre.

The Stathletes - 2017-2020
The old regime is finally gone but the rebuild doesn't really come back either. New approaches are tried but with rhyming results to prior eras.


Maybe next we'll vote for the best era, shame there are only two options for that one

Click to read more...

 

[MIGs Dog]

What! No multiple selections!?

 

[Tom Polakis]

Great titles for the eras. That 2015 team defined the Race to the Bottom, with players like Dave Moss and BJ Crombeen playing most of the season. Then we couldn't even lose to the Sabres at the end. So it gets my vote.

The FoG years were a close second, though. For those newer fans on here who bemoan Tochhet's coaching failures, those teams couldn't even execute the most basic plays everyone learns in Junior hockey. Only when Tippett took over in 2010 did we see what a veteran coach can do to a team's structure.

 

[Schemp]

What about the worse is yet to come?
The after effects of the Chayka hangover!

 

[RemoAZ]

What's the next pole? Best revolver to shoot yourself with? Yeesh! Most of the last couple decades have sucked. There's been relocation rumors since the team moved to Glendale. Why do you want to bring up all that misery again? It's already depressing enough to be a Coyotes fan.

 

[SniperHF]

Why do you want to bring up all that misery again?

Endure. In enduring, grow strong.

Well that and I mostly think our futility is more funny than miserable at this point.

 

[Matias Maccete]

All of it.

 

[AJ171181]

Sad to say but this franchise just had a few good-ok years since the Era of JR and KT.

If i have to choose its the Gretzky time. So much great expectations, bad hockey, they took away the kachinas and we got this interchangeable red wine jerseys.

 

[Gwyddbwyll]

The year Sam Gagner was our highest scoring forward with 41 points.

Gagner 41 and -28
Doan 36 and -29 (age 37)
Vermette 35 and -23
Erat 32 and -16
Bodker 28 and -10
Hanzal 24 and -1
Next six: Reider, Korpikoski, Moss, Chipchura, Vitale, Arcobello

Horrendous.

 

[TheLegend]

What! No multiple selections!?

"All Of The Above" would have been a runaway choice.

 

[GiveAFlyingPuck]

I went with The Race to the Bottom - with the ever-looming spectre of relocation. The only good thing to say was the tickets were cheap.

 

[Schemp]

Endure. In enduring, grow strong.

Well that and I mostly think our futility is more funny than miserable at this point.

Or become neurotic and self loathing!

 

[Neighborhood Coyote]

Too many contenders in this poll for any franchise in such a short amount of time. It's horrendous to look at and think about.

I had a hard time choosing but decided on the "decline" era... that's the one with the most long lasting negative impact in my mind.

The opening of the Glendale arena is a situation that haunts the team to this very day. Not to mention the 03 NHL draft and not having a single pick as a highlight during those years. Just those alone are enough to sway my vote. Just brutal. They took a team that still had plenty of potential and sliced their little Coyote Hamstrings so progress forward would be almost impossible.

To me, what happened in that era set up the clown show that's continued to plague this team.

 

[SR]

Does 96’ to 20’ count?

 

[Vinny Boombatz]

The FOG years were some of the most entertaining though, even if we lost. Those last two Tippett years were awfully painful to watch. The hockey was so boring and we sucked, it was a Lose Lose.

Watching Ed Jovanovski every night was a treat...you never knew what was going to happen, either offensively or defensively.

 

[AZviaNJ]

Great poll @SniperHF SOOOO many good choices!!

 

[AZviaNJ]

Too many contenders in this poll for any franchise in such a short amount of time. It's horrendous to look at and think about.

I had a hard time choosing but decided on the "decline" era... that's the one with the most long lasting negative impact in my mind.

The opening of the Glendale arena is a situation that haunts the team to this very day. Not to mention the 03 NHL draft and not having a single pick as a highlight during those years. Just those alone are enough to sway my vote. Just brutal. They took a team that still had plenty of potential and sliced their little Coyote Hamstrings so progress forward would be almost impossible.

To me, what happened in that era set up the clown show that's continued to plague this team.

27 players from that draft were an all-star at some point and as many as 10 are future HOFers
47 played at least 500 games
No Coyote draft pick in '03 played a single NHL game.

The only thing more embarrassing than the 2003 draft might be the 2020 Coyote draft.

 

[The Feckless Puck]

I voted FOG as the worst (but only by a slim margin), because FOG is what directly led to Jerry Moyes stabbing us all in the back with his backroom deal with Balsillie... which took us from a team on crutches to a team in hospice.

 

[AZviaNJ]

Fortunately, the Pierre McGuire era (2020-current) didn't become one of the choices.

 

[WrinkledPossum]

Voted Race To The Bottom but I wasn't a fan of the team in the early 2000s, casually followed the team from about 2005 onwards. I dont remember the Gretzky years that well. What I remember is the team being bad, looking like maybe a playoff push is possible then completely falling off in the last half/quarter of the season.

2012 to 2015 was awful though. Coming off the playoff year there was the half season lock out where Riberio was supposed to save us. The tank year was unwatchable and a complete waste. The 2015 lottery is the worst moment in franchise history. If we had took Marner it at least would've made the draft salvageable. Or trading 3 OV for Dougie hahah

When Domi and Duclair came around there was at least some intrigue with the team, and hope. We still sucked though but the first 20 or so games were very fun.

 

[Dirty Old Man]

I went with The Race to the Bottom - with the ever-looming spectre of relocation. The only good thing to say was the tickets were cheap.

Yeah, relocation threat, that tipped (heh) the scales for me, too. I could have gone with FoG, too, as that was the era that I cared the least...but in a weird way, that was responsible for me caring so much more now, because if that all hadn't happened and tickets hadn't gotten so cheap, my neighbor that got me back into having season tickets again after my one year not having them never would have been interested in going.

(plus of course, the local yokel tank commanders who all told me to stop rooting for the team, coz scoring McDavid/Eichel would be a panacea, which we're still waiting for evidence of 5-6 years later)

 

[TheLegend]

I went with The Race to the Bottom - with the ever-looming spectre of relocation. The only good thing to say was the tickets were cheap.

The ever-looming spectre of relocation covers everything 2008 forward.

That said... the Toronto media has been slowly ramping that narrative up again.

 

[ck26]

Easily February-April 2015 for me. Paying actual money to watch Kyle Chipchura and Mark Arcobello play 1C/2C right after the team traded my favorite player to the Rangers was ... that was rough.

 

[Summer Rose]

Voted Race To The Bottom but I wasn't a fan of the team in the early 2000s, casually followed the team from about 2005 onwards. I dont remember the Gretzky years that well. What I remember is the team being bad, looking like maybe a playoff push is possible then completely falling off in the last half/quarter of the season.

2012 to 2015 was awful though. Coming off the playoff year there was the half season lock out where Riberio was supposed to save us. The tank year was unwatchable and a complete waste. The 2015 lottery is the worst moment in franchise history. If we had took Marner it at least would've made the draft salvageable. Or trading 3 OV for Dougie hahah

When Domi and Duclair came around there was at least some intrigue with the team, and hope. We still sucked though but the first 20 or so games were very fun.

Many of us try not to either.

 

[rt]

The last nine months has been hard from a Coyotes perspective. Went from 1st place and acquiring Taylor Hall, with Hayton and Jenik crushing the WJC and Soderstrom and Maccelli looking great too. Then complete collapse, zero accountability, lay down and die attitude from top to bottom, Chayka quits, we get busted for cheating, all the missed payment and ownership drama, all our draft picks are taken away, and then the damn Mitchell Miller fiasco, Hall signs in Buffalo and our new GM is so handcuffed he can’t do anything but swap out bit parts on the 4th line.

At least John MacLean is gone. But damn.