Up until the past seven games, the Coyotes had exceeded most external expectations. They were as close to a playoff spot as they were to the NHL basement. Their middle core was showing further signs of progress. Goaltender Karel Vejmelka was among the league leaders in goals saved above expected. They were beating elite teams and they were winning with shocking regularity at Mullett Arena.  The chances of landing Connor Bedard at the 2023 NHL Draft — or even Adam Fantilli or Leo Carlsson — seemed remote. When the Coyotes hit the midpoint of the 2022-23 season in their 41st game, a 5-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators in Tempe on Thursday, the view was more of an expected one.…

It’s rare to see a Coyotes draft pick play in Arizona in the same season in which he was drafted.  Jakob Chychrun made the NHL roster in his draft year of 2016 and Clayton Keller played three games for the Coyotes late that same season; games in which former coach Dave Tippett humorously noted that he looked like a child on the ice.  Mikkel Boedker and Viktor Tikhonov made the NHL roster in their draft year of 2008, Kyle Turris did it in 2007, and JJ Moser did it last season.That’s it. Until the past two years.  Sort of. Which is another way of saying just how much hockey has grown in Arizona since the Coyotes’ arrival in 1996. It…

NEW YORK — The Coyotes weren’t far away from having a great road trip. They won their first three games, they were tied with the red-hot New Jersey Devils halfway through a game on Saturday, and on the back end of a back-to-back, they outshot the New York Rangers 17-3 in the first period at Madison Square Garden. They just couldn’t solve goalie Igor Shesterkin and the Rangers eventually found their legs after a pair of Coyotes turnovers to record a 4-1 win on Sunday. That left the Coyotes at a good 3-2 on this now completed five-game segment of their NHL-record tying 14-game trip. “I think we got much better,” coach André Tourigny said of the trip. “Look at…

PITTSBURGH — We’ve told you about TD Garden’s inhospitably, but PPG Paints Arena has been the Coyotes’ true house of horrors. In 10 previous games at Pittsburgh’s 12-year-old arena, the Coyotes were 1-9 and had been outscored 41-11, so when the schedule makers added insult to injury this season by launching the Coyotes’ stretch of 20 road games in their...

Stanley Cup winning teams look for a way to sustain the previous season’s fire. Playoff teams look for a way to get over the hump in their quest for a championship. Non-playoff teams hope to take the next step in their evolution toward contention. The Coyotes goals for the 2022-23 season are a bit more esoteric. As a team, they’ll...

The Coyotes opening night roster wasn’t officially released until after practice and media availability had ended on Monday at the Ice Den Scottsdale, but GM Bill Armstrong tipped his hand over the weekend with a flurry of moves that brought the roster to 27 players, with five of them expected to land on IR. When the Coyotes claimed goalie Connor...

Arizona Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun made it clear that he wants to win now and is not interested in a lengthy rebuild, but GM Bill Armstrong will not trade him without getting what he deems fair value.

The NHL’s playoff qualifying round is worth revisiting.

Jakob Chychrun, Phil Kessel, and the team's prospects dominated your questions in the March edition of the PHNX Coyotes monthly mailbag.