Hextall isn't going to mortgage the future just so you can "hinkie" us and eat the contract of MacDonald. He would buy him out and eat the buyout hit for the next six years or so.

So you'd rather have 1,833,333 over six years rather than giving up a few draft picks to get rid of it completely? Maybe Arizona wouldn't be able to get a first out of it but if there's not at least 2 seconds going to Arizona then there is no point in them doing the deal imo.

Taking on MacDonald's contract wouldn't fit with the M.O. of Chayka's cap-related trades. MacDonald is generally healthy and thus would have to be paid the entire value of his contract, which is backloaded and goes up in real salary over time. Bolland's contract only merits 20% of his salary from the Coyotes while he's on LTIR (and possibly has career-ending injures, so he may never even come back). Pronger's contract is insured; they pay nothing (and he's only owed 575K this year, so that's peanuts). Datsyuk's contract is essentially free cap space. They get nearly $18M in cap space while only having to pay $1.1M each year. That's smart use of cap space. Taking on MacDonald's contract and having to pay that money for a below-replacement value player is counterintuitive. For that reason, I would also shy away from Brown's contract.
If you're gonna do that sort of thing, I would suggest Johan Franzén's contract from the Red Wings. He's on LTIR with post-concussion syndrome and is essentially in Pronger's boat, but he's got a now-illegal backdiving contract that only requires $7.5M in real salary over the next 4 years but carries a $3.9M cap hit. If Marián Hossa ever shows signs of age catching up to him (which it very well could, considering he's 38), he's got 4 years left with a $5.275M cap hit but only $1M in real salary owed over the next 4 years.
With Clarkson, it depends on how big Alex Wennberg and Sam Gagner's raises are (should they elect to re-sign the latter). Their raises might merit an attempt to dump Clarkson's contract.

In general:
- The forward corps has too many young players. Fielding a roster with 8/12 forwards who have played 2 full NHL seasons or less against NHL-level competition is a surefire way to stunt growth. Even the Maple Leafs only have 6/12 forwards who haven't played much in the NHL prior to this season. Ideally, they should have more veteran forwards and older players to insulate the new guys.
- Personally, I'd go with Liljegren over Hischier; RD is a shallow area for the Coyotes, with only Kyle Wood looking like a real full-time NHLer aside from Murphy, Schenn, and DeAngelo, and Liljegren would help the Coyotes immensely (plus, he's Swedish, and I can't imagine OEL would complain about having a Swedish defensive partner, especially such a promising one).
- Word on the street is that Keller is projected to be more of a winger than a center, so I'd swap him and Dvorak. Tippett's been using Dvorak as a center (mostly 'cause they need to), and the Coyotes already have *way too many* LWs.
- Can't sign Holland to a 1-year, $800K contract. QOs need to be 100% of previous salary for RFAs making $1M or above, so he'd require $1.3M, at least. Sign Martinook instead so that the Coyotes don't have to pay out the 2018 6th rounder to the Maple Leafs.