Did you put McBain in the minors by accident? Pretty sure ARZ likes the guy a lot and would love to just keep him. He would get claimed on waivers 100%. If ARZ trades for Hanifin, I bet they would be sending Dumba back the other way or they get retention which would just cost like a 4th.

I looked at McBain’s stats they weren’t that great.

He's on pace for 25 goals and 44 pts which is pretty good for a 3C making ~1.6M. He may be great defensively as well but I don't know. What I do know is he's still just 23 so he could get better but the fact that he's 6'4", 218 lbs, and provides good secondary scoring, every team would put a waiver claim on him if they can fit him on their roster. I'm sure he's not even available. It cost a second for ARZ to acquire his rights from Minn, his value has only gone up since.

Why would Arizona need anyone to retain? The only reason they would send someone back is because they wouldn't want to lose them to waivers if they were over the roster limit.

I looked at their projected cap hit instead of their current (which isn't enough just yet but will be soon enough with a roster move).

That's because they have Little, Weber, and Voracek on IR instead of LTIR right now. I assume that's to maximize the LTIR pool later in the year. As per CBA: If a team is cap compliant on opening day without using LTIR, or uses LTIR at any point during the season, the LTIR Pool is the Cap Hit of the LTIR player less the team’s cap space when the player goes on LTIR. For example, if a player with a $4M Cap Hit goes on LTIR when the team has $100K of Cap Space, the LTIR pool is $3.9M ($4M-$0.1M). Because of this, team’s often make several roster moves right before a player goes on LTIR in order to be as close to the cap as possible, in order to maximize the LTIR Pool

Yeah, I know. What I meant was when I went to look at their current cap, I looked at the projected (which includes those guys) instead of the current cap (which includes what they have accrued so far) which is listed just under. They already have 4M in cap now and will have 12.9M by the deadline. I don't think they are trying to put those guys on LTIR at any point in the season unless they can spend the 12.9M on additions + brokering deals if there is any point after that. Maybe if McBain and Hayton return sooner rather than later, and send down their replacements, then filling up that cap space with Hanifin could be more advantageous with Voracek going on LTIR.

I think AZ's biggest issue will be Roster Management. Some of their ELC players who are playing well will need to be sent down otherwise they risk waiver eligible players being picked up. They also have 24 picks in the next 2 drafts, so they will need to release some of the reserve list, and at the very least not resign some of their contracts.

ROSTER SIZE: 22/23
CONTRACTS: 48/50
RESERVE LIST: 79/90

The yotes don't need to pay the LTIR salaries so keeping these players allows them to reach the cap floor and maintain their actual player salary below their operating income. They have only been in the black once this century, which is crazy. Their team would be stacked if they could actually spend on players and weren't subsidized by the NHL.

Yeah, unfortunately for them they lose two of their LTIR salaries, maybe they try picking up Price's contract. Luckily for them, their entire D-core needs a contract next year so that should help them reach the floor easier and perhaps they could sign some backloaded deals. If they can find the right mix of guys with their current defenders and pending ufas, they could get their D-core set for a long time. Doubt they will want to sign everyone but that would be interesting if it were to happen.

The clock is ticking for them. You'd have to assume that without some success and fan excitement, any future development plans for an arena will fall flat again. If I was Ryan Smith, I'd be making offers to relocate the Coyotes to Salt Lake. The hell with expansion. The Coyotes have to most draft capital of any team in the league and their biggest handicap is operating costs. You only need the working capital for one season to turn that around and establish a fan base. Seems like a no brainer if Bettman would allow it.