Coyotes Go Big, Select Seven Players on 2nd Day of Draft

The 2022 NHL Draft was a big deal for the Arizona Coyotes.
Literally.
One of the most highly anticipated drafts in Arizona Coyotes history concluded with general manager Bill Armstrong and his staff adding seven more prospects on Friday, this in addition to their first three selections made Thursday night. Of the 10 picks made throughout the course of the draft, half are 6-foot-3 or taller, while only one is below the six foot mark.

That player? Arizona's crown jewel from the first night, Logan Cooley, considered by some to be the most dynamic player in the entire draft.
Now that's a solid two days at the office.
"We wanted to improve our skill, we wanted to improve our size, and we wanted to improve our depth, and by the end of the seven rounds, we feel we did it," Coyotes Director of Amateur Scouting Darryl Plandowski said. "We got a lot of size. It's nice to have size, but size needs to play. It needs to be able to pass and think.
"These kids, we've watched for a long time, and they all can do that, so hopefully it's a really good group."
Of the 10 players the Coyotes added to their prospect pool, it was an even split of five forwards and five defensemen. They started the day by selecting Russian defenseman Artem Duda, who spent this past season with Krasnaya Armiya Moskva in Russia's Junior Hockey League (MHL). The 6-foot-1 Duda has a left-handed shot, and demonstrated great offensive vision after recording 14 goals and 27 assists in 52 games.
Even with some of the recent uncertainty around Russian players in the NHL, Plandowski said the selection was virtually a no-brainer.
"The number one thing is we've got to make the Arizona Coyotes better," he said. "We need to make ourselves more competitive, and we want the best players in the world.
"We talked over with management, and with Bill (Armstrong), and no, we weren't too afraid."
Seven picks later, the Coyotes selected German winger Julian Lutz at 43rd overall. He's a strong skater who said he prides himself in his goal-scoring ability and vision on the ice, and said he has modeled his game after both Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov and Washington's Evgeny Kuznetsov.
Those players, to him, "think smart and make smart plays."
The 6-foot-2, 190-pound Lutz didn't play much for EHC Red Bull München last season due to injuries, but he said he wants to work on getting more physical while playing a more responsible defensive game. The power-forward's conversations with the Coyotes were, in his assessment, the best he had with any team, and he's excited to be part of Arizona's rebuild.
"I know that they're a team coming up now," Lutz said. "They want to get really good, and win the Stanley Cup in the near future, and I want to be a big part of that."

The Coyotes used their first pick in the third round, 67th overall, to select Finnish winger Miko Matikka, who was just in Arizona a few weeks ago to meet with the front office.
Matikka, who will attend the University of Denver this fall, had 19 goals and 14 assists in 30 games with Jokerit U20 in Finland's U20 SM-sarja league last season. The 6-foot-3 winger still wants to develop his skating ability, specifically his acceleration and explosiveness.
"A lot of skating work to do," he said. "The first few steps need to be way faster. That's the main one I have to focus on, so when I go back to Finland from here, we're going to get straight into that."

Following an active trading day by Armstrong on Thursday, the Coyotes made two deals on Friday, starting by sending their 2023 third-round pick (originally acquired from Dallas) to the Chicago Blackhawks for the 94th pick. They then selected Canadian defenseman Jérémy Langlois, an alternate captain with the QMJHL's Cape Breton Eagles, who notched 47 points in 60 games.
Friday he was sweating his selection out just a little bit after coming to the draft with a large contingency of family and friends - 17 to be exact - and had a feeling his name was about to be called when the trade was announced.
"When I heard that Arizona got the pick, it was a great feeling, he said. "I saw them, I was looking at the table, I saw them looking my way a couple of times, and I was like, 'OK, maybe it's going to be me.'"
Indeed it was, and Langlois said he's excited to continue his development in the Coyotes organization. The six-foot left-handed shot is a strong skater with good vision and hockey IQ, and compared his current style of play to Winnipeg's Josh Morrissey.
He admitted, though, that he still needs to develop the defensive side of his game.
"Just being tougher to play against," he said. "That's something I have to improve on."

After taking Langlois, the Coyotes drafted Canadian defenseman Matthew Morden and Polish defenseman Maksymilian Szuber, marking three consecutive blue liners. Those late-round defensive selections weren't a coincidence, either, considering the club felt there was a strong crop still available.
"We talked a lot about that," Plandowski said. "Defensemen are incredibly important, and there's always good value in every round, but we felt there was going to be really good value later in the draft."
Morden, taken 131st overall, is a big defenseman at 6-foot-4 and 203 pounds. A Harvard commit, he most recently recorded 35 points in 41 games at St. Andrew's College in the Canadian High School Hockey League.
Szuber, taken 163rd overall, is 6-foot-3 and played on the same EHC Red Bull München team as Lutz. He had one goal and six assists in 35 games last season.
And finally, after trading their 2023 seventh-round pick (via the Vancouver Canucks) to the Sharks, the Coyotes selected once more at 204th. They used that pick on Slovakian winger Adam Zlnka, who had four points in 10 games with the USHL's Sioux Falls Stampede.
The majority of Arizona's picks will report to the team's rookie development camp that runs July 11-15, following an unforgettable two days in Montreal. Though the next part of their hockey journey is just beginning, the prospects can savor today's moment as they prepare to be part of the Coyotes' wave of the future.
"I was sweating it out, but it's a relief," Matikka said. "Amazing feeling. I've been dreaming of this since I was a kid, so it's a dream come true."
The 2022 NHL Draft had the potential to drastically increase the talent in the Coyotes' prospect pipeline, and although some of the results won't be truly visible for years to come, it appears Arizona has taken a giant step forward in its rebuild.
Indeed, hockey in the desert just got even bigger.