Coyotes Pass on Last-Minute Trades Before Deadline

GLENDALE --Coyotes General Manager John Chayka worked the phones all weekend and again on Monday morning before the NHL trade deadline at 1 p.m. Arizona time. Ultimately, he made no major deals.
"It was a very busy day, of course, like everybody," Chayka said Monday afternoon. "I tried to be proactive and I tried to come up with some creative solutions to try to facilitate a deal that could work for everyone and to get something done ... I made a lot of calls and took a lot of calls and looked at a lot of different scenarios to build our group. Really what it came down to is this group has shown a lot of progress and we wanted to allow them to continue to grow."
Arizona has posted a 9-7-5 record the past two months, and have 20 games left to play this season.
Chayka had warned Coyotes fans not to expect any major moves around the trade deadline. However, he said that seeds for future player swaps may have been planted the past few days.

"We got close on a few things and certainly laid the groundwork for future discussions," Chayka said. "A lot of our discussions we'll pick back up in the off-season ... We're looking to be aggressive here to continue and improve our group. We think we've got a good young nucleus, but we've got to add to it and grow it the right way ... At the end of the season we'll sit down and take a hard look at what we need to add and improve upon, but right now we have maximum flexibility and we have significant assets in order to go out and make some significant moves. That's my goal and I'm going to be aggressive with it."
He added: "We need some impact players here and if you're looking to get an impact player via trade, it's a lot easier in the summer. The supply is higher just because there are 30 teams willing to move players as opposed to just the handful that are moving players now."
The Coyotes did make some trades to add depth to their American Hockey League team in Tucson, which is a first-place squad gearing up for the AHL playoffs. Players added to the mix: forward Jordan Maletta, forward Carter Camper, forward Pierre-Cedric Labrie, forward Derek Army and defenseman Trevor Murphy.
Chayka said a big part of creating a winning culture for an NHL team is creating a winning culture at the developmental leagues, too.
"We're trying to build out a good American League team," Chayka said. "Based off of our research, the precursor to having success at the NHL level is typically having success at the American Hockey League level. We've got a great group down there and the coaches have done a nice job. We're hoping they can make a push in the last part of the season here and next year as well. We expect that success down in Tucson. That's an important part of what we're trying to do here. We feel if we can do that, then our players are going to gain some valuable experience and are going to be able to come up and make an impact at the NHL level right away."