"We invested a lot in the group that's in our room, a lot of sacrifice and a lot of hard work," General Manager John Chayka said after the season. "I think it's something that will pay off in the future. It's not easy to go through a season like this, but at some point I think as an organization you have to look at what you've got and this year we got a good, long look at our young players. They lack experience and they lack some strength. What they don't lack is talent. This is a league built on talent, and for a long, long time we've been lacking a lot of talent. No longer do I feel that that's the case. We've got a lot of talented players in premiere positions and moving forward they're going to pay off in a big way for us."
Forwards Christian Dvorak and Brendan Perlini, and defenseman Jakob Chychrun were the most productive of Arizona's rookies last season.
Dvorak played more games (78) than any other freshman, and quietly ranked fourth on the team in goals with 15. He led all Arizona skaters in plus/minus at plus-7 and in shooting percentage at 17.0 percent. Dvorak also impressed in the face-off circles, in which he won 471 draws, the most by a rookie in Coyotes history.
Perlini scored 14 goals in 57 games and became the first British-born player to light the lamp in the NHL since Kevin Brown did so for the Los Angeles Kings in 1994-95. He also tallied 14 goals playing for Tucson of the American Hockey League, giving him 28 total goals in his first pro season.
Chychrun, who made the team as an 18-year-old, notched 20 points in 68 games, the most by a Coyotes rookie defenseman since 2005-06. Only Zach Werenski of the Columbus Blue Jackets scored more than Chychrun's seven goals among NHL rookie defensemen. Chychrun also blocked 99 shots, the fifth most on the team.
"The sky is the limit for us as a young group here," Chychrun said. "I think we all grew a lot this year on the ice and we became really close as a group. It's good for us to have one another because it can be tough for a young guy if you don't have other young guys to hang out with or just talk about the game with throughout the year. We were lucky to have that. Our potential is looking really good right now. Now it's just a matter of keeping on track and keeping focused, and preparing for next year and building off of what we accomplished last year."
Forward Lawson Crouse and defenseman Tony DeAngelo also took major steps in establishing themselves as NHL players in their first seasons.