Coyotes’ Plan on Track with Armstrong at the Helm

He may be entering his fourth year as the Arizona Coyotes’ General Manager, but Bill Armstrong is just getting started in the desert.

Consider this: Upon his arrival in September 2020, Armstrong was faced with a depleted prospect pipeline and zero first-round picks in both the 2020 and 2021 NHL Drafts. Three years later, the 53-year-old GM and his staff have made six first-round selections, and combined with a plethora of future picks, are well-positioned to continue adding top prospects to a prospect cupboard that’s beginning to overflow with talent.

Now that he’s signed a multi-year contract extension with the club, Armstrong is fully focused on continuing to stack Arizona’s system with some of the top players in the world. Just because he’s pleased with the team’s progress to this point, though, doesn’t mean he’s taking his eye off the ultimate prize.

“I find I have my best success when I’m never really happy,” he said. “As a person, I’m always pushing, always trying to get better and learn more, and help this organization become better. One day I probably will look back, but right now it’s all about looking forward, and trying to get this organization to take the next step.”

The Coyotes’ GM has been one of the most active leaders in all of the NHL since taking the reins three seasons ago. Under his watch, he’s built an All-Star scouting staff that’s drafted some of the top talent in the world, including Dylan Guenther (9th overall, 2021), Logan Cooley (3rd overall, 2022), Conor Geekie (11th overall, 2022), Maveric Lamoureux (29th overall, 2022), Dmitry Simashev (6th overall, 2023), and Daniil But (12th overall, 2023).

Building a strong team foundation through the NHL Draft has always been the plan, but Armstrong and his staff have also hit home runs in the trade, waiver, and free agency markets. Over the past three years, he has acquired goaltenders Karel Vejmelka and Connor Ingram; defensemen J.J. Moser, Juuso Valimaki, Matt Dumba, Troy Stecher, and Travis Dermott; and forwards Jack McBain, Josh Doan, Jason Zucker, Alex Kerfoot, and Nick Bjugstad.

Coyotes President and CEO Xavier A. Gutierrez said it was important to both himself, Alex Meruelo, and Alex Meruelo Jr. to ensure Armstrong’s future remained in Arizona for the foreseeable future.

“As a hockey decision maker, he’s had unparalleled success given where we started, and the vision that he wanted to come in and help execute on, we’ve been executing on it,” Gutierrez said. “It’s a really important milestone for the organization to have found a great leader in Bill Armstrong, to not only be a person who has clearly had great success in putting the foundation together, but also someone who I think exemplifies who we are as an organization because he puts the vision of leveraging the power of sports to make a difference top of mind.”

Armstrong was quick to deflect any individual credit for the steady progress made by the team, instead pointing to his accomplished scouting, development, and coaching staffs. His All-Star staff includes Director of Amateur Scouting Darryl Plandowski, Associate Director of Amateur Scouting, Ryan Jankowski, Director of Pro Scouting, Alan Hepple, Assistant General Manager, John Ferguson, Senior Advisor to the General Manager, Larry Pleau, and Director of Hockey Operations and Salary Cap Compliance, David Ludwig.

Individually, their resumes are stacked. Armstrong joined the Coyotes after a lengthy career with the St. Louis Blues, where he started as an amateur scout in 2004 before also serving as the Director of Amateur Scouting and eventually Assistant General Manager, helping the Blues to a Stanley Cup championship in 2018-19. Plandowski helped build the Tampa Bay Lightning team that won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2020-21 and 2021-22, while Jankowski spent over 10 years in various NHL front offices while also acting as Hockey Canada’s Head Scout and Director of Player personnel for four years.

Hepple spent 19 years with the Colorado Avalanche, and was instrumental in drafting Bowen Byram (2019), Alex Newhook (2019) and Cale Makar (2017). Ferguson has decades of front office experience, serving as the Boston Bruins’ Director of Player Personnel from 2014-2021 while also acting as General Manager of the AHL’s Providence Bruins (2016-2021), Director of Pro Scouting for the San Jose Sharks (2008-2014), Vice President and General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs (2003-08), and Assistant General Manager and Director of Hockey Operations with St. Louis (1997-2003).

Pleau rounds out that experience as a three-time Stanley Cup champion and a member of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame.

“I really believe that as a GM, you have to surround yourself with good people, and I think between the hockey ops, and the coaching, and everything else, it’s just been tremendous to work with our group,” Armstrong said. “One of my biggest fears when I left St. Louis was if I could find the people to work around, and that came together rather quickly. It’s an exciting time to be part of this organization.”

The creation of analytic and development departments have furthered the progress under Armstrong, but one of the Coyotes’ cornerstones over the last two seasons has been its culture under the steady guidance of Tourigny and his staff.

Arizona’s coach has fostered an environment that players have consistently stated they want to join, and has also helped develop the team’s core of players such as Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, Matias Maccelli, Lawson Crouse, Barrett Hayton, J.J. Moser, Juuso Valimaki, and Karel Vejmelka.

The Coyotes improved by 23 points from 2021-22 to 2022-23, posting a 21-15-5 record at Mullett Arena last season, and Gutierrez said Armstrong’s pursuit of Tourigny highlights his ability to build a Stanley Cup contender.

“He was the driver to bring in Tourigny, and that shows you his eye for talent, his eye for what needs to be done in terms of creating a culture of winning, a culture of impact, and a culture of success,” Gutierrez said. “We know that we still have a lot of work to do, but you can see the progress that’s being made, you can see the foundation, and it’s reflected in the free agents that we’re able to attract now. You have some incredible human beings, and really very talented hockey players who are saying this is a program that I want to be involved with.”

Armstrong also said he’s caught some luck along the way, which has aided the rebuilding process. The flat salary cap in previous seasons, for example, opened the door for him to take on bad contracts from other teams that required additional flexibility as they neared the cap ceiling. That type of relief didn’t come cheap for those other GMs, though, as Armstrong acquired significant draft assets along with them.

Arizona has a combined 34 picks over the next three drafts, and that’s not including the aforementioned prospect pipeline.

Those moves, which brought Anton Stralman, Loui Eriksson, Andrew Ladd, Antoine Roussel, and Jay Beagle to The Valley, not only added strong, veteran leadership during the early stages of the team’s rebuild process -- they also provided a significant amount of draft capital, paying dividends in both the short-and-long terms.

“We were able to turn that corner rather quickly because of the flat cap, and we took advantage of that,” Armstrong said. “We also worked to recruit the Jack McBains of the world, and we have also been good in the draft with players like Moser, Guenther, and Cooley. 

“Now they’re coming in to help us take that next step as an organization.”

Arizona’s GM has made no secret of his plans to see the Coyotes progress in coming years with the hope of playing in more meaningful games as they inch closer to their goal of becoming a perennial playoff competitor. 

Armstrong continues to keep expectations tempered as he enters his fourth season at the helm, but there’s optimism abound as the 2023-24 season approaches. One thing is for sure: He and his staff will continue to evaluate all of the little things, which he hopes will continue to add up to a very big future.

“We want to become the best organizations possible, off the ice too,” Armstrong said. “We want to have great departments that push every envelope we can to become the best we can be. It’s a small line between winning and losing, to get into the playoffs, to win  your first round in the playoffs. It’s a very, very small line, and it’s all the little things that you do behind the scenes that can help you become that championship organization.

“It’s going to be fun ride, I’m looking forward to it, and it’s little, small steps to measure our success.”