Mailbag: Coyotes, Predators should be buyers ahead of Trade Deadline

Here is the Jan. 24 edition of the weekly NHL.com mailbag, where we answer your questions asked on X. Send your questions to @drosennhl and @NHLdotcom and tag it with #OvertheBoards.

I was looking at the standings the other day and I was wondering what teams like Nashville and Arizona should do for the deadline? Yeah, they're right there, but is buying worth it if it means a quick series vs. Winnipeg or Vancouver? What are those teams doing? -- @HarrisonB927077

They both should be buyers and they should do it early, so it gives them the best chance to stay in the Stanley Cup Playoff race. They can do it with NHL Draft capital and room under the NHL salary cap. They might be the two teams best positioned to be buyers ahead of the deadline without sacrificing their futures.

The Arizona Coyotes are still building their core, but they accelerated the process in the offseason by adding experienced players like forwards Alex Kerfoot, Jason Zucker and Nick Bjugstad, and defensemen Sean Durzi and Mathew Dumba. That's why they're in the playoff race. It would be huge for them to get playoff experience and not a sure thing that they would lose the Western Conference First Round. The Florida Panthers were supposed to lose to the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference First Round last season and went to the Stanley Cup Final. There are plenty of other examples. Arizona has three picks in the second and third round of the 2024 NHL Draft and four second-round picks in the 2025 NHL Draft. The Coyotes should use some of that draft capital in trades to benefit them now. They need more offense.

The Nashville Predators signed forwards Ryan O'Reilly and Gustav Nyquist in the offseason. They didn't do that to stand pat before the deadline and just hope what they have is enough to get in. That was a starting point. They're in contention. They have cap space. They have an elite goalie (Juuse Saros). They also have capital in the 2024 draft with three picks in the second round, two in the third and three in the fourth. Use them to make the team better. Make the push.

What happens first: The Devils trade for an upgrade at goalie or Tom Fitzgerald fires Lindy Ruff? -- @KXPriestess

I don't know if either will happen before the end of the season, but there were a lot of questions this week pertaining to the Devils and specific to coach Lindy Ruff's job security. It's not fair to judge Ruff on their performance this season, at least in the past couple weeks. He's coaching short-handed.

Losing forward Jack Hughes to an upper-body injury was a killer. He's a one-man breakout, a puck-possession monster. He's good for at least one point every game, and a lot of times two or three. Hughes is everything to the Devils and he's even more important when they're also dealing with injuries to forwards Ondrej Palat and Timo Meier, who is back, along with defensemen Dougie Hamilton, Jonas Siegenthaler and Brendan Smith. The six defensemen who played for New Jersey in a 6-5 overtime win against the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday had at the time combined to play 629 regular-season NHL games. Hamilton, Siegenthaler, Smith and Colin Miller, who sat because of an illness, have 2,220 regular-season games played between them.

How can you judge a coach properly when he's working with an inexperienced defense corps and a struggling goalie in Vitek Vanecek? There will be breakdowns, turnovers and blown coverages. Ruff can teach and tell young, talented defensemen like Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec what they should be doing. He can instill confidence in them by playing them and continuing to play them when breakdowns happen, but he can't give them the know-how of veteran players. I think things would be different for New Jersey if not for the injuries.

Let's not forget that last season the storyline around the Devils was that they arrived early and faster than anyone thought they'd be a contender. Those added expectations, but Ruff told me in the offseason that he knew it would be harder because of them. It has been, but the injuries are making it look much worse than it is. Ruff should be allowed to coach through it, and potentially get the Devils out of it on the other side looking good.

What do you think the Rangers will do by the deadline and who do you think they might bring in? -- @CuckNorris503

Filip Chytil is reportedly back in New York, or on his way back from Czechia, where the New York Rangers center has been rehabbing and skating since late December as a reset in his recovery from an upper-body injury. He was injured Nov. 2, missed his 37th straight game Tuesday and there remains no timetable for his return.

The reason Chytil leads this answer is because his availability for the rest of the regular season will determine what, if anything, the Rangers could do before the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline on March 8. Chytil is on long-term injured reserve, which means the Rangers can go over the salary cap by his $4.4375 million average annual value, but if they think he'll play again in the regular season they must have the cap space to activate him. The Rangers would prefer Chytil is healthy enough to play, but would likely have only enough cap space to add a depth forward or defenseman who comes in with a low AAV. If it's determined that Chytil cannot return during the regular season, New York would have the ability to keep him on LTIR and use that money to acquire a player or multiple players before the deadline.

Without Chytil, the Rangers likely would target a center. The three best options are Elias Lindholm of the Calgary Flames, Adam Henrique of the Anaheim Ducks and Sean Monahan of the Montreal Canadiens. All are pending unrestricted free agents. Lindholm has a $4.85 million AAV, Henrique's AAV is $5.825 million and Monahan's is $1.985 million. The Rangers could get Monahan even if Chytil is available, but with Chytil available their need for a center diminishes and the focus would turn more toward right wing. It's unlikely they'd have the room to do anything else if they acquired Lindholm or Henrique.

Where does Patrick Roy put the New York Islanders exactly? Is he just what this team needs? Do you think there still should be some fine tuning on the roster side of things? -- @johnfiorino97

The Islanders must figure out who they are under their new coach. It's been two games. He will continue to try to make them play faster. He wants them to be more of a puck-possession team than they have been.

Roy is adamant that he takes the analytics in the game seriously. The Islanders are 28th in the NHL in shot-attempts percentage (46.4 percent) and average 38.6 percent of even-strength ice time in the offensive zone, below the League average of 40.8 percent, according to NHL EDGE stats. They are in the defensive zone 43.1 percent of the time at even strength and the League average is 40.7 percent.

Turnovers are a problem for the Islanders. Their breakouts have been subpar, and they need time to work on all of that with the players on the roster now before determining the needs they have before the deadline. Let's give it some time.

In your opinion, which of the old-time coaching greats like Scotty Bowman, Al Arbour, Emile Francis, Pat Quinn, Punch Imlach or any other could coach and be successful in today's NHL? -- @MrEd315

All of them because they're all hockey savants. Let's toss in Dick Irvin, Toe Blake and Roger Neilson too. Gamechangers, literally. I'm most confident in Bowman and Arbour doing today what they did in their day, which was just win almost all the time despite the era or decade.

Bowman won the Stanley Cup nine times, five times in the 1970s, three in the 1990s and once in the early 2000s. He also went to the Stanley Cup Final with the St. Louis Blues in three consecutive seasons from 1968-70. He took the Buffalo Sabres to the playoffs five times from 1979-85 even though they were an aging team and not near the powerhouse Canadiens teams he coached in the 1970s. Arbour built the Islanders into a dynasty, winning the Stanley Cup four straight seasons from 1980-83. They kept making the playoffs under him after that too through 1994.

They changed and adjusted their styles with each era, but never lost the principles of who they are as coaches and what they know their teams need to be successful. They'd be able to do that today too because players then, like now, want to win and want to be coached. Players want to know why they're doing something probably more so than the players of previous generations, but that would allow Bowman and Arbour to teach. That's a good thing.