Phoenix general manager Don Maloney has a message for this year’s crop of free agent: We’re not going anywhere, so let’s chat.
And if you can put the puck in the net, let’s really chat.
The Coyotes, of course, just received the vote they needed from the City of Glendale that should keep them playing in Jobing.com Arena for at least five more years.
Though the club’s long-term future remains somewhat up in the air, there’s more stability now than there’s been in quite some time.
“Now I feel we’re in the game as much as New York and Chicago and Boston and Toronto and any of these teams. We have a lot to sell down here, a tremendous place to work and play,” Maloney told ESPN’s Craig Custance yesterday. “It’s the best fall, spring and winter in the NHL, a good building, great coach and good program. That’s exciting for us.”
Granted, one agent told Custance that the five-year out clause that’s part of the Coyotes’ new lease is “definitely a complication” for the club.
But compared to what Maloney has had to dance around before, that’s nothing.
The Coyotes are in the market for scoring forwards, by the way.