Andy Strickland had the general manager of the Arizona Coyotes on his podcast Cam and Strick to talk about the trade that saw him trade Jakob Chychrun to the Ottawa Senators for what many felt was the most underwhelming return at this season’s NHL Trade Deadline. Speculation was that the Coyotes held off on a trade, holding out for the best return possible, but when that offer never came, Armstrong pivoted to a lesser deal with the Senators in the final moments.
Armstrong has flat-out denied that being the case.
During the show, he was asked what happened and Armstrong suggested that everyone had it wrong when it came to what the Coyotes were trying to do. He said he was reading an article about he blew this deal and he said people don’t really understand what happened. He said, “Jakob was injured for eight months. He asked for a trade, got to the deadline, he was injured all the way back to this year in November.” He adds:
“It’s hard to trade a player when he’s coming off a season, he was minus 20, he was terrible. And, then you throw his injury history from before and then you throw his injury history now and he’s out for eight months, and people think, oh, you just dragged this through the mud… no, we were trying to get the value.”
Coyotes Had a Better Deal on the Table That Chycrhun Shot Down
He noted that the team had an offer for Chychrun at the NHL Entry Draft but Chychrun didn’t want to go to that team. From there, the other offers included two late first-rounders but also the Coyotes taking as much as $3.1 – $5.1 million back in the deal. He noted, “Why would we do that for tow late firsts?”
He says the Ottawa deal gives them a chance to draft between No. 11 and No. 15 and if they get lucky with the lottery, could draft as high as pick. No. 6.
This was not a glowing review of Chychrun from a Coyotes’ perspective. The GM makes it sound like the player was not accommodating and not nearly as good as people made him out to be, thus the value in the trade wasn’t there. These are interesting remarks considering didn’t have trade protection in his contract and many insiders have noted it was the Coyotes’ who offered to trade Chychrun, not the player requesting a deal.
More must-reads: