Coyotes Reporter Denies Rumor Jakob Chychrun May Be On the Move

Originally posted on NHL Trade Talk | By Colton Pankiw | Last updated 9/7/21

On Monday night, hockey Twitter started coming up with trade destinations for Arizona Coyotes defenceman Jakob Chychrun after a report came out saying the team would be open to moving him for the right offer.

Those rumors ended up being short-lived, as Coyotes insider Craig Morgan shot it down not long after it was first reported. While it may seem crazy trading the 23-year-old Chychrun who is developing into one of the league’s better defencemen, however, the Coyotes are in a major rebuild and will likely struggle for a long number of seasons going forward. There is no doubt that he is the most valuable asset on their team, and moving him could bring back a large number of draft picks and/or prospects that could help speed up their rebuild.

In the original report, however, it was stated that the Coyotes were looking for two first-round picks as the return. That simply isn’t a big enough return for a defenceman who put up a career-best 18 goals and 41 points in just 56 games on a low-scoring roster last season. That, paired with the fact that he is on an extremely team-friendly contract that has four seasons remaining at an AAV of just $4.6 million mean that he would likely bring in a much bigger haul if he were in fact to be moved.

Chychrun, who went 16th overall to the Coyotes in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, took some time to develop into the near-elite defender he is now. While he was able to crack Arizona’s roster as an 18-year-old, he struggled to stay healthy and as a result, didn’t have a ton of hype surrounding his name until his massive 2020-21 season. Now, just a short time later, he is being talked about as a possibility to play on the blueline for Team Canada at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

As a team, the Coyotes will be nearly unwatchable in 2021-22. Their new general manager in Bill Armstrong has sold off plenty of assets in his short time with the team in exchange for draft picks but has also taken on plenty of bad contracts in the meantime. Though that is all part of his plan, it means that his team will really struggle for some time moving forward. Thankfully for Arizona fans, they still do have a few talented pieces to make their games exciting, with Chychrun leading that charge.

This article first appeared on NHL Trade Talk and was syndicated with permission.

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