The Phoenix Coyotes 2010-2011 Season Preview
Phoenix, Arizona
The Phoenix Coyotes joined a few teams in making a lot of changes over the course of the off-season. Larouche just felt the change was needed after seeing his team first qualify for the playoffs in team history in Season 5 and then watched his team in Season 6 lead the way only to sputter into free fall losing 12 games in a row and 95 percent of them were lost by 1 goal.
The Coyotes GM vowed to make changes and heading into the regular season the changes came at a rapid pace. The only remaining players on the Pro roster from the previous season are Mike Cammaleri, Ryan Callahan, Jeff Schultz and Adam Hall.
The biggest question marks this year for the club are that of the teams defense who took major steps back wards in experience and a new rookie in goal. At the start of pre-season the defense and Jonathan Quick looked amazing only to fade in the last few games.
Larouche as made it clear that he will not hesitate to change things if the right move was to come along. The club will be looking to make the playoffs for the 3rd year in row and try to improve beyond the 1st or 2nd round of the playoffs. The offense is there and that is not something that worries the Coyotes new coach Todd Richards who was brought in to replace fan favorite Jacques Martin who took the fall for a club that fell apart in season 6.
Here is a look at the clubs starting roster for Season 7:
Alexander Ovechkin - Evgeni Malkin - Ryan Callahan
Mike Cammalleri - Mike Fisher - Rene Bourque
Adam Hall - T.J. Galiardi - Blake Comeau
Ben Eager - Torrey Mitchell - Adam McQuaid
Niklas Kronwall - Johnny Boychuk
Jeff Schultz - Brent Burns
Tim Gleason - Jack Hillen
Jonathan Quick
Thomas Greiss
Players that could be called upon or that could be doing the shuttle are Jordin Tootoo at the forward position and on defense Boris Valabik could be called up very quickly.
Again rumors persist that the club is looking to move a pair of defensemen to acquire a top 4 to play along with young Burns or Boychuk. It is believed that Hillen, Gleason, Schultz's name along with prospect Calvin De Haan and Chet Pickard have been names mentioned around the league along with San Jose Sharks first round pick in 2012 being tabled.
Only time will tell where this team goes and judging by their coach Richards and the GM Larouche the players will have a very short leash to start off with.
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