Canadiens and Coyotes: two teams with a similar reality, who has the advantage over the other?

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MarcO
October 20, 2022 (10:27)

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Since last year, the Montreal Canadiens and the Arizona Coyotes have been in the same situation. Both organizations are in the midst of a rebuilding process and have the same short, medium and long-term goals.

Arizona, like Montreal, is counting on youth to revive its organization, while the core of these teams is mostly composed of young players. Both franchises want to build a culture and a winning team for the long term.

Coyotes head coach André Tourigny spoke about the reality of losing key players to future players.

« My job is to get the best out of the 23 players in the lineup. Our general manager is like that too (competitive). Bill Armstrong is not happy when we lose. But we also understand that we're in a rebuild, that there will be transactions to get an asset that will be useful for seven, eight or 10 years in return for a player that will be useful for another season or two." - André Tourigny

We can easily draw a similar conclusion with the situation of Martin St-Louis, who had to deal with trades that affected his team last year and could happen again this year.

Also, both teams should find themselves, again this season, in the middle of the battles to get the best probabilities for the Connor Bedard lottery.

If a parallel can be drawn between the two organizations, who has the best elements to build the best team in the years to come?

On the one hand, the Coyotes already have some interesting pieces for the future of the organization in their lineup, such as Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, Lawson Crouse, Dylan Guenther and Janis Jerome Moser.

Their prospect bank is pretty well stocked with the likes of Logan Cooley, Conor Geekie, Maveric Lamoureux, Victor Soderstrom, Josh Doan, Julian Lutz, Ilya Fedotov, Artem Duda, etc. In addition, they currently have three first round picks and eight second round picks in the next three drafts. Not to mention, what a deal involving Jakob Chychrun could bring.

On the other hand, the Habs can count on young players already active in their lineup like Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Kirby Dach, Juraj Slafkovsky, Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris and Arber Xhekaj.

The Canadiens can count on an interesting pool of prospects including Justin Barron, Joshua Roy, Logan Mailloux, Filip Mesar, Owen Beck, Sean Farrell, Lane Hutson, Riley Kidney, etc. Also, the Habs have five first round picks and three second round picks in the three upcoming drafts.

Which organization do you think currently has the edge in the rebuilding process?