Coyotes doing a delicate dance between tanking and building

Arizona will finish at or near the bottom of the NHL again, but the rewards for doing that are potentially franchise-altering. The players and coaches, though, "don't give a sh--" about the draft pick

Sometimes you get a chance to get players of this ilk by finishing last overall in the NHL standings.

As a kid who grew up in Chicago, Christian Fischer can certainly understand the importance of getting a chance to draft potential superstars and what they can do for an organization. His family had seasons tickets for the Chicago Blackhawks and he was nine years old when the Blackhawks were so bad that they got the opportunity to take Jonathan Toews third overall in the 2006 draft and Patrick Kane first overall a year later. And he was 13 when the Blackhawks, led by Kane and Toews, won the first of three Stanley Cups they would capture in a span of six years to become a modern-day dynasty.

Plus, he’s been a member of the Coyotes for five long and painful seasons. So he gets it. He definitely understands why an organization would tank to have the opportunity to get one of Connor Bedard or Adam Fantilli, players who are showing the potential to accelerate a rebuild and put it into overdrive. And that’s exactly what the Coyotes are doing this season. In fact, they’re not even really making a secret of it. Rather than put together a roster that might compete to finish in the mushy middle, not good enough to make the playoffs and not bad enough to get a premium pick, GM Bill Armstrong has decided to assemble a team that will work hard and be proud, but one that is designed to give the Coyotes the best chance of winning the draft lottery.