Same Day Analysis: Coyotes get their man in Tourigny, Arvidsson lands with Kings
The constant rebuilding cycle in Arizona continues with a new face behind the bench, while the Kings clearly have stopped 'rebuilding' and are now 'building'
Bill Armstrong’s pursuit of Andre Tourigny began 17 years ago in a small restaurant in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. Not even Tourigny knew he was being scouted. But the more Armstrong saw of Tourigny, the more he liked. Tourigny’s Rouyn-Noranda Huskies had just finished playing that night and were in the restaurant for a late bite to eat.
“He was known as this big, tough coach,” Armstrong said. “And I watched him interact with his players for about two hours. And I was fascinated (with) his ability to interact with the young kids, and at the same time get the most out of them on the ice. He didn’t know I was there. True story.”
“That’s the first time I’ve heard that one,” Tourigny said in response.
Armstrong was a scout with the St. Louis Blues and Tourigny was a second-year coach in junior hockey who hadn’t even reached his 30th birthday. And now that Armstrong is running the Arizona Coyotes, things came full circle when Tourigny was announced as the replacement to Rick Tocchet as head coach of the Coyotes Thursday afternoon. The 47-year-old Tourigny has coaching experience that dates back to when he was 24 years old, so he has a ton of experience, just none of it in the NHL. However, he has been a coach of the year in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League once and in the Ontario Hockey League twice. Earlier this year, he signed a one-year deal with Hockey Canada to coach four of its national teams for the 2021-22 season.
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So he has a lot of experience dealing with young players who need guidance. And he’s there to build something. Which is good, because the Arizona Coyotes are always building something. Finishing something that looks even remotely like a Stanley Cup contender has been the biggest problem in the desert. If you don’t include last season, when the Coyotes were part of the NHL’s extended bubble playoffs – and I don’t – Arizona has not been a playoff team for the past nine seasons. There has been more tumult and drama than there have been victories. The only headlines the Coyotes make league-wide are negative ones. And now they enter a season where there will be likely be change, again. And they won’t even be able to take advantage this season of the feeble Pacific Division because, with the Seattle Kraken entering the league, they’re moving to the much more competitive Central.
Through the selection process, Armstrong asked Tourigny after which team he would like to pattern the Coyotes. “I said, ‘I want to play the D-zone like that team, I want play the O-zone like that team, I want to work hard like that team,’ ” Tourigny said. “That’s the way I am. I try to take the best of everybody and build my dream scenario and now I have the passion and energy to pursue that dream.”
And that was when Armstrong offered a dose of reality. “It’s going to take some time to build that,” Armstrong said. “It won’t happen overnight.”
It never does in Arizona. But now the new GM has his own man behind the bench. And the Coyotes are hoping, once again, that this is the beginning of better days.
When the Los Angeles Kings had the opportunity to get Viktor Arvidsson from the Nashville Predators for two draft picks, they pounced. And why not? The Kings already have a ton of those and have built up one of the league’s top pool of prospects. It’s clearly time for the Kings to stop thinking only about the future and focus on the present. And that’s why they got Arvidsson for a second-round pick in 2021 and a third-rounder in 2022. And they don’t even really lose anything, since they have the St. Louis Blues’ second-rounder in this draft and the Pittsburgh Penguins’ third-rounder in 2022.
Sneakily and quietly, the Kings look like they’re starting to put together a run here. As mentioned in the previous item, the Pacific Division has the Vegas Golden Knights, the pretty-good Edmonton Oilers, an expansion team and a bunch of teams that are either middling or bad. It should come as no surprise that they’re looking to make a move.
Arvidsson is certainly not the same player he was a couple of years ago when he was playing on Nashville’s top line. But he can still be a very effective player and is signed for another three years at a very reasonable $4.25 million per season. If Arvidsson can find the form that saw him score a combined 94 goals from 2016-17 through ’19-12, the Kings would be thrilled. Because they need goals. Badly. He likely won’t do that, but they’re counting on him being more productive than he has been with Nashville the past two seasons.