As expected when Arizona Coyotes' Assistant Coach Jim Playfair held the post-game press conference in place of Head Coach/V.P. of Hockey Operations Dave Tippett, some decisions on the roster size had to be coming.
Today, the hammer fell on 17 players, bringing the roster down to a more manageable 31 players. Those remaining are still in training camp vying for jobs.
Watch out for Tucson, they will be loaded
The new AHL affiliate, Tucson Roadrunners, all of a sudden have a pretty decent team with these cuts announced today. All together, they will have an increase of 15 new Roadrunners on the team.
They received: two goalies, three defensemen, three centers, four left wings, and three right wings with these moves.
Here's the list, per @arizonacoyotes:
Adin Hill - Goalie - Tucson - AHL
Marek Langhamer - Goalie - Tucson - AHL
Justin Hache - Defense - Tucson - AHL
Kyle Wood - Defense - Tucson - AHL
Dysin Mayo - Defense - Tucson - AHL
Garret Ross - Left Wing - Tucson - AHL
Eric Selleck - Left Wing - Tucson - AHL
Chris Mueller - Center - Tucson - AHL
Ryan MacInnis - Center - Tucson - AHL
Henrik Samuelsson - Right Wing - Tucson - AHL
Conor Garland - Right Wing - Tucson - AHL
Craig Cunningham - Right Wing - Tucson - AHL
Tyler Gaudet - Center - Tucson - AHL
Brendan Perlini - Left Wing - Tucson - AHL
Michael Bunting - Left Wing - Tucson - AHL
The Coyotes have assigned the following player to his junior team
Nick Merkley - Right Wing - Kelowna - WHL
The Coyotes have also released the following player from his professional tryout agreement.
Zach Boychuk - Center
With the roster needing to be at the maximum of 23 players by the start of the season on October, 15th, against the tough Philadelphia Flyers, there's more evaluation needed to be done on the remaining players on the bubble. Eight more players need to bite the dust. The depth of this team has the rest of NHL jealous of the Coyotes' talent.
Remaining players still fighting for jobs
Still hoping to be playing on opening night will be these players, who made it through the biggest phase of roster reductions:
Jakob Chychrun - He turned in another solid performance Saturday night against the Anaheim Ducks. He likes to move the puck into the offensive zone when it is available. Chychrun held his own on the power play and penalty kill, enroute to 26:18 of playing time showing that the coaching staff has confidence in his ability thus far.
Christian Fischer - He did not show up in the scoring against the Ducks, but they knew he was out there due to his game leading 5 hits in only 12:19 of playing time. He remains a good prospect to get a roster spot, but he needs to get on the scoreboard to show his offensive skills.
Lawson Crouse - He played well enough to remain on the roster, and was showing his prowess as a penalty killer by being on that unit for 2:06 of the game. His physicality is always a plus, and he showed he can get into the corners and control the puck. Good assets to have for a team with poor possession numbers.
The surprises
Three players who seemed to be making progress towards staying on the Coyotes' final roster were Brendan Perlini, Conor Garland, and Ryan MacInnis.
Their downfall became a matter of the numbers game, where there were far too many players and not enough roster spots for them to make it.
All three will be valuable additions to the Tucson Roadrunners, who should enjoy some success with players of this caliber joining their fold. And the best part of that is the players will be just a short two-hour drive away in case of roster openings with the Coyotes. Fans of these young prospects can also follow them due to that short distance to take in a Roadrunners game and cheer on their favorites.