Retired NHLer Rips Gary Bettman After Coyotes' Latest Move
Ask pretty much anyone at this stage, and they will tell you the Arizona Coyotes are a non-serious hockey club.
The Coyotes' latest trade in acquisition of soon-to-be retired F Jakub Voracek is merely the most recent in a string of transactions indicative of intentions not to field a legitimate hockey team. Of course, "legitimate" is in reference to the club's competitiveness, not its existence.
As it stands, the Coyotes allocate $67,127,683 to players' salaries, according to CapFriendly. Of that total, $32,238,810 is designated to either injured reserve or retained salary, otherwise known as "dead cap." For those counting, that makes 52% of Arizona's salary cap that is used on actual able-bodied Coyotes; the other 48% is there solely so the club can meet the salary cap floor.
Sad yet?
Maybe the 5,000-seat arena or singular playoff appearance (2020, first-round exit) in the last 11 years is enough to urge Gary Bettman and the NHL to intervene. After all, the league issued a memo to its 32 teams concerning salary cap circumvention, but that apparently only applies to teams who actually want to win.
Because we all know that no NHL club would dare tank for better draft lottery odds, right?
Bettman has thousands of critics with regards to the Arizona Coyotes and his resilience in making that organization work. Most recent to vocalize his discontent is retired NHLer-turned-podcast host John Scott.
Once the news broke of Voracek's trade to Arizona, pretty much everybody knew what was going on. The Yotes were finessing salary cap loopholes for draft picks; a practice they have done since they acquired Pavel Datsyuk's contract in 2016.
While Scott's NHL career wasn't exactly decorated, he was still there and knows the business better than 99% of people. It is critical that media, fans, and frankly other NHL clubs voice their discontent with what the Coyotes are doing.
On one hand, the Coyotes have been doing what they need to in order to keep the lights on, and I can't hate on an organization for that. Gotta do what you gotta do, fine.
But at some point this circus has to end.
The Coyotes are such a joke, Bettman is worried about teams using LTIR to spend more money but he is ok with them using LTIR to not spend anything and ice an AHL team in a college arena. They now have almost 30 million in LTIR dead money, they only pay their players 43 million!— John Scott (@johnscott_32) March 2, 2023
| POLL | ||
MARS 2 | 477 ANSWERS Retired NHLer Rips Gary Bettman After Coyotes' Latest Move Should the NHL intervene and/or relocate the Arizona Coyotes if this continues? | ||
| Yes | 204 | 42.8 % |
| No | 57 | 11.9 % |
| Should relocate now | 175 | 36.7 % |
| See results | 41 | 8.6 % |
| LIST OF POLLS | ||
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Kyle Connor | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Alex Tuch | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Owen Power | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Michael Bunting | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Drew Helleson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jirí Kulich | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Isac Lundestrom | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Vladislav Namestnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nino Niederreiter | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Gabriel Vilardi | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jason Zucker | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Leo Carlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nikolaj Ehlers | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ross Johnston | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Evgeni Malkin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Morrissey | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Cole Perfetti | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Bryan Rust | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mark Scheifele | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Trevor Zegras | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 20 | 17 | 3 | - | 34 | |
Wild | 19 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 29 | |
Hurricanes | 19 | 14 | 5 | - | 28 | |
Devils | 22 | 13 | 7 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 19 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 27 | |
Golden Knights | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Maple Leafs | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Rangers | 18 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 25 | |
Panthers | 20 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 25 | |
Flames | 20 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||