For the last 19 years (12 with The Hockey News) Dobber Hockey has reviewed each team from a fantasy-hockey standpoint and graded them.

Dobber's comprehensive fantasy guide for 2022-23, along with complete draft rankings, is also available here, and will be your resource all season for fantasy managers.  

The 20th annual off-season review will appear here on DobberHockey throughout August. This is not a review of the likely performance on the ice or in the standings, but in the realm of fantasy hockey both for the season ahead as well as the foreseeable future. Offensively, will the team perform? Are there plenty of depth options worthy of owning in keeper leagues? What about over the next two or three years? These questions are what are taken into consideration when looking at the depth chart and the player potential on that depth chart. Enjoy!

Arizona Coyotes

Gone: Phil Kessel, Jay Beagle, Alex Galchenyuk, Anton Stralman, Antoine Roussel, Dmitrij Jaskin

Acquired: Zack Kassian, Nick Bjugstad, Patrik Nemeth, Josh Brown, Troy Stecher, Jon Gillies, Laurent Dauphin

Impact of changes:  Seemingly, most of the new guys are placeholders until the Coyotes can bring up their prospects over the next couple of years. They have enough players to put a team out on the ice, but they are desperately thin at every position for 2022-23. The Coyotes are firmly into the 2023 draft lottery.  

Ready for prime time:  If we believed in Arizona's best plans for a rebuild, then to give some of their youth movement another year to mature might be the best play.  6-4 Jack McBain, a 24-year-old former third round pick from Boston College, might be ready for a middle-6 spot. He had 33 points in 24 collegiate games last season, and a 10-game end-of-season taste of the NHL.

2021 first-round pick (9^th overall) Dylan Guenther's terrific WHL season ended with a playoff knee injury, although it seems he'll be ready for the pre-season. Guenther had 91 points in 59 games, then 13 goals and eight assists in 16 playoff contests. He has nothing further to prove in juniors, and should fit into the middle-6, whether in October or as a mid-season call-up.

Prime 2022 draft picks Logan Cooley and Connor Geekie are 2-3 years away.  

Defensively, the Coyotes have two elite prospects in Conor Timmins and Victor Soderstrom. Timmins, the 32nd pick in 2017, was a trade acquisition from Colorado in the Darcy Kuemper deal, but spent most of 2021-22 on LTIR.  Soderstrom, chosen 11th overall in 2019, is potentially more NHL-ready, but these two right-handed D-men may need another year to mature.  

Fantasy outlook:  In Year 10 of their endless rebuild, anyone who picks Arizona as a playoff team in the stacked Central Division needs serious help. Their first line of Clayton Keller – Travis Boyd – Nick Schmaltz will get their points, and whether it's Jakob Chychrun or Shayne Gostisbehere on the first power-play, they should have NHL-average PP conversion. 25-year-old Lawson Crouse had 34 points and 181 hits before a fractured hand ended his season. As this is being written, Crouse just signed a five-year contract with an AAV of $4.3 million, avoiding arbitration.

Goalie Karel Vejmelka might steal a few games. At least he's valuable in fantasy leagues that count total saves. The problem is depth, everywhere. The Coyotes will struggle to win 25 games, this year and probably next.  

The fantasy grade below is generous only because they didn't trade away youth, and the new owner and GM seem to have a plan to grow, finally.

Grade:  C- (last year D-)