The Arizona Coyotes have been a determined franchise since bringing in 27-year old GM John Chayka to captain the ship. The league’s youngest GM in history has already put his fingerprints all over the roster and, according to Sarah McLellan of AZCentral, seems to have targeted Ryan White in free agency due to an attribute many may have overlooked: versatility.
The 28-year old forward has never been much of a scoring threat in his career (though he is coming off a career-best 11 goals), but it’s that versatility that drew Chayka to him. White can play both center and wing equally, and will provide a right-handed faceoff option in the defensive zone. Here are some more notes from around the league:
- The KHL has been aggressively pursuing expansion options across Europe and Asia, as seen from their recent move into China, and they may be headed towards the UK soon. In a couple of tweets this morning from separate sources, the league has reportedly reached some sort of an agreement to eventually put an expansion team in London.
- The Sabres have hired Tom Ward and Adam Nightengale to join their coaching staff, as an assistant and video coach respectively. Ward was last seen coaching the Shattuck St. Mary’s Boys Prep team in Minnesota, where he won nine national championships. Nightengale was previously the director of hockey operations at Michigan State University.
- Amid swirling trade rumors, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins admits that it sometimes gets into his head. On Edmonton’s 630 CHED today (via Chris Nichols), he said “There’s just a lot of talk and really, it’s just guys kind of putting their own opinions out there. It kind of gets carried away, I think, a little bit. But yeah, it’s still in the back of your mind a little bit.” The former first-overall pick hasn’t lived up to his high expectations (or contract) as of yet, scoring only 222 points in 313 career games, including just 34 last season (55 GP).