They didn't start the year tanking, but have embraced the reality of this year which is, in part, based on historically poor goaltending.
Pointing to results is immaterial, the process is what matters. If I bet every cent I have on the roulette wheel twice and win, it doesn't mean it was a smart move.
Are you serious about 'whether it was the team or player?" Of course it was the team, but the point would stand regardless. So a player wants to hold himself out of games but still be paid his contract and you think the league works that way?
You're a good poster my dude, but this is a bad post.
I’d say there’s at least a 1 in 3 shot it was the player.
He asked for a trade 16 months ago. The team waited until the deadline and he got hurt and they couldn’t deal him. On clean out day he made it clear that he expected to be dealt over the summer. He wasn’t. Then in training camp he made some very Frank comments about not wanting to be in Arizona. This reportedly caused some friction in the locker room and made for an awkward situation that wasn’t smoothed over until he returned and started playing his guts out.
Now he’s been back, he’s been performing, he’s been a good soldier. Yet the holiday freeze came and went. Now the deadline is approaching and his coach is playing him 30 minutes in meaningless back to back road games. And he’s maybe thinking “Why am I killing myself for this club? Why doesn’t this GM stop effing around and take care of this business? Is this entire mess going to repeat itself AGAIN?”
It’s not illogical to think that this situation has boiled over from the player’s perspective. The team approached him 16 months ago to ask if he was onboard with a rebuild. He told them no and asked for a trade 16 months ago. This has been a huge distraction in his career and in his life and with his personal relationships.
Look how sick of all this us fans are. You don’t think that it’s 1000x worse for the man himself?
Of course there’s a very real chance it was the player. Also, they may have discussed this in training camp or when he returned from injury or when the holiday freeze passed. They very well may have agreed that two weeks prior to the deadline he’d sit. Who knows?
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Now, why would the team handle it how they did? Why just a single “trade related reasons” tweet from their PR team and then no further comments whatsoever?
There could be many reasons. I’ve heard some rumors I won’t get into here (regarding timing of cleanup surgeries, etc) And the Coyotes independent media has certainly insinuated that it’s because it was the player. I really don’t know.
This would make sense if the player took his ball and went home. The team obviously would NOT want that to be known either officially or unofficially. They’re trying to protect the value of the asset. They lose leverage and they lose face if he just went home.
If this was purely on the GM’s terms or amicably and mutually agreed to, would might have, but not necessarily, been given some statement from hockey ops. We weren’t. Only the coach has spoken about it. And what his said was vague and somewhat contradictory.
The team might handle it like this no matter what. But they’d definitely handle it like this if it was the player.
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I think it was probably the team. Most likely.
There’s a chance the GM was ticked at the coach for playing him 30 minutes in his last game and maybe that’s why the coach was trotted out to answer questions that nobody had been able to ask the GM or player.
There’s a chance that all sides knew that if we got to mid-February without a trade he was going to be shut down and this surprised nobody internally.
There’s also a chance that the player has finally had enough and just went home.
All of these are realistic.
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Spare me the “you really think this is how it works dude” stuff.
Normally, if a player walks away a team would file a grievance and terminate his contract. This isn’t normally. Do you really think Arizona wants to terminate his contract whether he’s refusing to play or not? Do you really think they’d want to amplify that kind of drama with the league or the media while they’re attempting to maintain leverage in trade negotiations and extract maximum value for the asset? Do you think they’d really want to appear desperate at a time like this?They’ve had enough controversy.
I’m not ruling anything out. It all seems plausible to me. And that’s because I’ve been paying extremely close attention to this since the beginning.
it affects the integrity of the game.
no it doesn’t