Today it was announced by various sources that Don Maloney would be stepping down from his role as General Manager of the Arizona Coyotes. It comes as a surprise to many as Maloney has been putting together a very strong team despite a lot of ongoing turmoil in ownership. Players such as Max Domi, Anthony Duclair and Oliver Ekman Larsson have all been cultivated under his watch.
Sounds like the Yotes are planning on going in an analytics direction, although Maloney replacement likely to have experience in management.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) April 11, 2016
https://twitter.com/FriedgeHNIC/status/719541967588311041
Maloney had been with the Coyotes since the 2007-2008 season and was named General Manager of the Year after the 2009-2010 season. However, the Coyotes haven’t made the playoffs since the 2011 season.
Maloney has never been one to shy away from analytics, especially on a cash strapped team like the Coyotes, he has had to embrace it to find value where others wouldn’t. How much farther can they go into analytics when they have already been utilized to a great extent. John Chayka was their analytics hire this past offseason and it makes a lot of sense that he would get a bigger role in this set up.
I would take a look at the Maple Leafs as a possible place where the Coyotes can cherry pick some of the smart analytic minds they have continuously hired. Those minds are engrained into the Leafs atmosphere, it would be very difficult to take them away from that think tank they have been developing. There are a lot of ways this could go but it seems like it can only go down, not much room for improvement with the restrictions ownership has put into place. How exactly are they going to make this work?
If you are a fan in Arizona, this has to make you a little nervous, right?
