Coyotes Wrap Up 2023 Trade Deadline With Eight Picks, Two Prospects

Arizona Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong said the team's plan heading into the 2023 NHL trade deadline was to acquire as many assets as possible.
Mission accomplished.
Armstrong and the Coyotes wrapped up an extremely active trade deadline by acquiring eight draft picks and two prospects, and Arizona now owns 22 picks within the first three rounds of the next three drafts. That includes two first-rounders and four third-rounders this year.
The prospects acquired were defensemen - Michael Kesselring and Connor Mackey - and Kesselring made his NHL debut on Friday against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Armstrong said his scouting team had its eye on the Kesselring for some time now, and the towering 6-foot-5 blue liner had put up 13 goals and nine assists in 49 games with the AHL's Bakersfield Condors this season.
Notably, all his goals this season were created during 5-on-5 play.

"He's got a great shot, he's a big man, he can move fairly well, and he can move the puck. He can kind of do a little bit of everything." Armstrong said.
"Whenever you get a defenseman, if they can create some form of offense, anywhere from 3-to-5 goals, and everybody chips in, that can change the way that you look as a team, and we liked his offense from the backside."
The 26-year-old Mackey, meanwhile, recorded two goals and one assist in 10 games with the Calgary Flames this season, following up a solid campaign with the AHL's Stockton Heat last year, notching 36 points in 53 games.
In terms of draft capital, the 2023 deadline yielded a king's ransom for Armstrong, who added one first-rounder (2023), two second-rounders (2024, 2026), three third-rounders (2023, 2025, 2026), one fifth-rounder (2023), and one sixth-rounder (2023).
The Coyotes have 37 total combined picks in the 2023, 2024, and 2025 NHL drafts.
"We had a plan going in," Armstrong said. "Obviously when you're in this process, you're trying to move bodies and create assets. I thought we did extremely well, and executed our plan … Not too many times can you go through a deadline and add eight draft picks and two good prospects. It was a big couple days for us."
Of course, those additions came at cost, as
the Coyotes bid farewell
to defensemen Jakob Chychrun, Shayne Gostisbehere, Troy Stecher, and Dysin Mayo, along with forwards Nick Bjugstad and Nick Ritchie.
Armstrong pointed out that the team is an extremely tight-knit group - so much so that they vacationed together during the 2023 All-Star break - but the return on investment was all part of the plan. Of the players who were traded, Gostisbehere, Stecher, Bjugstad, and Ritchie are set to be unrestricted free agents upon the season's conclusion.
Though Armstrong admitted the decision is never easy to move some of the team's leaders, he and his staff worked hard to keep everyone in the loop while discussions were ongoing.
"Our club was very, very close, and our guys were just unbelievable people. It hurts when you have to move them on, but they know the deal coming in," Armstrong said. We've tried to be very transparent and honest as we come up to the deadline with what we're thinking, and so they kind of expect it in some way. I think they're excited for the opportunity."

Coyotes head coach André Tourigny said he remained well-informed throughout the process as well, and is excited for what the future holds.
"Bill made a lot of good moves," Tourigny said. "He got prospects that can play for us, picks, and I think there's a lot of good things that are happening."
Armstrong also said Arizona's core players - Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, Lawson Crouse, and Christian Fischer - will continue to anchor the team as he and his staff continue to build around them.
Those players have combined for 154 points this season, and they continue to play a prominent role in helping to usher in the next generation of talent in the desert.
The ability to build around those critical players is what Armstrong set in motion over the last week.
"We didn't move any of our core guys," Armstrong said. "If you look at Schmaltz and Keller, they've really done a nice job of finding chemistry. We wanted to keep that chemistry together, the Barrett Haytons, Jack McBains, Lawson Crouses, and Matias Maccellis, they're still all here.
"It was probably one of the best deadlines I've ever been a part of."