NEW YORK -- Andre Tourigny was answering a routine pregame question about lineup changes Monday morning at Madison Square Garden when he made a point he admittedly knows he couldn't have made truthfully in his first two seasons as the Arizona Coyotes coach.
"We have 22 guys here who can play every night, who had a really good camp and we're really comfy to put in the lineup at any time," the Coyotes' third-year coach said.
It seems so simple and necessary, but when you're a rebuilding team in the NHL you don’t always have 22 players that you feel comfortable playing in any given game.
The Coyotes have been in a full-on, top-down rebuild since general manager Bill Armstrong was hired Sept. 17, 2020. Thirty-seven months later they have some depth and reasonable potential to stay in the Stanley Cup Playoff race throughout the season.
And with it has come respect from around the NHL.
"There was definitely a rebuild process that went on with that organization and what happened doesn't happen overnight," New York Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. "I think you're starting to see the pieces now come into play and with that like any team you find that there's good young players that are really impactful in the League, and they have some really good young players now. They are a team that is on the rise. They're starting. Different teams might be at different levels, but they're a team that's on the rise."
The Coyotes gave the Rangers all they could handle in a 2-1 loss Monday. They were somewhat gassed playing the next night and held to 14 shots, but they still gave the New York Islanders fits in a 1-0 loss at UBS Arena.
All of that came after they opened the season Friday with a 4-3 shootout win at the New Jersey Devils, a 52-win, 112-point team last season.
The Coyotes are 2-2-0 following a 6-2 win at the St. Louis Blues in the finale of their season-opening, four-game road trip Thursday. They'll play their home opener at Mullett Arena on the campus of Arizona State University against the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday.
"I think we're going to shock a lot of people with how good of a hockey team we actually are," rookie forward Logan Cooley said. "We're going to push for a playoff spot for sure."
Cooley is a rising star. He's already a must-watch attraction because of his take-you-out-of-your-seat skill. Cooley, the No. 3 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, got his fourth assist Thursday.
"He's a pretty exciting player for us," Armstrong said. "He's got a vibrant personality and he wants to get better. That's exciting for the organization."
Clayton Keller already is a star. The forward is coming off his sixth full season in the NHL and his best, when he had 86 points (37 goals, 49 assists) in 82 games. He had a goal and an assist Thursday, giving him five points (two goals, three assists) in four games.
But it goes beyond Cooley and Keller, even if they're the players to talk about when you talk about the Coyotes.
Forwards Mattias Maccelli and Barrett Hayton, and defenseman J.J. Moser are all 23 years old and expected to take the next step to be consistent impact players this season.
Forwards Lawson Crouse and Nick Schmaltz, like Keller, have grown up with the Coyotes and been through all the downs. They're a big part of the good that's beginning to happen in Arizona.
"They've got some real quick forwards," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "They play a real fast game, a lot like Seattle. They're on the go all the time, taking off. Keller and Schmaltz are really good players. They've grown into being really good players in this league making plays and scoring and things like that."
The Coyotes also believe they have a top 1-2 goalie tandem in Karel Vejmelka and Connor Ingram.
"In the past we were not known around the League, but our goalies have been really good in the last two years for us," Tourigny said. "Sometimes the numbers were not in their favor because of our situation as a team, but we saw them make little miracles for us during the season the last two years, so we know what they can do."
Arizona bolstered its depth over the summer by acquiring defenseman Sean Durzi in a trade with the Los Angeles Kings and signing five veteran unrestricted free agents, including two, forward Nick Bjugstad and defenseman Troy Stecher, who returned after the Coyotes traded them last season.
Forward Alex Kerfoot and Bjugstad each signed a two-year contract. Forward Jason Zucker, defenseman Matt Dumba and Stecher each signed on for one season.
Hence the depth Tourigny happily talks about.
"We expect our opponent to take us seriously," Tourigny said. "We talk about it a lot, teams know we're a better team. We are known for our work ethic and working hard, but now we expect our opponent to know we have talent. We have young talent and veterans. We have depth now and we'll use the depth."
Even better, the Coyotes have expectations now too.
They're not fooling themselves into thinking its Stanley Cup or bust this season. Even Armstrong has regularly said the Coyotes are not yet a playoff team.
But the Devils weren't supposed to be a playoff team last season either, and then they went out and set team records for wins and points.
Armstrong has taken note of that.
"They had taken a bigger step than we have, but nobody knew about them last year and that was scary, and that's the same with us," Armstrong said. "I think people don't know how good we can be and we don't know how good we can be. There's a scary factor there where people are like, 'OK, how good are these guys, and are they going to continue to be good or is it just a flash at the start of the year?' We don't know that answer either."
The Coyotes might just have enough good players to find the right answer.
NHL.com independent correspondent Lou Korac contributed to this report
