Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on The Jeff Marek Show: Live at the Board of Governors on the Arizona Coyotes and if there are any untouchables.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Marek: “Clayton Keller had a heck of game night. The hat trick. The third in overtime. He’s a point-a-game player. Was nice seeing him on the players’ tour in Vegas. All healthy and ready to go.
I don’t know if there are untouchables in Arizona, I really don’t. Is Clayton Keller the closest thing to it? He’s very quietly having an excellent season for the Coyotes.”
Friedman: “Well I’m happy for him in particular if you remember that brutal injury he had last year Jeff. There were some questions about how ready he’d be and would he be the same player.
I would probably say that even more untouchable than Keller are some of the younger guys that they’ve got. You watch this more than I do but I heard Cooley is absolutely lighting it up in the NCAA right now
But thing is, if you want Kellar to be your standard bearer right? You want him to be your leader. The guy you kind of, while the Coyotes are going through a really tough arena situation, to be your guy. I think someone who comes back from injury like this and plays and leads a team. The Coyotes to me have every excuse to be awful this year, and they play hard and I think the players and the coaching staff deserve a lot of credit for that. I don’t know if I’d say he’s untouchable Jeff, but I think he’s doing what they would hope he would do.
I’ll say something to you, there’s a lot of talk about (Jakob) Chychrun and obviously, we all know why, but I had a couple guys say to me, a guy they’d be wondering about there is (Karel) Vejmelka. He’s signed for two more years. If you look at the goals above save expected rankings, he’s right up there near the top with Hellebucyk and Sorokin and Matt Murray.
I don’t know that anyone is actually doing something like that. I’m not sure if Arizona would even entertain it, but that’s the guy I would be looking at to after if I was another team and I needed goaltending. Cause he’s having a dynamite year.”
Marek: “He is, to your point. He’s on a very team-friendly deal (two more years at a $2.725 million cap hit). And it’s funny too, as those are reasons why I could see Arizona wanting to keep him.
At the end of it, you want to have a goaltender that kind of keeps you in it. If you want to go with a lot of kids, you want a goalie to keep you in games so you just don’t get feeling, well, NHL games last a period and a half and then we just fold the tent and we go home.
But you’re right.”
Friedman: “I get it. I understand.”
Marek: ” If you’re looking for a goaltender. That is one I’m looking at.”
