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Time to Win is Now for the Arizona Coyotes

These three players should help the Coyotes reach the playoffs once again.
GLENDALE, ARIZONA-The 2016-17 Arizona Coyotes finished fourth in the Pacific Division, but were still terrible. They finished with just a miserable 70 points, the third-worst record in the NHL. The Coyotes fell in the draft lottery, falling to the seventh overall pick to go with the 23rd overall pick (acquired in the trade that sent Martin Hanzal and Ryan White to Minnesota. Instead of taking the path that lead to drafting with the seventh pick and hoping that your prospect can become an elite player someday, GM John Chayka went for it, trading the seventh pick and several other pieces to the New York Rangers for Derek Stepan and Antti Raanta. The Rangers wound up taking center Lias Andersson with the seventh pick. The Coyotes?
They added a veteran scorer in Stepan. The Coyotes have a young group right now, and having Stepan on the roster is really going to help that group learn and begin to produce that offense the Coyotes have been missing. Stepan scored 21 goals in his rookie season and has passed that total only once, in 2015-16 where he scored 22 goals. He will be expected to beat that total this year. Yet another upside to Stepan? He's just 27.
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You might remember Stephan's overtime goal in Game 7 of the Rangers' second round series against the Washington Capitals.
When the Coyotes traded Mike Smith to the Calgary Flames, they got back Chad Johnson in return. Evidently, they felt he wasn't ready to be a starting goalie yet, and so they went out and got the best goaltender they could find-Antti Raanta. Raanta won the Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013 as Corey Crawford's backup. Since then, he's spent his time in New York acting as backup to a king-Henrik Lundqvist, and outplaying him during some stretches. Raanta is ready to take on a starting role-he was expected to become the Vegas Golden Knights' number one goaltender before they took Marc-Andre Fleury from the Pittsburgh Penguins in the expansion draft. Raanta posted a .922 save percentage and a 2.26 goals against average last year and looks poised to have another great season.
However, he won't do it without help, and the Coyotes have help. Defenseman Oliver Ekman Larsson is a solid blueliner. He played in the World Cup of Hockey alongside Niklas Hjalmarsson, and they fit together nicely. So, Chayka traded Connor Murphy and Laurent Dauphin to the Chicago Blackhawks for him. Hjalmarsson is a top-tier defenseman who was blocked on the depth chart in Chicago and was never going to move up, seeing as the two who were blocking him were Duncan Keith, Conn Smythe Trophy winner, two-time Norris trophy winner, and one of the NHL's Top 100 Players of All Time, and Brent Seabrook, a great leader and a man with a booming slapshot. Hjalmarsson will block shots to no end and could become a number two defenseman.
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A familiar sight: Niklas Hjalmarsson going down to block a shot. Last season, he had a career-high 181 blocked shots.
The Coyotes will have a tough road ahead of them if they want to return to the playoffs-the wild card spots will most likely taken up by Central Divison teams (a division made up of sure playoff contenders the Chicago Blackhawks, Dallas Stars, Nashville Predators, St. Louis Blues, and Minnesota Wild as well as the Winnipeg Jets being a decent team and the abyss known as the Colorado Avalanche), so they'll have to beat out teams like the Oilers, Ducks, Sharks, and Flames to make the playoffs. It'll be a tough road for Arizona, but a return to the playoffs seems even more likely thanks to the offseason additions.

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