The Arizona Coyotes were always going to be at the middle of the trade deadline hot stove as they continue their scorched earth rebuild, but it was originally presumed that Jakob Chychrun wouldn’t be included in that teardown. The 23-year-old defenseman is signed to a long-term, reasonable contract and is still obviously young enough to help the Coyotes when they’re ready to compete for the playoffs again.
It turned heads when Chychrun’s name hit the rumor mill last month, but the ask was called “massive” by multiple reports. There’s now some clarity on what massive means, as Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek explained on Hockey Night In Canada:
What the Coyotes are looking for is a young player, a high-end prospect plus a first-round pick. Teams we believe that have the assets who could do that and might be interested, include the Los Angeles Kings, perhaps the St. Louis Blues and certainly the Anaheim Ducks–who might be losing Hampus Lindholm to unrestricted free agency at the end of the year.
Marek also indicated that as many as 10 teams have already reached out on Chychrun and likened the potential return to the one that the Minnesota Wild received for Brent Burns in 2011. That deal saw Devin Setoguchi (then a 24-year-old coming off his third straight 20-plus goal season), Charlie Coyle (the 28th pick a year earlier) and a 2011 first-round pick go to Minnesota from the San Jose Sharks.
Chychrun is averaging nearly 25 minutes a night for the last-place Coyotes this season, and even though he is obviously not having a good season, there is a lot to like about the left-shot defenseman. The 16th pick of the 2016 draft, he has already racked up 128 points in 316 career games and possesses the kind of size-skating combination that teams love.
Even with the defensive market potentially getting a name such as John Klingberg added in the coming months, Chychrun is a prize who would interest almost every team in the league, even those out of this year’s playoff race. Signed through the 2024-25 season, he carries a cap hit of just $4.6 million and would step into almost any top four with ease.
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