The Arizona Coyotes sit last in the NHL standings with just five points through 16 games after an off-season that saw the team trade captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson, forwards Connor Garland and Christian Dvorak, and goaltenders Darcy Kuemper and Adin Hill. 

Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun in The Athletic that he knew the team's off-season would lead them to struggle this year, but it was done with the bigger picture in mind.

“It’s easy to look at the standings and say, ‘The Coyotes, they suck,'” Armstrong said. “You know, there is a thought process here. We really deliberated hard as an organization about where we were going.

“We could have just re-loaded and gone at it and made the playoffs once every four years — if lucky, get by a first round, but most times get beat out. We had the conversation, ‘We want to be great here. We want to take the chance to be great.’ And the only way to do that is through the draft.’’

As the last-place club in the NHL, the Coyotes would own a 16.6 per cent of landing the first-overall pick in the 2022 draft if the season ended today and, under the new rules, could fall to no lower than the third selection.

Shane Wright once again sat atop TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button's November rankings for the 2022 draft, while American centre Logan Cooley checked in at No. 2, with Finnish right winger Joakim Kemell rising to No. 3. 

“You’re not going to be great unless you go through the draft,’’ Armstrong added. “We made that decision last summer that we were going to do it through the draft, and we weren’t going to sit on the fence. We were going to go all the way in.’’

The Coyotes forfeited their first-round selection, which would have been 11th overall, in the 2021 NHL Draft after a violation of league rules. The team did, however, select winger Dylan Guenther ninth overall with a pick acquired in their deal to send Ekman-Larsson and Garland to the Vancouver Canucks.

Arizona is loaded with picks in this year's draft, owning the Colorado Avalanche's pick, though it is top-10 protected, and a first-round pick from either Canadiens or Carolina Hurricanes as a result of their trade that sent Dvorak to Montreal. Arizona will receive the better of Montreal or Carolina's pick, unless one of the picks fall into the top 10, in which the Coyotes will receive the worse of the two. The Canadiens currently own the second-best odds in the draft and could drop no lower than fourth if the lottery took place today.

Additionally, the Coyotes own five second-round picks in the upcoming draft after selecting Josh Doan, Ilya Fedotov and Janis Moser in the second round of the 2021 draft.