The Arizona Coyotes have acquired defensemen Anton Stralman and Vladislav Kolyachonok plus a 2024 2nd round draft pick from the Florida Panthers in exchange for a 2023 7th round pick.
The Coyotes have done it again. They pick up another second-round pick as a price for taking on a bad contract. Just like the deal for Shayne Gostisbehere, this is not an unbearable deal to stomach. Stralman is still a serviceable, defensive third-pairing player. He only has just one more year left on his contract at a $5.5 million cap hit. The team gets two intriguing pieces in return. One is a 2024 2nd rounder. That is still a long time away, but adds to the long list of second-rounders added this offseason. Kolyachonok was also drafted with a second-round pick. The Panthers selected him 52nd overall in 2019. He started the year in the KHL and then came to the American Hockey League at the end of the year. This is a low risk, high reward pickup for the Coyotes.
Stralman, who will be 35 in a week, scored three goals with six assists for nine points in 38 games for Florida this year. In his NHL career for the Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Rangers, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Toronto Maple Leafs, Stralman has scored 55 goals with 215 assists for 270 points in 856 games.
Kolyachonok, 20, had two assists in 10 games for the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch in 2020-21. In the same year for the KHL’s Minsk Dynamo, he scored one goal with five assists in 46 games.
The Panthers need to clear cap space. They might add another defenseman, but they don’t necessarily need to. Stralman became expendable on the roster, and unwanted on the payroll. The team understands that the one year left on the contract is not that bad, but the salary cap doesn’t. The team now has more space to improve the roster that outplayed the Stanley Cup champions at times last year.
CarterHud 