Coyotes sign Upshall for anothaer year

Without any doubts, the recent struggles of the Phoenix Coyotes have raised many questions among their fan base. Firstly, the financial well being of the franchise has been an issue over the past two years, thus the NHL team may experience an owner change soon. Moreover, the Coyotes missed the playoffs six years in a row and are far away from being the team that the franchise management had hoped for.

Today, GM Don Maloney announced that they were able to keep Scottie Upshall for another year in Arizona. After the Coyotes acquired him last year in a trade with the Philadelphia Flyers, he showed a lot of promising signs and looked like a player that could come in handy in the future. In 2008-09, the left wing forward scored 15 goals and added 19 assists for a total of 34 points in 74 regular season games. Throughout his career, the 25-year old Upshall managed to appear in 230 NHL games, scoring 46 goals and adding 60 assists for 106 career points. Likewise, Scottie Upshall has proven to be a physical player that does not mind helping out on defense, hence his 223 career penalty minutes. Furthermore, he played for the Canadian national team at the IIHF World Championship 2009 and won a silver medal.

Although Upshall will not be the solution to all the questions surrounding the franchise, he will most likely be a valuable role player for the Phoenix Coyotes. As of now, the team around Shane Doan inevitably needs more impact players in order to become a serious playoff contender in the Western Conference. However, the franchise’s severe financial problems make it highly unlikely that Coyotes could become a buyer on the free agent market. Therefore, head coach Wayne Gretzky will most likely have to work with the current roster and hope for a solid team effort to compensate the lack of stars.

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