EP Rinkside 2021-22 Prospect Pool Rankings: No. 22-ranked Arizona Coyotes

The Arizona Coyotes are getting serious about their rebuild, embracing short-term pain for long-term gain with unmatched vigour. General manager Bill Armstrong has stripped this team down to its foundation, parting with Oliver Ekman Larsson, Darcy Kuemper, Conor Garland, and Christian Dvorak, among others, and securing a treasure trove of picks and prospects in return.

Those moves allowed the Coyotes to make nine picks in last July's draft, and they're positioned to make another nine selections through the first three rounds of next year's draft alone, 12 total. There's probably more where that came from, too. One has to imagine they'll be selling aggressively at next year's trade deadline, and draft picks are the currency of the day.

It's not enough to get picks, though. The Coyotes need to find talent at the draft, develop those players with careful diligence, and they have to do this in the backdrop of looming uncertainty about the team's future home. That's no small task.

The early returns have been met with skepticism by our scouting staff. Only one of the nine players the Coyotes picked in last July's draft made our 107-player long draft board, and they earned a C-grade for their body of work accordingly.

Even so, their astonishing array of futures highlighted by Victor Söderström and Dylan Guenther offers cause for optimism in the desert. And it's only going to get better from here.