As all 30 NHL teams are preparing to head to training camp, Coyotes General Manager Don Maloney continued to tweak his roster on Monday by trading forward Lee Stempniak to the Calgary Flames in exchange for forward Daymond Langkow.
Langkow, who was a member of the Coyotes from 2001 to 2004, recorded 68 goals and 98 assists for 166 points in 243 games during that stint. He has registered 642 points in 1,017 career games.
“We are very pleased to welcome Daymond back to the Coyotes organization,” said Maloney in a statement. “He is an intelligent, well respected, veteran center. His competitive, two-way game is a great fit for us and we are excited to have him back in Phoenix.”
The trade for Langkow also benefits the Coyotes in two main ways.
First off, the native of Edmonton will help Phoenix rise well above the NHL’s cap floor of $48.3 million. According to capgeek.com, with Langkow’s $4.5 million salary, the Coyotes now have a cap hit for this season of $51.5 million.
Before Monday’s trade, the Coyotes were flirting with the cap floor at an approximate cap hit of $48.9 million. Expect the $51.5 million hit to rise a little more with the resigning of forward Kyle Turris, which is expected to happen soon.
Secondly, Langkow also helps the team on the ice. Until Monday’s trade, the team had a gaping hold at center with candidates like Turris or Boyd Gordon looking to step into that top center spot on opening night.
But now Langkow can be penciled in as the first line center and he’ll likely be paired up with Shane Doan, a player who he had good chemistry with while playing in Phoenix in the early 2000’s.
While he can certainly be put into the first line center role, questions remain about his health and productivity. Langkow only played in four games last season after a nasty neck injury kept him out of the lineup almost all season. And after posting a career high 77 points in the 2006-07 season, he’s finished with 65, 49, 37 and one point in the following seasons.
If Daymond Langkow can bounce back from a season where he only played four games and post anywhere from 45 to 50 points while playing on a top line with a player who he’s had success with (Doan) in the past, then Don Maloney and company can look back on this roll of the dice and see it as a success.
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