{coyotes} Maloney, Coyotes waiting for the right price

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Arizona Coyotes general manager Don Maloney said Wednesday he "has a price in mind" for forward Antoine Vermette and other players but doesn't expect it to be met until closer to the NHL Trade Deadline on March 2.

"Well, there's a certain ebb and flow to it. Through experience, generally the best deals come at the deadline," Maloney said on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM. "We have a clear price in mind for not only Antoine, but any of our people here.

"We know we're having a difficult season. We need to bring some young assets in. We want to introduce more youth and speed into our lineup, which is what we plan on doing going forward."

Vermette and defenseman Keith Yandle are the Coyotes oft-mentioned targets as possibly being traded. Maloney told the "Doug and Wolf" program he has had conversations about possible trades -- "lots of irons in the fire" -- but has not met his asking price.

"Obviously we're trying to extract more for all our players. And right now there's a lot of teams that would like to pay less," Maloney said.

"We have good assets. We have good people that other teams would like to acquire," he added. "We'd just like a little bit more than what's being offered right now."

Maloney did not reveal what offers have been made, but he said he expects them to get better closer to the deadline.

"I know what we can get for almost every one of our players, in the sense of the players that we're most focused on moving right now," Maloney said. "And to me, those deals are going to be here right at the deadline."

The Coyotes are 20-31-7 and out of contention for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the Western Conference. That has turned Maloney into a seller with an eye on next season and beyond.

"We've made it very clear over the last month or two that we are in a mode of acquiring assets. So I feel confident we're going to help ourselves," Maloney said. "Can we do a couple of great deals? Who knows? Maybe.

"But the deals we do will help us moving forward. We know looking at our team this year we know we have to be quicker. We need to have a lot more energy into our group. We need to defend better. So all of those areas are going to be addressed. Hopefully a little bit right now at the trade deadline, but certainly in the offseason we think we can do some things to make us certainly a lot more entertaining next year."

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