BUFFALO -- The Arizona Coyotes are planning to use all seven of their picks in the first two rounds of the 2022 Upper Deck NHL Draft, general manager Bill Armstrong said.
The Coyotes have three picks in the first round, beginning with No. 3. They also have No. 27, which they acquired from the Montreal Canadiens for forward Christian Dvorak on Sept. 4, and the Colorado Avalanche's first-round pick, which they acquired in the trade for goalie Darcy Kuemper on July 28. With the Avalanche still competing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, that draft pick has yet to be determined.
The Coyotes also have four second-round picks. In addition to their own, they own the selections of the New York Islanders, Philadelphia Flyers and San Jose Sharks.
The draft will be held at Bell Centre in Montreal from July 7-8.
"We've gone through it, we like what's there in the draft," Armstrong said Saturday during the NHL Scouting Combine. "It's a little spotty in some areas, but there's some good players there. And I think with the depth of it, I can see us making all those picks.
"There's a lot of opportunity to do a lot of other things in the draft, whether it be move up and get in some other areas too, so we'll look at every possible scenario that's going to be out there."
With the number of high picks the Coyotes have, one option could be selecting a player they like higher than his perceived draft slot. Armstrong said that is something he and his staff have discussed, and it's something he went through when he was an amateur scout for the St. Louis Blues and they had two first-round picks at the 2010 NHL Draft.
"We had the safe pick, we took Jaden Schwartz (No. 14), and we swung for [Vladimir] Tarasenko (No. 16)," he said. "You can do a little bit of that. It depends on who you get in the bank right off the get-go, and you can go from there. There's certainly a different feeling when you have multiple picks. You certainly look at the draft in different ways.
"Our whole objective in going through this draft is value. Have the respect of the pick and value every pick. Don't look at it like I got four seconds, we can waste one. Pretend you've only got one second. But at the same time, there's always something."
At the 2021 NHL Draft, Armstrong's first as GM, the Coyotes selected nine players. Among that group was defenseman J.J. Moser, a second-round pick (No. 60) who had 15 points (four goals, 11 assists) in 43 games with the Coyotes, and forward Dylan Guenther (No. 9), who will challenge for a roster spot next season.
The Coyotes finished 31st in the NHL standings this season (25-50-7) and have missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs nine of the past 10 seasons. But the draft haul last season, as well as what they could do next month, has Armstrong excited for the future.
"That's a huge thing," he said. "We got a little bit of a head start when we were able to make some moves last year and put Guenther on the board, and we had three seconds, and now we're going to go back at it this year. We have three firsts and four seconds, so it's extremely exciting to kind of get on that and add a lot of good, quality players to the organization."
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