Enver Lisin

Wanna start rooting for the Coyotes?

Since Don Maloney left as Sather's assistant to be the GM of the Coyotes (after the '06-'07 season), Phoenix has brought in Marcel Hossa, Nigel Dawes, Petr Prucha, and now Lauri Korpikoski. (And, like, Dmitri Kalinin, and backup goalie Al Montoya, but who cares?) That's 5 starters to Phoenix in 2 seasons. Coincidence? Yeah, almost totally. But it's kinda funny. Also funny: the end of Maloney's wikipedia page, which reads "although he has the title of general manager [sic], Maloney serves primarily in an advisory role to Coyotes managing partner and head coach Wayne Gretzky, who has the final say in hockey matters."

Anyway, Enver Lisin. 6'2", 190 lbs, 23 years old. Plays right wing (which has now somehow become less desirable than left, thanks to Gaborik and Kotalik joining Callahan on our right flank). Word on the street is that he's a scorer (as opposed to a playmaker), which juxtaposes fascinatingly with his 13-8-21 in 48 games with the Coyotes. Word is also that he's fast. Here is an article from January 28 talking about how Gretzky is all impressed by how fast he is.

He sounds like another unproven kid with a moderately high ceiling, I think. That's not so bad for a third line winger. It's also pretty much what Korpikoski was. Jury's out on whose ceiling is higher - let's hope it's Lisin's. I can't imagine this guy being a first- or second-liner, or playing on our new "DONALD SMASH" 3-minutes-a-game fourth line, so it seems likeliest that this guy would switch over to left and play right where we had imagined Korpikoski playing, opposite Callahan on Anisimov's line. It stands to reason that he'd make the cut over Voros, anyway.

Seems Lisin made $850,000 last season, so he's probably a little cheaper than Korpikoski as well. Assuming we end up signing him, of course. If we don't, we probably start to feel a deficiency, and we wonder why Sather couldn't pony up the money to keep Lauri around. (Then we stop wondering, because we remember why: Wade Redden's contract.) But really, both Korpikoski and Lisin are guys you put on the third line and say "he's got potential, let's see what he can do regularly. "So far, knowing the little I now know about Lisin, this feels to me like a completely horizontal move.

My only real complaint is that oh my god this team has a turnover rate of like 2 weeks. Assuming we even bring back Dubinsky (please please please bring back Dubinsky), we will most likely open the season with exactly 5 forwards that we closed last season with. FIVE! Chris Drury, Brandon Dubinsky (who remains a "maybe" until we seal that deal), Sean Avery, Ryan Callahan, and Aaron Voros. Those are the only 5 forwards that we were playing with - not at season's beginning, but through the Caps series - that we'll open this season with. That's kinda nuts-tacular. Anyway, Korpikoski for Lisin - there you go.