Arizona Coyotes: 5 burning questions for 2018-19 season
By Nick McAdam
2. Can Arizona trust its goal?
One of the biggest questions for the Coyotes heading into this season is the amount of trust they can put into a duo of Antti Raanta and Darcy Kuemper. Both post winning records and decent save percentages, but doing it for consecutive seasons in-a-row will be a big factor.
The play in net for Arizona dictates the flow of play in every other area of the ice. Too much scoring for the opposition will mean that the Yotes will have to win in a shootout, and less scoring means tighter defense and a hope that both Raanta or Kuemper don’t let in the game-winning goal.
The hope for the two goalies is the postseason, anything beyond that is very ambitious, but rather unrealistic. The duo need to be realistic with the amount of games they can each eat until one goalie can separate himself as the starter.
Rannta looks to be the leader to do just that at the moment, but full trust is not there. If Rannta can, then Arizona have a perfect time-gap keeper until a franchise solution can be found. If not, Arizona is going to need heroics from Kuemper or their budget to sign another goalie, or else trouble would be on the horizon.