The Arizona Coyotes have traded star defenseman Jakob Chychrun to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for a conditional 2023 first-round pick, a conditional 2024 second-round pick and a 2026 second-round pick.
A 2023 first-round draft pick is protected by five, so if the Senators don’t make the playoffs and get a top-five pick in the upcoming draft, the pick will become an unprotected pick 2024 in the first round.
After spending more than a year on the trade block, Chychrun finally has a new team, and the Senators have a bona fide No. 1 defenseman. Despite playing on one of the NHL’s worst teams throughout his career, Chychrun has put up impressive numbers.
Chychrun has consistently created offense throughout his career, especially when it comes to scoring goals. In the 2019-2020 season Chychrun scored 12 goals, and took that to another level in 2020-21, when he scored 18 goals in just 56 games.
This season, Chychrun has seven goals in 36 games, which comes out to a pace of 16 goals in a full season of 82 games.
Chychrun’s assist numbers have not been as impressive. He’s never topped 23 in a season, but he expects that to change on a roster with more firepower than he’s used to in Arizona.
What may be even more encouraging about Chychrun’s performance with the Coyotes is the results he gets while on the ice at five-on-five. This season, Arizona has outscored opponents 35-25 in those situations, according to Natural Stat Trick. That plus-10 goal differential is far and away the best number on the team.
Chychrun has two more years left on his contract at $4.6 million per season, and will continue to be one of the best bargains in the NHL.
