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Coyotes kick off season at home vs. Jets

Oct 9, 2014 - 3:18 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The Coyotes franchise is entering its 18th season since leaving the city of Winnipeg for the desert. There hasn't been a ton of success for the club since and it hopes to turn things around under a slightly new name.

Now known as the Arizona Coyotes, the franchise kicks off its season on Thursday night against the newest edition of the Winnipeg Jets.

The Coyotes have missed the playoffs in two straight seasons and in eight of the last 11 campaigns. However, there is still reason for hope as Arizona failed to secure a postseason spot by just four points in 2013 before finishing two points removed from the eighth seed last season.

While the Coyotes sport two of the most dangerous offensive blueliners in the league -- Keith Yandle and Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- they are hoping to get more help from their forwards. That despite losing their second-leading scorer from last year in Radim Vrbata to free agency and buying out center Mike Ribeiro.

One day shy of his 38th birthday, captain Shane Doan does return for his 19th season and center Sam Gagner is expected to make his Coyotes debut. Gagner was the sixth overall pick of the 2007 draft by Edmonton and was traded twice in the offseason, going from the Oilers to Tampa Bay to Arizona in one day.

Gagner had just 37 points with the Oilers last season and the Coyotes are hoping he can produce in a bigger role.

Arizona begins the season with a four-game homestand and will have Mike Smith in net. After a breakout 2011-12 season, Smith went 27-21-10 in 2013-14 with a 2.64 goals against average and .915 save percentage.

He did get hot towards the end of the campaign, posting a 1.94 GAA and .934 save percentage over a 16-game span from Feb. 1-March 22, but suffered a season-ending injury on March 24.

Smith is 1-2-1 with a 2.22 GAA and .923 save percentage in four games against the Jets.

Winnipeg has missed the playoffs in each of its three seasons since moving from Atlanta and last season finished last in the Central Division. That came in the Jets' first campaign in the Western Conference after shifting from the East in realignment.

The Jets will open the season with Paul Maurice as its head coach, a role he took over from the fired Claude Noel in January. Winnipeg went 11-3-1 in Maurice's first 15 games -- including a 5-1 win over Phoenix in his debut on Jan. 13 -- but a six-game slide in early March sealed the club's fate.

Winnipeg did not have an active offseason, signing center Mathieu Perreault. However, the franchise did opt to keep forward Evander Kane, who scored 30 goals as a 20-year-old in 2011-12 but has tallied only 36 times in 111 game since.

The Jets are also expected to move Dustin Byfuglien from defense to the wing, a role he filled while helping Chicago win the Stanley Cup in 2010 after getting drafted as a blueliner. The 6-foot-5 American was moved back to the blue line after getting dealt to Atlanta in the summer of '10 and became an All-Star defenseman capable of creating havoc on the rush.

Byfuglien and 21-year-old rookie Adam Lowry, who had 33 points in 64 AHL games last season, will try to help on offense, while the likes of Tobias Enstrom, Zach Bogosian and Jacob Trouba pick up the slack on defense.

Ondrej Pavelec, signed to a five-year deal prior to 2012-13, struggled to a 22-26-7 mark last season with a 3.01 GAA and .901 save percentage. He'll have a chance to get off to a good start to this season tonight as he is 4-1-1 lifetime versus the Coyotes with a 1.61 GAA and .945 save percentage.

The Jets, who open this season on a three-game road trip, won all three meetings with the Coyotes last season and have won four in a row in this series after going winless in seven straight encounters.

Doan was the seventh overall pick of the 1995 draft when the franchise was still in Winnipeg and is the last remaining Jet to be playing in the NHL following Teemu Selanne's recent retirement.