Bordow: Young Coyotes on right track

How best to describe the Phoenix Coyotes’ futility? Perhaps this way: The last time the Coyotes were in a playoff game — April of 2002 — Mike D’Antoni was coaching Benetton Treviso of the Italian League and Amaré Stoudemire was in high school.

Coyotes’ Turris shows flashes of his talent in debut

The last time the Coyotes won a playoff series — 1987 — they were the Winnipeg Jets and Stoudemire was 4 years old.

So what’s new about another season that ends with Phoenix taking Wite-Out to its Whiteout?

Plenty.

For one thing, the Coyotes are no longer the NHL’s punching bag. They exceeded last year’s win total and points total weeks ago and remained in playoff contention for much of the year.

More important, they did so with a group of youngsters — Peter Mueller, Martin Hanzal, Keith Ballard, Zbynek Michalek, etc. — who should get better as they get older.

You can add one other name to that list: goaltender Ilya Brzgalov. No team can contend for a Stanley Cup without a first-class goalie, and Phoenix finally has one.

Given where the Coyotes have been, what was expected this season and the progress they’ve made, this will be their first comfortable summer in years.

“We’re in a lot better position now than we were last year at this time,” coach Wayne Gretzky said.

The question is, where do the Coyotes go from here?

My initial thought was that Phoenix should try to sign a big-time scorer in free agency, perhaps Pittsburgh’s Marian Hossa. Only three teams in the Western Conference have scored fewer goals than Phoenix, and the Coyotes fell out of the playoff picture when they scored two goals or less in 10 of their 14 March games.

“It wouldn’t hurt to have a top-line guy,” Gretzky said.

But as I pursued that line of questioning with general manager Don Maloney, he changed my mind.

Maloney’s contention: The Coyotes have a three-step plan and to deviate from it while straining their budget — Hossa, for example, is making $7 million this year — wouldn’t make sense.

“Our plan is not changing,” Maloney said. “When you add older, more experienced players, you’re taking away ice time from our younger players, and that simply isn’t going to happen.”

The Coyotes completed step one this season: rebuilding the roster.

Step two would be the maturation of those young players while making the playoffs. That’s a real possibility next season, given that Brzgalov will be in net from the start and top pick Kyle Turris will be on the ice.

“There will be inherently more expectations, and there should be,” Maloney said. “I expect us to be a much better team.”

If the Coyotes do make the playoffs, Maloney said, the 2008-09 offseason would be the time to try to sign an elite talent who could transform Phoenix into a Stanley Cup contender.

There are two potential flaws to Maloney’s plan:

First, there’s no guarantee the Coyotes’ younger players will become, if not stars, upper-tier NHL talent.

Second, the longer Phoenix goes without a postseason berth, the fewer bodies they’ll attract to Jobing.com Arena, and that continued revenue loss will affect their ability to spend money in free agency.

“We still have a lot of seats to fill before we can invest in the team,” Maloney said.

Asking long-suffering Coyotes’ fans to wait at least two seasons before they can fantasize about a Stanley Cup is a tough sell.

But given the success of the youth-oriented Diamondbacks, and the Coyotes’ long, long list of poorly thought-out free-agent signings, it’s the right thing to do.

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Listen to Scott Bordow every Monday at 2:25 p.m. on The Fan (1060 AM) with Bob Kemp.