Are the Arizona Coyotes comfortable trading Lawson Crouse?

Daily Faceoff insider Frank Seravalli joined Matt Larkin and Steven Ellis on Friday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live to talk about the business value of Lawson Crouse if the Arizona Coyotes are in the running. comfortable trading him and where he might end up after the NHL trade deadline.

Matt Larkins:Frank, another name that intrigues me on the trade chart right now and sort of a late bloomer. He’s a former first-rounder, he took a lot of space in his skin, but now he looks like a pretty decent power forward who has a big body, can score a little and throw a lot of hits; I’m talking about Lawson Crouse of the Arizona Coyotes. What do you think right now in terms of availability given there is one term left there?

Frank Seravalli: Yeah, it’s a new addition to the roster and I believe it had come on the radar given that term, given that it’s a fairly reasonably priced contract in the range of 4 million dollars. When you look at Crouse, he’s in the first year of that five-year, $21.5 million deal that pays him $4.3 a year, but he’s had a solid season with 16 goals. He kind of broke out, and last season he turned 20 for the first time. I think it’s the 6-foot-4, 220-pound big body you mentioned that really intrigues the team. So with Crouse, I think the Coyotes are perfectly comfortable hanging on to him, but I think teams are noticing the goalie touch he’s shown lately and saying « hey, I wonder if there’s a Jakob Chychrun-like value here in that cost certainty that comes with Crouse.

Obviously, the Coyotes aren’t burned at all by signing him to this contract and it may have even increased his value by putting real money in his pocket. I know the one lingering question for teams is that Lawson Crouse doesn’t really have big game experience. He played in a few playoff games with the Coyotes, but other than that, he’s someone untested for money and has played most of his games out of the spotlight in Florida and Arizona. He never made it to the NHL with Florida, but that’s of course the organization that drafted him and he was in. A lot of people are curious to know what it would look like if you robbed it in a big market.

You can watch the full episode here…