Troy Stecher Heading To The Desert as He Signs with Arizona

The Coyotes have announced a one-year deal with the 28-year-old, who most recently played for the LA Kings after a mid-season trade from the Detroit Red Wings last season.

The team has not confirmed the deal’s financial terms, but it has been reported to be in the region of $1.2 million.

With the Coyotes seeing several players’ deals expire this summer, the need to bring in new faces has been apparent for some time - with the team already announcing at least three new free agency additions at the time of writing.

Stecher will join a blueline with the likes of Shayne Gostisbehere, Dysin Mayo, the recently signed Josh Brown, and Jakob Chychrun - though the long-term future of the latter is still up in the air with the team’s current rebuild trajectory.

With Anton Strålman becoming a free agent and many other players currently on the books having little in the way of experience at the NHL level, it was important for the Coyotes to bring in someone with plenty of minutes under their belt.

In total, Stecher has 359 regular season games worth of experience in the NHL, registering 15 goals and 74 assists during that stretch - playing predominantly in a defense-first role, with 391 career blocks and 388 career hits that will support the team’s back-end as it looks to grow for the future.

In addition, Stecher has 21 games of playoff experience, with seven total points (four goals, three assists) for the Kings and Vancouver Canucks respectively.

Source: James Reeve / Five for Howling