Are the Arizona Coyotes comfortable trading Lawson Crouse?
Daily Faceoff’s insider Frank Seravalli joined Matt Larkin and Steven Ellis on Friday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live to talk about Lawson Crouse’s trade value if the Arizona Coyotes are comfortable trading him and where he could end up after the NHL trade deadline.
Matt Larkin: Frank, another name that intrigues me on the trade board right now and sort of a late bloomer. He’s a former first-rounder, took a whole got grow into his skin but now he’s looking like a pretty decent power forward who’s got a big body, can score a little bit and throws lots of hits; I’m talking Lawson Crouse of the Arizona Coyotes. What are you thinking right now in terms of availability given there is a term left there?
Frank Seravalli: Yeah he’s a new addition to the list and I believe he had popped up on the radar given that term considering it’s a pretty reasonably priced contract in the $4 million range. When you take a look at Crouse, he’s in the first year of this five-year $21.5 million deal that pays him $4.3 annually but he’s had a strong season with 16 goals. He kind of busted through, and last season he hit 20 for the first time. I think it’s the big body at 6-foot-4 220lbs that 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 goal-scoring touch that he’s shown of late and say ‘hey I wonder if there’s a Jakob Chychrun-type value here in that cost certainty that comes with Crouse.’
Clearly, the Coyotes are not burned at all by signing him to that contract and maybe it even increased his value by putting some real money in his pocket. I know the one lingering question for teams is, Lawson Crouse doesn’t really have any big-game experience. He’s played a couple of playoff games with the Coyotes, but short of that he’s someone who’s been argent untested and played most of his games outside of the spotlight in both Florida and Arizona. He never made it to the NHL with Florida but that was, of course, the organization that drafted him and he was in. A lot of people are curious about what he would look like if you shined a spotlight on him in a big market.
You can watch the full episode here…