Pyatt hopeful

Taylor Pyatt admits playing in Phoenix can be a bit of a distraction.

That doesn’t mean he’s not happy to be going back.

The 10-year NHL veteran, who turns 30 next month, said while the ownership issue has yet to be resolved, it’s still a great place to play.

“There’s still some uncertainty around the ownership. But we know we’ll be there for the upcoming season. We’ve lost a few key players over the summer, but I think we’ve got some good signings as well, so I’m looking forward to getting back down to the desert and having a good season,” said Pyatt, who earlier this week took part in the annual celebrity golf tournament at Whitewater Golf Club in support of the Northern Cancer Fund.
 
The Coyotes, owned by the NHL, got another extension in Glendale, Ariz. after the season, when the city agreed to guarantee the league $25 million should revenue not meet a predetermined mark.

The extra time gives NHL officials an additional year to track down an owner that wants to keep the team in the Phoenix area.

However, Chicago businessman Matthew Hulsizer, believed to be the frontrunner, has pulled out of the hunt to focus on acquiring the St. Louis Blues, leaving the league with no real suitors.

The one thing they do know is the Coyotes won’t be pulling up stakes and moving to Winnipeg. The Atlanta Thrashers ensured that when in June they reinvented themselves as the Winnipeg Jets.

Pyatt is convinced hockey can survive in Arizona.

“I think it can. We just need a solid owner who can come in and put some certainty behind the team, someone the local hockey community can really get behind and feel like they can spend their dollars and the team’s gonna be there for upcoming seasons,” Pyatt said.

“I think it can be a very good market, we just need a little more certainty there.”
Entering the final year of a two-year deal that will pay him $1.2 million in 2011-12, Pyatt isn’t thinking much beyond the upcoming season – at least in terms of the franchise’s future.

With Quebec City building a new arena to court an NHL team, the rumours are bound to swirl that the team is on the verge of a return to Canada, 15 years after leaving Winnipeg without a team.

He wouldn’t be opposed to the idea, should it happen, but isn’t sure where his hockey future lies beyond this season.

“No, I don’t think so. It was a bit of a distraction last year, especially when we got close to the playoffs. There was so much talk about the team moving to Winnipeg and it was hard to block that out, especially when there was more media around the team,” said Pyatt, whose 18 goals were the most he’d scored since 2006-07 in Vancouver.

“We’re going to be down in Phoenix for the upcoming season and that’s as far as my contract lasts. I’m just going to try to take it year by year and we’ll see what happens.”

Heading into a contract year is always uncertainty, and Pyatt, who has 121 goals and 245 points in 682 NHL games, said this might be the most important season of his career.

He’s just trying not to put too much pressure on himself.

“I thought like I had a pretty strong season last year, after a bit of a slow start. I found some consistency through the mid part of the season and had a strong finish. It’s an important year for me. I’m going to be turning 30 this summer, it’s the last year of my contract, so I definitely want to have a good year and try to extend my career into my 30s.”

The Coyotes finished with 99 points last season, tied for fourth in the NHL’s Western Conference, but were swept out of the playoffs by an aging Detroit Red Wings squad.

Then as free agency hit, the team lost two key cogs in goalie Ilya Bryzgalov, who signed with Philadelphia, and defenceman Ed Jovanovski, who inked a deal with Florida.

“They were two big part of our team last year, but there are some young guys who are coming up through the system. We signed some good free agents as well and management has always done a good job finding some value on the market, especially late in the summer, so I think we’re going to put a pretty good team together.”