Arizona Coyotes Make Roster Moves

On Friday, the Arizona Coyotes waived defenseman David Schlemko.

He played in seven games this year for and has been a healthy scratch for five games in a row prior to the game against Calgary. Schlemko was carrying a -3 plus/minus player rating on the year. Schlemko spent seven years with Arizona. In those seven years, he scored eight goals, tallied 39 assists and earned 47 points in 194 games played. If Schlemko is not claimed by a team and clears waivers, he will be assigned to the Portland Pirates, the Coyotes AHL affiliate.

Today, the Arizona Coyotes recalled forward Lucas Lessio from the Portland Pirates.

Lessio has played 14 games with the Pirates this year. He’s scored five goals, picked up three assists and has eight points. Lessio is tied for the team lead in goals and third in points. In his career with with Portland, he has 29 goals, 25 assists and 54 points.

During the 2013-14 regular season, Lessio had a brief three-game stint with the Coyotes. During that time, he was 0-0-0 with a plus/minus rating of -2.

With the call up, the youth movement continues for the Coyotes. At the beginning of the year, General Manager Don Maloney said many times that the team was built to win now. Unfortunately, they have had some trouble winning consistently. Because of that, the Coyotes have been dipping into their stock of young talent. Maloney has said they were not going to be entering a rebuild year, but they might not have a choice.

As the team continues to struggle, they continue to add young players from their minor league system. Lucas Lessio now joins Connor Murphy, Tobias Rieder and Brandon Gormley with the Coyotes. Justin Hodgman was called up and played four games before being reassigned to Portland.

The Coyotes have a good stock of young players that all posses the potential to be great NHL players. Don’t be surprised if the roster moves continue this season as the front office tries to stabilize the team.