André Tourigny recently signed an extension to remain the coach of the Arizona Coyotes for another three years.
The thinking, one supposes, is that Tourigny wrung a lot of unexpected results out of a rotten roster. They finished last season 13 points higher than the one before, and whether you think that was to their detriment when it comes to getting into the top 3 of the Connor Bedard draft, even tanking organizations will be happy when their rosters overperform. You can sell overperformance to potential ticket-buyers. You mostly can’t sell coming to games for this season when a team flat-out stinks. And for a club like the Coyotes, every person through the door of their nice little rink matters a lot more than it does in, say, a real hockey market.
However, despite acknowledging these fac