The NHL Trade Deadline is less than a month away.

One of the teams expected to be busy in the run-up to March 03, 2023, is the Arizona Coyotes.

The team that holds the NHL rights of Liam Kirk has been brazen enough to come out publicly and state they intend to be sellers for the right price.

“We’re open for business,” Arizona Coyotes General manager Bill Armstrong told NHL.com.

“Now you just see how things play out.”

“We’re pretty much open to anything.”

The Coyotes are on pace for another bottom-five finish this season and management will doubtless hope that they’ll drop even further down the standings to give themselves a shot at the first or second-overall pick.

Whatever NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman may say in public, NHL organisations tank for potentially better players. Working a system isn’t illegal when the system itself is flawed.

The Tucson Roadrunners have also been a tire fire this season and not exactly the most effective environment to develop prospects.

A decent beginning to this season saw Tucson hold a 10-5-1 record on the back of some tremendous goaltending and notable offensive output from a handful of players.

Since November 27, 2022, Tucson has won just eleven of thirty games (11-16-3), a record only propelled by a recent four-game win streak which included beating the hapless Chicago Wolves on two occasions.

A total of 160 goals allowed in 46 games would be the worst in the division but for the San Diego Gulls, who are proving to be an even bigger mess defensively this season.

After being scratched to begin the 2022-23 campaign and reassigned to the ECHL to gain some playing time, it could be reasoned that Liam Kirk is better off outside of the current mess in North America.

Loaned to Mikkelin Jukurit, Kirk has already turned heads in Finland despite playing for a team that has struggled to put up points and wins.

In fourteen games, the winger has ten points (2G/8A), becoming just the 14th player on the Jukruirt roster to reach the double-figure mark.

Not forgetting that the remainder of the team has played anything up to 48 games already this season.

Kirk has had a hand in a third of all Jukurit’s goals since he arrived at the start of January.

Eight of his ten points are at 5v5 play and five are primary markers.

It’s not only the basic statistics that prove Kirk has been a needle mover for the Finnish club.

The Maltby native leads his team in Corsi at 58.1% and is ranked twelve amongst all skaters in Liiga in that statistic to have played ten or more games.

His PDO sitting at a fraction over 100% proves this is no fluke. The number of offensive/defensive starts is close enough to discount that as making a huge difference to Kirk’s overall statistics.

But the NHL doesn’t care about Finnish hockey, right?

Wrong.

All but a single team in Liiga has at least one NHL prospect on their roster.

That’s fourteen teams with potential future NHL players and Ilves leads the way with nine on their roster.

Twenty-three NHL teams currently have signed and unsigned prospects playing in Liiga.

Carolina, Los Angeles, New York Islanders, Pittsburgh and Toronto have three prospects a piece in Finland.

On Mikkelin Jukurit, Kirk is joined by three other NHL prospects and the highly talented Konsta Helenius. The 16-year-old is being closely watched by scouts for the 2024 NHL Entry Draft.

Despite a small body of work in professional hockey, could Liam Kirk potentially be traded before or on March 03?

It’s unlikely but it would be unwise to discount any possibility considering how his career has fared twisted and turned thus far.

An additional piece as part of a larger trade seems the most obvious way in which Kirk could be moved on.

Arizona has picked a combined nineteen times in the last two drafts. Six of those are forwards selected inside the top 43.

That stat may suggest that a forward who enters the last year of his entry-level contract after this season could be traded if surplus to requirements.

A one-for-one deal is possible if Arizona was to exchange prospects on similar contracts, in differing positions, for a fresh start. The Coyotes could certainly use another goaltending prospect and some help on defence.

Far from being a backward step, Liam Kirk has taken the adversity faced this season and turned it into a positive in Finland.

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