Insider: Here's Why Trade Talk Has Gone Quiet For Key Coyotes Forward

His name was on the rumor mill back at the trade deadline, and again after the season. But things have gone awfully quiet around any potential trade talk for Arizona Coyotes forward Nick Schmaltz. It was thought that his $5.85M cap hit for three more seasons was too expensive to keep around for the rebuilding 'Yotes.

In fact, the cost to the team is even more weighty, as the contract is mostly backloaded, so he's still owed an average of $8.15M per season for the remaining three years on the deal. 

But it now appears, according to Coyotes Insider Craig Morton, that Arizona will, in fact, hold on to the 20-goal scorer, due to a couple of factors:

• The team has had a paradigm shift of sorts, Morgan says, no longer wishing to shed expensive veteran contracts, but rather to keep building its roster talent-base yearly.

• Schmaltz has developed a great on-ice chemistry with his linemate and Coyotes' leading scorer Clayton Keller. Even though he's a natural center, Schmaltz has clicked extremely well on the wing with Keller (and his other linemate Barrett Hayton). "The last couple of years, playing with the same guys for the most part, we've developed a lot of chemistry," Schmaltz said this past season. "I feel like we can play with anyone in the league. We're very confident, so hopefully we can take that next step, be an impact line every night, and be the leaders of this team."

The Coyotes certainly like Schmaltz and what he brings to the ice. But even if they did decide to possibly move on from his $24M still remaining, he does have a 10-team no-trade clause that kicked in on July 1 that could throw a minor wrench into any trade talks.

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