Updated Landing Spots for Arizona Coyotes Defenseman Jakob Chychrun

The draft is done. The free-agency frenzy has cooled.

And the 2022-23 NHL regular season is barely more than a month away.

But the imminent future of Jakob Chychrun has yet to be locked in.

The Arizona Coyotes defenseman has been the topic of trade rumors for what feels like an eternity these days, and the idea that he'll be moved now that teams have begun finalizing rosters for training camp is gaining renewed strength.

B/R's hockey team last pondered possible landing spots for the 24-year-old Florida native in January, but seeing how no deals for the 6'2", 220-pounder have been made in the intervening months, it seemed high time to take another look at where he could be a good fit.

Scroll through to see what we came up with and feel free to drop a thought or two of your own in the comments.

The first of three teams to make both landing spot lists, the Ducks made sense in January while they were still in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race and not making particular headway in signing soon-to-be free-agent blueliner Hampus Lindholm.

As it turned out, Anaheim's free fall to a non-playoff position began soon after, and Lindholm was sent to Boston two months later for two players and three picks.

Fast-forward a few more months and the Ducks still boast one of the league's premier pipelines of young talent. They signed Dallas defenseman John Klingberg to a one-year deal worth $7 million, and more than $18 million in salary-cap space remains.

So if they want to add Chychrun and his $4.6 million salary for the next three years, it won't be financial issues that keep them from doing so.

And while youngsters like Trevor Zegras, Troy Terry and Mason McTavish won't be going anywhere in a deal, it's not inconceivable that 23-year-old Max Comtois (16 points in 52 games in 2021-22) or 22-year-old Isac Lundestrom (29 points in 80 games) could ultimately find themselves in metropolitan Phoenix to help get it done.

Like the Ducks before them, the Islanders were among the would-be contenders to land Chychrun in January, but they were future-focused beyond 2021-22 after an early season that had gone irretrievably bad following two straight trips to the postseason final four.

GM Lou Lamoriello was looking for defensive help to shore up a blue line that had been gashed by the exit of veteran Nick Leddy to Detroit and hadn't been steadied in spite of the presence of a then-44-year-old Zdeno Chara.

He didn't get it then and the team continued to flounder, ultimately finishing 20th overall and 16 points out of the nearest Eastern Conference wild-card playoff spot.

New York remained silent this summer in spite of a number of high-profile deals around the league, but if Lamoriello still covets the idea of sliding Chychrun into a top-four pairing alongside Ryan Pulock or Noah Dobson, it'd make for a pretty solid defensive corps for a team looking to make a quick transition back to playoff-ready.

It'd also require a bit more attention to money with the Islanders $2.4 million under the salary cap, but they have veteran players who might fit the bill in a Chychrun swap, and they are flush with 21 draft picks over the next three years as well.

Batting third in the still-in-the-mix-for-Chychrun lineup are the Kings, who were jostling for playoff position in January and looking to address a blue line that was racked by injuries to long-term key contributors like Drew Doughty.

Los Angeles wound up in the postseason and pushed Edmonton to seven games in the first round even without Doughty, who missed the final 24 games of the regular season and that playoff series with a wrist injury.

He's expected back at full strength, and the team arrives to 2022-23 flush with optimism. Its young players can build off last year's crunch-time experience, and winger Kevin Fiala joins the group after being acquired from Minnesota.

There's less than $2 million in salary-cap room to play with, but the Kings, too, have one of the league's most prodigious talent pipelines and could suggest the likes of forwards Alex Iafallo (37 points in 79 games in 2021-22) and Gabriel Vilardi (38 points in 39 AHL games) or defenseman Sean Durzi (27 points in 64 games) and a future pick as Arizona's trade bait.

And now, we till some new ground.

Toronto is about as far as you can get from Phoenix on the passion-for-hockey city scale, so a move from the Coyotes to the Maple Leafs for Chychrun would be about as big a trade-prompted culture shock as an NHLer could experience.

But from a hockey standpoint, particularly Toronto's, it makes a lot of sense.

Having a top-four defenseman who's signed for three season at a reasonable annual rate is a plus for the number-crunchers in the organization, and the player personnel types would value Chychrun's presence particularly now that the Leafs have gone all-in with the newly christened goaltending tandem of Matt Murray and Ilya Samsonov.

His puck-moving style would presumably fit nicely with a high-octane Toronto attack that was second in the league with 312 goals last season—a far cry from Arizona's league-worst 206—and any big-name acquisition would generate a positive spark for a fanbase that has not seen a championship since 1967 and not seen a playoff series win since 2004.

Sending away the maligned William Nylander in a trade would presumably excite that fanbase as well, and the Maple Leafs could also offer the likes of forward Alexander Kerfoot, defenseman Justin Holl or even 2021 draft pick Matthew Knies, a 19-year-old Phoenix native.

Not many teams can boast a summer like the Ottawa Senators had.

A recent doormat in the Eastern Conference, the Senators took a series of big steps toward renewed relevance with deals that brought high-profile and productive players Claude Giroux (free agent from Florida), Alex DeBrincat (trade with Chicago) and Cam Talbot (trade with Minnesota) to Canada's capital city.

The team already boasted an impressive young core comprised of Brady Tkachuk, Josh Norris and Tim Stutzle, among others, so it's no surprise one of the new guys is suggesting a push to end a five-season playoff drought is imminent.

“I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t think we had a chance to win a Cup,” Giroux said (h/t Sportsnet). "With the pieces that [GM] Pierre [Dorion] was able to add, and all of those young players had great years last year and they’re only going to get better. Are we going to win the Cup next year? Probably not, not saying we won’t. But I’m just saying probably not."

Still, Dorion might not be quite done.

Multiple reports suggest the Senators are interested in Chychrun. TSN's Shawn Simpson forecasted that a move could be made before training camp, and GOPHNX.com's Craig Morgan offered that Chychrun might welcome a move to a rising team.