PHOENIX — It's an exciting time to be a Valley sports fan. The Arizona Diamondbacks just advanced to their first National League Championship Series since 2007, the Phoenix Suns - with a revamped roster and coaching staff - are less than two weeks from starting their season and now, hockey season has arrived!
The Arizona Coyotes will open their 2023-24 season Friday on the road against the New Jersey Devils. General Manager Bill Armstrong, known to fans as GMBA, is heading into his third season leading the franchise rebuild in the front office and just recently signed a contract extension with the team.
Ahead of puck drop, 12Sports journalist Cameron Cox got the opportunity to speak one-on-one with Armstrong. Here is their conversation.
CAMERON COX (CC): Bill, what's this been like for you to take over this franchise? I mean, you had to really gut this thing and kind of start over. It really was a total change for you, wasn't it?
GMBA: It was, it was almost a frightening experience to go through. Because I'd come from an organization where we'd really been together for almost 16 years. And you know, everybody did their job. And we had a process that we did to get through tough decisions about hockey players and how to draft them and all the sudden boom, I'm plopped into this, this new situation.
CC: That you wanted!
GMBA: Right, yeah, that was my dream job. But I didn't have anybody around me that I knew. So it was quite frightening at the time, I think, you know, when I was able to go out, some of the first people that we went out and hired were amateur scouts. And that gave us a little bit of understanding. We're lucky it was COVID. And we were just lucky to get some really quality people that came in that knew how to do the job. And once we snapped those guys into place I was like, okay, we got a chance to fight and that was kind of the start of it. And I really have enjoyed the process. I like where we're at right now. It's getting to be the good times. It's getting to be, you know, where some of our good players or young players are coming in. And we've got a mix of old guys and some free agent guys. So it's going to be a fun time for the Yotes.
CC: Did you ever think you'd get to this point where like, you could see there's not a light at the end of the tunnel yet, but where you could start seeing progress and seeing building what you think is a good hockey team?
GMBA: Well, there's different moments that you go into, I think we opened up my second season, we were 0 and 10. And we were flying after the game and I looked over at our new coach (André Tourigny), I thought he was gonna die, Bear, I thought I was gonna have to bring him back on the plane, he looked like he was white as a ghost. I just put my hand over and said it's gonna be okay, you know, the back of my mind said, can we go 0 and 20? You know, it was a rough experience to go through. But, you know, we were able to build some cultural things out of out of those seasons and we were able to get some great draft picks and some great prospects out of those seasons. So there was something to gain. It was frightening to go through at the time. But now you can see the foundation come in and everything starting to click with our coaching and our sports science and our analytics and our scouting. And it's really a huge organization behind the scenes. And it's really built with good people that want to make a difference.
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CC: When you look at this team, Bill, and you look at kind of what you've assembled, what are you most proud of?
GMBA: There's different pieces that you're most proud of. I'm really excited about you know, our guys like Crouse and you know Keller,
CC: Guys that have been here!
GMBA: Guys that have been here who have bought into what our coach has been selling. They bought into the culture of to bleed in the desert. And I think that's probably one of the things I'm most proud of is those guys. Just seeing them grow and get better and buying into what coach was bringing. I'm proud of our coaches, they do a great job every day, they go out there and they make our players better. They've provided a great culture, a great environment for our young players to get better. And I'm most proud of the fact that every guy that's here wants to be here. They want to be in the desert, they want to play for the Yotes they want to play for the Arizona fans. That's a crucial thing. Because you can't get involved and put your life on the line at a high speed blocking pucks at over 100 miles an hour unless you're 100% in like yeah, you gotta be fully committed.
CC: André Tourigny, he's a guy that I hear about all the time, especially when you start talking with like true hockey folks who know the game. I think when he was hired here, Bill, people were like, who is this guy? Why is his nickname Bear? And then you see his effect on people. And then you see what people say about him all over the globe. It's impressive isn't it?
GMBA: It is. I mean, he has a great way of getting the most out of you, but not leaving a scar. Pushing you to get the most, believing in you, showing that he has confidence in you. But at the same time, not to the point where he crosses you. He has this saying where you know, sometimes I can be mad at the player, but I'm not that mad at the person and that's that's where that shows his caring-ness and his understanding of people. And he's mastered his craft way back in Canada coaching junior hockey, and now he's brought it to the NHL, and we're in a different world now. It's really a player's world about what we can do for the players to make them their best. And he's the perfect guy for the job.
CC: How do you two interact? What's your relationship? Do you ever go in his room and be like André, this is how I want things done? Or do you bounce things off each other? How does it work?
GMBA: No, we're pretty good. I coached for a while. So I understand what it's like to be a coach and lose a game and be highly emotional after a game, I'll wait till the next day to kind of approach them when everything gets settled down.
CC: So no after-game debriefs?
GMBA: Yeah, it's more hey, what do we have to do after the game for the next day, and then if there's something that I think that I can add in, it's more of a next day thing. We have a good relationship that way, you know, Bear's a smart coach, he's a smart person, and he does a great job. You know, we both let each other kind of do his job. My job is to build a team and I take input from Bear and his job is to coach the team, and he takes input from me. So I think it's a really good working relationship that we have. And you know, there's not always good times because, you know, when you're in an intense environment, that's what you signed up for. But what is there is respect inside our culture for the players, the coaches and everybody treats each other with respect. And that's important.
CC: Bill, one thing I've always appreciated about you is you're honest to the core. And I don't know if GMs are always supposed to be as honest with you. But you're pretty honest. You've been upfront about this rebuild and the timeline it's going to take and then at media day, you know, you kind of labeled, hey, I don't think we're a playoff team yet. But we're working to be that. Why be that honest, when it comes to evaluating your team?
GMBA: Well, it started when I first took over, I had to walk into a room and tell the proud people of Arizona and the diehard Coyote fans, hey, we're gonna rebuild again. And they were like really, that's what your first saying is, as a GM, we're gonna do a rebuild again? But I had to show them and kind of, I think in this day and age, the more honest you are with your fan base and not trying to trick them, oh, yeah, we're this good, this is the stage that we're at, they have more empathy for your team and understand what you're going through and what level you're going to be at. And those expectations are important to set with your fan base. Because you certainly don't want to come in and say we're gonna win the Stanley Cup this year and not even be close. And our fans, I think, in the new wave of the entertainment through the Instagram, the Twitter and everything, they're updated day to day on our progress. And I think they'd like to be a part of that. And I think they truly appreciate the honesty.
CC: I swear, you were a showman in your second life. You on that golden throne before the draft? How have you embraced that kind of side of hockey in the matching suits? There's a part to play, right?
GMBA: Yeah, yeah, we have a lot of fun with it. I think that's a great, great thing for us. You know, I always say about the suits, you know, there's probably a quarter of the people at the draft that like it and the other people hate it, but no matter what they're talking about the Yotes.
CC: It's a vibe, right?
GMBA: It's a vibe! It's our culture when we come in, you know, we're all matching and everybody's expecting what are the Yotes going to wear? I'll tell you a funny story. We walked in the first year with the matching suits and all 17,000 people in Montréal, including the scouting staff just stopped, it was like, what is that? And we stopped traffic that day. In fact, when we came out of the draft, you know, everywhere we went people were like you guys are the team with the matching suits. So it's culture for us, (the) Yotes needed culture so that's one thing I tried to bring to them it gives us our own identity, our fight, you know? We're a gritty organization and we want to bleed in the desert and we've got some culture to go with it.
CC: Speaking of stopping traffic, Logan Cooley's done it since he got here, hasn't he? Like has he jumped off the ice for you?
GMBA: You know, I don't, we don't want to hype, you know, overhype people. The thing that you're gonna love about Logan Cooley is that he's a hockey player inside and out. He comes to that rink, you know, he just wants to get better every single day. That's his big thing. And he wants to win. He's hungry. If you look in his eyes, he's got that hunger in his eyes, he wants to play. He wants to show the world how good he is. He wants to make his team even better. And he wants a chance to win a championship with the Yotes. And from the moment we met him, we were in love not only with the person but the player, everything that he stood for we stood for and you know, we'd go in depth when we drafted him. We met his family, him and his mom and his dad, and, you know, just sitting with them before we draft him and we're like, Oh, can you believe we got a chance to get this kid you know, and the family matched up with the player's personality and his beliefs. So it's really an exciting time for Yotes fans to go out and watch him play. He's an exciting player. I will just tell you, I don't think he even shaves yet. So he's got a long way to go before he reaches his peak, but he's gonna have some exciting moments. He's gonna have some moments where, you know, he looks like he's figuring out the NHL too.
CC: All rookies do that for a couple years, no matter what.
GMBA: All rookies do, yeah, they do and he's gonna have some ups and downs, but we love his approach. We love him on our team, and we're ecstatic about drafting him and being a part of our family.
CC: Will we see a captain this year?
GMBA: That's a good question. What's the rush? What's the rush? Maybe we're doing it right. Maybe you only need three assistants, right?
CC: You guys have done it different this whole time!
GMBA: Yeah, I mean, we buy into the whole thing this is our players, you know, when we interview people sometimes to bring into our dressing room, you know, the coach interviews them, I interview them, and then the players interview them. Everybody's got to be bought into what we're selling here. And so, you know, we have three assistants, they're all leaders. So you know, who says we need a captain?
CC: I like it. I like it. And I know you don't build arenas, you build teams. Anything kind of just in you that wants to see that get done as soon as possible, right?
GMBA: Well, I visualize that new rink every day. I can tell you that and I yearn for it.
CC: You guys talk about it.
GMBA: Yeah, we do. That's a big part. We love Arizona, like our staff loves to be in Arizona, we want to have our team here, we want to succeed, we want to have playoffs with whiteouts. And we want to do it at a 19,000-seat arena with screaming fans from Arizona.
CC: So you've seen that video back in the day where the place is just rocking!
GMBA: We have a picture in our hockey ops with that. And that's our main goal, we want to get back to playoffs we want to do it in a whiteout. That's Arizona culture. That's Coyote hockey, getting to the playoffs with a whiteout. That's unique. And that can make us great and build our fan base even better than it is now. And I think we got some exciting young players with a mix of old and the right mentality, the right culture, we've got a chance.
CC: All right, when you look at this team, Bill, what can they do this year? What do you think that they can all mesh and get done this year? What can fans see on the ice?
GMBA: There's some things that I can't answer. You know, I went to the analytical people, I went to the scouts, I went to other people in the organization, I said, how good are we? Nobody could tell me how good we're going to be. So, you know, I can't answer that. I know this, we're going to be better than last year, I know, we're gonna fight harder. When you come to watch us, we're gonna play hard.
CC: That's what Bear talks about that this team will be more competitive than we've seen probably in a decade.
GMBA: We're way more skilled. There's some weakness, a little bit here and there. But there's a lot of strengths to this team. You come to see us, you're gonna get your money's worth every night because we're going to bleed in the desert.
CC: Have you hit fast forward on the rebuild at all?
GMBA: No, we're right on plan. We draw it out. We've drawn it out and we stay to that plan. And we're going into phase two, this is the exciting time where you're putting young players in, and your team's getting better and you're growing. You're not quite there yet. But you're seeing glimpses of hope here. And you're seeing some good young players take the ice and fight with our culture.
CC: We'll get you out of here on this. Did you recover from Australia, and I mean, recover sleep-wise, that 17 hour time difference, that's crazy!
GMBA: I travel all the time. And I'm like this guru of like, you know, travel where I don't get tired. And we come back from Australia and I'm absolutely exhausted. And my wife came back and she didn't have one bit of jetlag. So I don't know what it was. It was a great experience for us to go over there. It was incredible to be over there and play over there. They loved us over there. There was people from Australia wearing Yotes jerseys, and you know, as much as they fell in love with us, we fell in love with them and their culture. And they were just great people. We played good hockey and we played a good hockey team over there. So for our guys to kind of be spend that much time together. Whether it be on the plane or in the in the airport, or at the rink this early on was just huge for us. It bonds us as an organization and you get to know each other a little bit better.