As the Coyotes head into their offseason this summer, they have several questions to answer:

What do we do about the expansion draft?

What is Shane Doan's future?

Who is available in the draft and free agency?

So far, pretty standard - most NHL teams will be looking to the future and already be making plans for the offseason as they look to either continue their improvement or bounce back from horrible seasons/early playoff exits.

For the Coyotes, though, there is one question sitting under the radar that nobody's really taken a look at yet - the curious case of Dylan Strome.

Strome, who was picked 3rd overall in the 2015 draft by the Coyotes, is already a player who's become something of an enigma. After being kept in junior for the first year after his draft (a year in which he scored 111 points, due in no small part to being placed on a line with Chicago Blackhawks 2016 2nd round draft pick, Alex DeBrincat) he was given his chance with the NHL at the beginning of this season...and failed to really take it, scoring just 1 assist in 7 games before being sent back to junior once again. His 75 points in 35 games was more evidence of ridiculous scoring ability at the junior level (including 53 assists, again in no small part due to being paired with the frightening scoring talent of DeBrincat), but seemed to fly almost in the face of his underwhelming showing so far at NHL level.

But, you ask - at what level is it "underwhelming"? He's a prospect after all, surely there are going to be some bumps in the road?

Here's the thing, though...when you compare him to the stablemates in his draft class (even leaving out Connor McDavid; to be fair to Strome it's not really reasonable to compare him with a generational talent like the Edmonton Oilers’ captain right out of the box), there are some troubling deficiencies.

Problem 1: Every other player taken in the top 10 in 2015 has played at least half a season of NHL games since, and more to the point, they've performed pretty well while doing so. Players like Mitch Marner (taken in the spot after Strome, has 61 points in 77 NHL games) or Mikko Rantanen (taken 7 spots after Strome and already racking up 38 points in 84 NHL games for a historically bad Colorado) or even Ivan Provorov and Noah Hanifin (both fast becoming lynchpins on the blueline for their respective teams in Philadelphia and Carolina). Against this comparison, Strome remaining in junior looks a little...well, suspect, at least in terms of his ability to adapt.

Take Strome and compare him with a player taken a whole round lower, Carolina's Sebastian Aho (24 goals and 25 assists this season, his first NHL season), and Strome's slow development thus far stands out even more starkly.

Problem 2: Just where does Strome fit on the Coyotes? He's not a player who can realistically be eased into the team in a bottom-six role. Pegged as a big, creative center, he's seemingly an ideal player to bring in on the top two lines. The trouble is, is that his performance so far makes that look like a risk that even John Chayka may balk at a little - especially as Strome needs a scorer to feed alongside him. The Coyotes don't really have the time to waste while the big center finds his feet next season, and his early performance does not give confidence that he's at that level of play just yet.

Problem 3: Is Strome a Dave Tippett player? Tippett is a coach who seemingly loves to place players into a responsible, regimented system - one that in the anathema to Strome's freewheeling existence on Erie, where he's basically given free reign to terrorize defenses with his size, strength, and passing ability. For Strome, two of those attributes will be somewhat negated by the bigger, stronger, and faster opposition he'll face when stepping up to the NHL level - and the third will suffer when he's not given the time and space the first two attributes win him with relative ease in junior.

These issues by themselves are all fairly surmountable, but combine them and look at what the Coyotes need to move forward, and a quiet but persistent question emerges.

At this point, would the Coyotes be better off trading Dylan Strome?

Now let's be clear here - I'm not arguing for a Strome fire sale - after all, there is evidence that he could be a very talented player for the right team.

The question isn't whether or not he's a talented player for the right team, but whether or not, at this particular point, that team is the Coyotes.

There is always a market for players of Strome's ilk - a strong one, in fact - and with the Yotes guaranteed another high pick in this season's draft, with players like Nolan Patrick, Nico Hischier, and Gabe Vilardi available (even players like Michael Rasmussen or Nick Suzuki further down the draft, along with Dylan's bigger, and stronger brother Matthew), there is potential to replace him - arguably with centers that will be far more suited to a creative top-six role. Hischier and Vilardi, in particular, are incredibly exciting-looking prospects.

More importantly, Strome is a player who can still be sold very highly indeed, due to the NHL's fetish with size and power at the center position and his high draft position. There is definite potential there for a first-round pick, a roster player that's key to the Coyotes, or even adding an expiring UFA contract to a roster player on one of 2017's relatively sparse free-agent class players like TJ Oshie, for example.

One thing is for sure - John Chayka and his staff need to make a decision on Strome's future this summer - because while his value as a future Coyote may be high, he may be equally or even more valuable to the team by what selling him can bring. He may still have an NHL future, but the question still remains whether or not it will be in the desert, a question that will need to be answered relatively soon as it could have an influence on how things shape up this summer.

Where do you see Strome's future lying?