Collectively, the Coyotes invested about a decade of development in forwards Dylan Strome and Brendan Perlini. Through 22 games this season, all they had to show for that investment was a collective five goals and seven assists.

As the team staggered to its eighth loss in its past 10 games (2-6-2) — 6-1 to the Calgary Flames at Gila River Arena on Sunday – president of hockey operations John Chayka had seen enough. The momentum the team had built from a five-game winning streak three weeks ago was gone, replaced by a disturbing lack of competitiveness in the past two games in which the team was outscored 11-2 and allowed five shorthanded goals.

The games in hand the Coyotes were counting on to climb the ladder of a suspect Pacific Division have all but evaporated; the team is closer to the garden apartment than it is to the penthouse.

The power play is an easy joke, nobody can score and the aforementioned two first-round draft picks are among the greatest absentees in that latter department. No matter how you squinted through Coyotes-colored lenses to find the rationalizations, explanations or blame for Strome’s and Perlini’s first-quarter performances, the results simply were not there. No objective analysis could find that either player was playing well.

“For us, there’s a key difference between patience and hope,” Chayka said. “I don’t think hope is a good long-term strategy. I thought we showed the requisite patience for these guys in terms of their development. You go through the checklist as an organization to make sure you provide the player with all the tools and support and helping them through their development path, but at the same time they have to show progress along that development path and eventually become the players you would have hoped they were when you drafted them.

“In this scenario, with these circumstances and this situation, we felt that we were being more hopeful than anything. We just felt that, when you’re looking at your options and alternatives, I think I owe it to our organization and our fans to see if there’s anything out there to improve our group. Obviously, the alternative is to just hold and to hope, but you run the risk of the asset expiring.”

With that, Chayka shipped both players to his most familiar trading partner, the Chicago Blackhawks, on Sunday night for forward Nick Schmaltz. The decision to finally pull the plug on Strome was probably overdue. He had three goals and three assists in 20 games, coach Rick Tocchet never felt comfortable enough with his game to play him higher in the lineup, he lost too many puck battles, he never could push the pace the way Tocchet wanted to because of a lack of foot speed, and he never showed the consistent stretches of elite play that might have warranted playing him more time with more skilled players.

While draft analysts had Strome rated highly in 2015, there was never consensus internally that he should be the pick at No. 3. Former coach Dave Tippett wanted either to trade the pick to Boston to land defenseman Dougie Hamilton or draft another player such as defenseman Ivan Provorov. Former GM Don Maloney had designs on other players, but went with the consensus of his scouts on Strome. Others were not convinced Strome would be anything close to the players taken before him, franchise centers Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel.

So far, he is not.

Strome is 21. There is still time for him to develop into a productive NHL player. Some players are late bloomers. On the other hand, the youth argument holds less water in today’s NHL where many, and we do mean many of the game’s brightest and most productive stars are under 25.

So many choices

In hindsight, there are at least 14 more productive players the Coyotes could have taken at No. 3 in the 2015 NHL Draft instead of Dylan Strome. Nineteen of the players in the first round of that draft have more points than Strome, and the Coyotes still have two other players from that draft (Lawson Crouse, Nick Merkley) that have not been productive NHL players. Here’s how our hindsight Coyotes draft board might look for the year that produced Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel.

Draft spot, Player, Current Team, Stats

No. 10 Mikko Rantanen, Colorado Avalanche, 188 games, 59 goals, 160 points

No. 16 Mathew Barzal, N.Y. Islanders, 106 games, 25 goals, 105 points

No. 4 Mitchell Marner, Toronto Maple Leafs 183 games, 47 goals, 160 points

No. 35 Sebastian Aho, Carolina Hurricanes, 183 games, 60 goals, 139 points

No. 23 Brock Boeser, Vancouver Canucks, 84 games, 34 goals, 71 points

No. 8 Zach Werenski, Columbus Blue Jackets, 178 games, 31 goals, 97 points

No. 17 Kyle Connor, Winnipeg Jets, 118 games, 43 goals, 86 points

No. 18 Thomas Chabot, Ottawa Senators, 87 games, 15 goals, 52 points

No. 5 Noah Hanifin, Calgary Flames, 263 games, 20 goals, 94 assists

No. 7 Ivan Provorov, Philadelphia Flyers, 187 games, 25 goals, 78 points

No. 24 Travis Konecny, Philadelphia Flyers, 174 games, 41 goals, 89 points

No. 14 Jake DeBrusk, Boston Bruins, 93 games, 26 goals, 55 points

No. 9 Timo Meier, San Jose Sharks, 139 games, 37 goals, 64 points

No. 28 Anthony Beauvilier, N.Y. Islanders, 158 games, 36 goals, 68 points

As for Perlini, he appeared to regress this season after a 17-goal performance last season suggested he might finally become the 25-plus goal scorer the team envisioned when it drafted him No. 12 overall in 2014. Tocchet was close to scratching him earlier this season, seeing the same overall issue he saw in Strome’s game.

“I think like any young kid, inconsistency,” Tocchet said. “Both terrific kids; loved coaching them. They’re trying to figure out a few things and like I said, both teams had needs, and they went after it. Maybe for Strome and Perls, they go there and get a little spark and it can help both teams.”

Schmaltz had 21 goals and 52 points last season as the Blackhawks’ No. 2 center but it cannot be ignored that the guy most frequently flanking him on the right wing was Patrick Kane, a guy who also made Artem Anisimov look great. Schmaltz has dipped to two goals and 11 points in 23 games this season, and he has played with a variety of linemates.

Tocchet would not commit on Monday to playing Schmaltz at center. Nor would he say definitely whether Schmaltz playing center might mean a new role for Alex Galchenyuk.

“We’re going to have to revisit that,” Tocchet said. “We’re struggling in certain areas of our game and that’s something we’re going to have to look at.”

If Tocchet chooses to play him at center, Schmaltz will give the Coyotes speed through the middle to help push the coach’s pace – an asset the Coyotes lacked with Strome, Derek Stepan and Christian Dvorak. He’s also a terrific defensive player who excels in picking pockets through sustained back pressure. The most frequent criticisms of his game are that he is soft and that he has too much of a pass-first mentality, deferring on shots he should take.

“That’s the type of player I am,” Schmaltz said. “I like to set up guys and make plays, find open guys but there’s going to be times where I should definitely shoot the puck. It’s never a bad play to put it on net. I’m still working on that but if I can get that shot-first mentality, I think it will create more space and open up more lanes for me to make passes.”

If the soft label lingers, it won’t sit well with Tocchet, who saw too much of the same in Strome and Perlini. Of equal note is the addition of another playmaker on a team that needs more goal scorers. Maybe Schmaltz’s playmaking ability will create easier scoring chances for others, and it should be noted that Chayka has done a fair job fleecing other teams in trades, but the recent play of Max Domi in Montreal and, to a far lesser extent, Anthony Duclair in Columbus, offers a cautionary tale about giving up on young players in which you have invested so much time.

Tocchet was hired specifically to reach younger players with his lauded communications skills. He was hired in great part to help young players develop. Neither Tocchet nor Chayka had a say in drafting Perlini, Domi or Strome, so maybe it’s not fair to put their inadequacies on this staff, but the bottom line is that the Coyotes’ top, first-round picks from 2013, 2014 and 2015 are gone.

“Fans are looking for hope and I understand that,” Chayka said. “We’ve had some high picks and they want to see those high picks be successful. But like I said, you can hope or you can be realistic and be a bit objective with where things are and try to make the most prudent decisions based off all the facts in front of you today.

“Sometimes, those circumstances and those facts change and sometimes they remain and they continue, so based off today and the available information, the best decision for us to move forward is to find a 22-year-old player that has scored in the past and has the potential, in our minds, to be a difference maker.

“I think we’ve shown patience with a number of players and we’ll continue to show patience with a number of players. Some of them aren’t playing well right now for us and they’re not in consideration to be moved, I can tell you that, but I’m also not just going to sit around and be oblivious to things that occur around me and not look to make moves to improve our team.”