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The 2015-16 season wasn’t short on rookie success stories. After watching both high-profile prospects like Connor McDavid and out-of-the-blue stars like Shayne Gostisbehere emerge as impact players for their respective clubs, the hockey community has now shifted their attention to the next crop of young guns waiting to break out.

But while all eyes are on Toronto’s Auston Matthews and Winnipeg’s Patrik Laine, it’s another organization that seems to be quietly housing perhaps the league’s best group of young talent – the Arizona Coyotes.

The state that gave the hockey world Matthews has plenty of young stars lined up to wear their own colors as well.

The NHL got a glimpse of that potential in 2015-16, as Max Domi and Anthony Duclair exceeded expectations en route to phenomenal rookie campaigns. Domi finished the year with 18 goals and 52 points while Duclair wasn’t far behind with 20 goals and 44 points, as the pair ranked among Arizona’s top four scorers.

And that 20-year-old duo is only a small part of the coming wave of Coyotes success. Also heading down the pipeline is 2015 third-overall pick Dylan Strome, who may wind up as the best of the Coyotes’ bunch a few years down the line.

After racking up 129 points in 68 games for the Erie Otters in 2014-15 – alongside generational phenom Connor McDavid – Strome embarked on a follow-up junior campaign this season to prove his worth without his superstar teammate.

He statement was successfully made, as he posted 37 goals and 111 points in only 56 games in 2015-16, upping his points per game pace from 1.90 to 1.98. He added 21 points in 13 playoff games, raising his scoring pace in the postseason as well.

There’s no denying Strome is knocking at the door, and whether he earns a shot in the NHL during this coming season or the next, all signs point to the OHL standout being a bona fide game-changer once he arrives on the scene.

Only three players managed to best Strome’s 2015-16 points total, and number two on that list happened to be the young pivot’s eventual teammate, Christian Dvorak.

Adding even more intrigue to Arizona’s prospect cupboard, Dvorak similarly posted his second straight 100-point season, enjoying a breakout campaign in which he served as one third of the most offensively potent line in junior hockey.

The Illinois native amassed an astounding 52 goals and 121 points in just 59 games alongside Mitch Marner and Matthew Tkachuk. The trio guided the London Knights to a flawless season in which they captured both the OHL championship and Memorial Cup – looking like the clear favorite all the way through.

Stopping at just those four forwards alone, the potential is already hard to deny, as Strome and Dvorak enter the fray as blue-chip talents with All-Star potential, while Domi and Duclair have clearly already figured out how to cut it as every-day NHLers.

There are a few other notable names to throw into the mix, however. Arizona’s top pick in this year’s draft, Clayton Keller, has drawn plenty of praise after establishing himself as a key part of the U.S. national program, while Ryan McInnis and Nick Merkley have shown promise at the junior level as well.

But what truly sets Arizona apart from some of the other well-stocked NHL clubs is organizational balance.

Edmonton may have elite offensive talent up front in the form of McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Jesse Puljujärvi and the rest of their absurdly skilled forwards group, but their lack of defensive depth has forced them into desperate efforts to even out their roster.

The same can be said of Toronto, who boast Matthews, Marner and William Nylander, but a far less inspiring group on the blue-line.

Arizona is in an entirely different stratosphere in that regard. Leading their pack is, of course, 24-year-old Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who’s already become one of the top offensive defenseman in the game. The smooth-skating Swede has topped 40 points in each of the past three seasons, has posted two straight 20-goal campaigns, and is sitting on 209 career points in 415 NHL contests.

Despite playing on an offensively deprived roster and having yet to reach his prime, Ekman-Larsson has seen only one other defender score more total goals than him over the last three combined seasons.

Brent Burns ranks first over that span with 66 tallies. Ekman-Larsson is right behind with 59 goals, sitting above superstar talents like Erik Karlsson, Kris Letang, and P.K. Subban.

With the crucially important role of number-one defenseman clearly sealed up for years to come, one might think the Coyotes would have turned their attention to simply stockpiling offensive talent. And yet, even with the myriad of strong forward prospects listed above, Arizona still boasts a few future blue-line studs who have yet to make their mark.

Chief among them is Jakob Chychrun, selected 16th-overall in this year’s draft after rookie General Manager John Chayka pulled off some savvy moves to get his team back to the podium in the first round.

Already 6’2″ and 215 pounds at 18 years old, Chychrun was in the running for best blueliner in his draft class right up until the final weeks leading up to the event. A dangerous all-around talent who’s got dominating size to boot, he’ll join a team that needs him to be nothing more than, at best, a number-two option on the back-end.

Chayka added one more promising piece this offseason, snagging Anthony DeAngelo from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for the 2016 37th-overall pick. DeAngelo is far from a sure thing (the fact that the Lightning traded away a former 19th-overall pick is telling, after all) but he’s far from a long-shot.

Given more time to develop, the 20-year-old could very well turn out to be a key part of the Coyotes’ future, as is made clear by a quick glance at the numbers he’s posted so far – namely, 241 points in 236 career OHL games and 43 points in 69 AHL games last season.

After establishing himself as the top offensive threat from the blue line in the OHL, DeAngelo finished as the AHL’s seventh-highest scoring defenseman in his first go-round as a professional – nothing to scoff at.

If all goes to plan, a top-three of Ekman-Larsson, Chychrun, and DeAngelo figures to be a handful for opposing clubs – never mind the fact that Chayka also recently added veteran top-pairing talent Alex Goligoski to the fold for the next five years.

The transition from lower level hockey to the big leagues is an unpredictable one. Arizona’s pack of future stars could wind up falling short, or perhaps even exceed expectations and reach higher levels than initially thought.

How it all shakes out depends on a multitude of contextual factors, but at this point in their careers, with nothing but their raw talent and potential to succeed, it seems these prospects give Arizona all the pieces needed to soon cast off their ‘also-ran’ status and finally claim the respect they deserve.

Coyotes housing a dangerous pack of high-end prospects