SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The Coyotes raised more than a few eyebrows on July 10 when they signed enforcer John Scott to a one-year, $575,000 deal.

Scott provided great theater on EPIX “Road to the NHL Stadium Series,” and he provides great theater for those who still covet old-school hockey enforcers. That said, he delivered a line on the aforementioned show that cut closer to the truth than Scott would care to admit.

“I’m only going to play four minutes,” he cracked before a game. “I have to be ready.”

If he plays much more than four minutes per game for the Coyotes this season, that won’t be a good sign. Scott is 6’8″ and 260 pounds. He has collected 517 penalty minutes and just five goals in 274 career games. Whichever statistics you want to examine — relative SAT, zone starts, production — it’s hardly a stretch to assert that Scott carries very little hockey-playing value. What value he does carry is exactly why the Coyotes signed him.

Arizona is expected to insert at least a pair of young prospects into its forward lineup this year, with Max Domi a near lock, Anthony Duclair a strong possibility and Brendan Perlini and Christian Dvorak among the other possibilities.

Think of Scott as an insurance policy for those players, as well as forwards Tobias Rieder, Mikkel Boedker and young defensemen Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Connor Murphy and Michael Stone. The Coyotes don’t want other teams taking runs at the young players who represent their future. They want the very real threat of retaliation sitting on their bench.

Scott is no stranger to controversy. He was suspended a total of six games last year with San Jose for run-ins with Anaheim’s Tim Jackman.

There was also his infamous headshot to Boston’s Loui Eriksson in 2013 that resulted in a seven-game suspension after Eriksson sustained a concussion that may have altered his career.

With that kind of history, you have to wonder if the Coyotes overreacted in signing Scott. You also have to wonder if things might have been different if the Arizona roster weren’t so lacking in players who strike fear in opponents.

The Coyotes signed Steve Downie this offseason — a guy who can also play and represents the new model of enforcer. But Arizona doesn’t have a single player on its blue line who strikes fear in opponents. Nicklas Grossmann is hard to play against for other reasons, but he has never amassed more than 55 penalty minutes in a season.

Captain Shane Doan is always willing to mix it up with opponents, but that’s not a role the Coyotes want Doan filling when they need his energy for so many other things.

The Coyotes’ blue line has been too light for the past several seasons and there haven’t been enough players capable of standing up for one another when push came to shove. Scott was hardly an ideal signing, but without good alternatives, he represented a risk the Coyotes were willing to take to protect their young investments.

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