Don't blame the Coyotes for jettisoning All-Star John Scott

The Arizona Coyotes have been the punchline.

Forget fan support that has never come in droves, the Coyotes barely have backing from their own city officials.

They've teetered on the edge of irrelevance, flirted with extinction, changed ownership, rushed to extinguish fires. They disbanded to land either one of two potentially generational talents, then picked third. They've been strung up like a punching bag, pummeled repeatedly.

It's been dysfunction, but lately, more so mistreatment.

And yet, in a season with a built-in excuse to be bad, to be downright awful, and with a little luck press reset with local wonder Auston Matthews, Arizona has instead done the opposite. The valiant.

The Coyotes compete.

With points in nine of the last 10 games and really, a dogged effort since puck drop this season, the Coyotes hold the runner-up position in the Pacific Division. They've done it at a deficit in talent, and despite having lost their No. 1 goaltender. They've done it with a disciplined, but also very exciting brand of hockey.

So what's the award, to be walloped once more?

The NHL All-Star Game means zip to many fans who have witnessed the drabness that's crept into the event over the decades. But for a small-market, low-budget team that holds meet-and-greets instead of galas, it's important to show well at this sort of thing.

John Scott is not showing well. John Scott is reason to devalue and disregard a team that deserves much better.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson is bona fide superstar. He should be lionized with the very best this game has to offer. Max Domi and Anthony Duclair are brilliant young prospects that need a platform to be introduced to the entire hockey landscape.

The Coyotes, perhaps more than any other, would prefer to be represented properly. From a business standpoint, no team would benefit more from having one of their own star, leaving a last impression with skill, craftiness, and character, not hijinks.

They've earned that.

Don Maloney wasn't lying when he indicated that detaching themselves from Scott was in the best interest of the Coyotes. This, whether it was the means for a slight upgrade on the blue line, to jettison a problem, or both.

It's unfortunate this all came at the expense of Scott, who like the Coyotes, doesn't deserve to be the butt of a joke. But be careful in labeling him an innocent bystander. He's a grown man and well-paid employee who was asked, on multiple levels of management, to do something for the overall benefit of his company.

He declined. There were repercussions. That's the real world you live in.