Antoine Vermette

#50 / Center / Arizona Coyotes



Height: 6'1"

Weight: 198

Shoots: Left

Age: 32

2014-2015 Cap Hit: $3,750,000

Contract Status: UFA end of this season





GP G A P +/- PIM PPG SHG GWG GTG SOG PCT 2014-2015 58 13 22 35 -20 34 6 1

80 16.3

Who is Antoine Vermette:

Antoine Vermette is a center with strong two-way play who wins a truckload of faceoffs and manages to put up points at a decent clip despite playing on a pretty terrible Coyotes team. Perpetually overlooked in his career because of his role as a depth guy in Ottawa followed by stints in often overlooked locations such as Columbus and Arizona, Vermette is looking to finally cash in on a very sold 800 game NHL career this summer when he hits unrestricted free agency.

Why Antoine Vermette?

Let's start by going to the tape.

<iframe src="http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/embed?playlist=2014020669-426-h&site=coyotes" frameborder="0" width="640" height="395"></iframe>

I really just wanted to include that because he scored against Minnesota. Suck it, THAT GUY. Moving on!

<iframe src="http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/embed?playlist=2014020444-275-h&site=coyotes" frameborder="0" width="640" height="395"></iframe>

Oh look who that was against. Hmm...how does he do in shootouts, an important question considering the Avs lack of ROWs this season...

<iframe src="http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/embed?playlist=2014020444-813-h&site=coyotes" frameborder="0" width="640" height="395"></iframe>

Look, we haven't scored against Minnesota since last April. Bringing in a guy who alone has 3 goals against them this season isn't the dumbest thing this franchise would have ever done (remember the Brad May signing?).

Enough with Minnesota. Let's check the HERO chart and see what it says about Vermette.

Not too shabby. Not particularly special but a really solid depth player. He's being pretty clearly overexposed in his role with Arizona but for a deeper team with actual NHL forwards he's going to make for a really nice complementary piece for someone. Should that someone be the Avs?

Why Not:

UHHHHHH? NO? Vermette's essentially a more expensive, older version of John Mitchell. While Vermette's faceoff ability is superior to Mitchell's (and really everyone else on the Avs), here's Mitchell's HERO chart for comparison.

One guy we're already paying $1.8M per season to. The other we'd have to trade draft picks, prospects, and/or roster players to acquire AND THEN sign for at least $5M per season. Faceoff prowess isn't worth all of that noise. So, no, that "someone" should not be the Avalanche. Why the Avs continue to be linked to Vermette completely blows my mind and means until Vermette is traded, that fear is always there. Simply put...DO. NOT. WANT.

Final Verdict:

Not a chance this is a guy the Avs should be trading for but because they've been linked together for some time now I felt compelled to include him in the discussion. If Vermette hits UFA and wants to come to Colorado on a super cheap and unrealistic deal, then I'm totally all for it but trading for a 32-year-old bottom 6 player and then signing him to a huge extension is exactly how you end up like the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Avs are already a little too Toronto West as it is. Let's not go deeper into that rabbit hole than we already are, hmmm?