Arizona Coyotes: Several Rookies May Play On Opening Night
Arizona Coyotes rookie camp is complete, and the official start of full-team training is here. Barring a last-minute trade, the 2016-17 roster will include several rookies on opening night, and perhaps a few surprises.
Arizona Coyotes prospects have gathered at Gila River Arena and survived rookie camp. It was the most talent-filled prelude to the preseason in Coyotes’ history.
The level of unbelievable ability on the ice, the vast majority of which won’t even make the roster for this upcoming season, is breathtaking.
Most of the 2016-17 roster appears set. But with this skillful crew, there’s room for a couple of blue-line and forward surprises.
I’m hoping there’s an early October shocker, where a player steps up his game and absolutely blows the socks off the coaching staff. With just a few open spots, there’s space for only 23 players.
Here’s how I think it will go on opening night on October 15th.
The goaltending for the team is complete. Mike Smith will be the starter, and Louis Domingue will back him up.
The defense has been improved thanks to GM John Chayka’s move that brought in Alex Goligoski. The defensive prospect pool has also been deepened for the future. The addition of Jakob Chychrun, drafted in the first round this year, will make for some exciting competition at training camp.
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A top defensive pairing of Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Connor Murphy, followed by Alex Goligoski and Michael Stone (upon his return from injury), is inevitable.
Two additional players will combine to make up the team’s third blue-line unit. Zbynek Michalek, Kevin Connauton, Klas Dahlbeck, and Luke Schenn are among the choices.
The team would benefit from giving Chychrun some NHL experience, and that opportunity may have already presented itself.
Stone will probably not be ready for opening night. If he needs to forego the first opening road trip, this could set the stage for Chychrun starting the season at the NHL level. After eight or nine games they could opt to move him down.
That leaves 13 forward spots.
Speculating on the make-up of each line, I see Martin Hanzel, Max Domi, and Anthony Duclair playing on a first line together to start the season. The Killer D’s have earned this right after showing how compatible the two real-life best friends are on the ice.
Radim Vrbata will take his place on the second line with current contract-holdout Tobias Rieder, if a deal gets done before opening night. Christian Dvorak, who is as close to a lock to make the team as a player can get if he shows his stuff in camp, will join them.
Dylan Strome will make the team as well, and join Captain Shane Doan on the third forward line with newly acquired Jamie McGinn.
Brad Richardson will lead the fourth line along with Jordan Martinook and Ryan White.
The last player to make the squad is the biggest rookie shocker of the new Coyotes era.
That’s right, Christian Fischer will surprise everyone and join the team on opening night.
If Rieder doesn’t make a deal with the team by October 15th, all bets are off. And that’s a likely scenario, given the lack of leverage that RFA’s have in the NHL and the wealth of stand-ins the Coyotes have.
Let’s face it, this is all preliminary. I freely admit these forward lines are more about people and less about position.
Each of these lines could get mixed up or moved around or even tossed out based on how well players gel together. If everyone had the chemistry that Domi and Duclair have exhibited, Head Coach Dave Tippett’s job would be easy.
Of course, as training camp moves along over the next couple of weeks, all of this speculation will become a lot clearer.