The Arizona Coyotes and San Jose Sharks have both made several updates to their COVID protocol list, as they prepare for action tonight and tomorrow.
For the Coyotes, Ryan Dzingel has joined Antoine Roussel in the protocol and is unavailable for tonight’s game. A player that has seemingly disappeared entirely the last few years, Dzingel has just four goals and six points in 20 games for the Coyotes in 2021-22. A two-time 20+ goal scorer, he has just 12 goals and 19 points since the start of the 2020-21 campaign and now will have to miss at least three games with this latest absence.
Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports reports some good news on the Coyotes’ side though, as Jakob Chychrun is expected to play for the first time since December 10. The young defenseman is the subject of much trade speculation, and getting back into game action will only help the Coyotes’ leverage in any negotiation.
For San Jose, it’s a bit of good news and a bit of bad news. The team has activated Alexander Barabanov from the COVID protocol, but replaced him with Rudofs Balcers, who is now unavailable. San Jose recalled Joachim Blichfeld and Adam Raska from the AHL in the meantime.
Balcers, 24, had scored in each of his last two games and now has four goals and 12 points in 27 games for the Sharks this season. Signed to a two-year deal in the offseason that carries a $1.55MM cap hit, his year has been broken up by injuries and illnesses that have limited his playing time. Now he’ll be forced out of the lineup for at least two games.
Mm, but let’s try this one: Dzingel was only every good for two seasons. Lots of otherwise mediocre journeymen manage to string two good seasons together. Dzingel’s rookie year (at the rather elderly age of 23) was a bust, his second year was decent third-line production, then he had the aforementioned two 20+ goal seasons, and he hasn’t done much since … and really, not much since he was traded to the Blue Jackets 2/3rds of the way through that second 20-goal season.
Right now, it seems that career third-liner is about his ceiling. It makes a lot more sense to bet on those two years being a fluke than in thinking the other five seasons are.