Arizona Coyotes Recall Justin Kirkland
The Arizona Coyotes have announced that they’ve recalled forward Justin Kirkland from the Tucson Roadrunners of the AHL. The recall was done on an emergency basis last night and could provide the 27-year-old with his first look at NHL action this season after he dressed in seven NHL games last season with the Anaheim Ducks. He was held scoreless during that time.
Kirkland has played nine AHL games so far this season and has a single goal and nine assists. The native of Camrose, Alberta originally signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Coyotes back on July 15th and was waived at the start of the season before he was assigned to Tucson.
Kirkland dressed in 365 AHL games before he received an opportunity to play in the NHL. That chance came last December when he suited up in his first career game against the Los Angeles Kings. Unfortunately, his NHL run was cut short by a car accident on January 7th that he was involved in while he was on his way to a game against the Boston Bruins. Kirkland suffered some injuries in the crash and did not make it back to the NHL with the Ducks.
With his recall, Kirkland may get another opportunity to show he belongs in the NHL, and he has earned it after his solid start in the AHL this season.
Arizona Coyotes Reassign Milos Kelemen
Late last night, the Arizona Coyotes reassigned forward Milos Kelemen to their AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners.
The move ends Kelemen’s more than month-long stay on the NHL roster, a stay that included the chance for him to play in 10 NHL games. He averaged 7:40 time-on-ice in this stretch of NHL games, time spent entirely at even strength. He registered one assist, 14 hits, and three blocked shots.
The 24-year-old Slovak winger signed with the Coyotes in 2022 out of BK Mladá Boleslav of the Czech Extraliga. Although he had only scored 18 points in 44 games for the club that season, his nine goals and 12 points in just 14 playoff games helped lead Mladá Boleslav to the Exttraliga semifinals. He was also named the rookie of the year of the Extraliga.
Kelemen had also featured on the Slovak national team at the 2022 Winter Olympics, a team that famously took home a bronze medal and featured 2022 number-one overall pick Juraj Slafkovský.
So far in North America, Kelemen has found a nice home as a depth forward for the Coyotes. He scored 14 goals and 30 points in his 59-game rookie AHL campaign, helping Tucson reach the AHL playoffs. He also got into a total of 14 NHL games and managed to score his first NHL goal.
Moving forward, Kelemen is likely to resume a top-six role with the Roadrunners, where he’ll look to put together a solid stretch of production that might earn him another call-up opportunity with the Coyotes down the road.
Travis Boyd, Barrett Hayton Out Long-Term With Upper-Body Injuries
Forward Travis Boyd is worried to be done for the season after suffering what is believed to be a torn pectoral muscle, per Arizona Coyotes insider Craig Morgan on Sunday’s PHNX postgame show. Morgan also shared that Barrett Hayton has suffered a setback in his return from a hand injury and likely won’t return until early-February.
These are two big blows to a Coyotes roster that seemingly can’t get past the injury bug. Boyd and Hayton are joined by Sean Durzi and Vladislav Kolyachonok in missing games due to injury, with Durzi being the only one of the group not currently on injured reserve. Jason Zucker has also missed seven games through the early season.
Boyd loses his season after playing in 16 games and scoring eight points for the Coyotes’ fourth-line. The 30-year-old centerman has come into his own with Arizona, who he joined as an unrestricted free agent in 2021. Boyd has managed the two highest-scoring seasons of his career in his two years with the Yotes, scoring 35 points in 74 games in 2021-22 and 34 points in 82 games last season. He was on pace to maintain that scoring this year, despite seeing his average ice time plummet from 16:32 to just 9:37 between last season and this season. Over a seven year career, Boyd has totaled 296 NHL games and 118 points.
The Coyotes are also losing former-fifth overall selection Hayton for an extended period. The 23-year-old winger has also appeared in 16 games this season, scoring four points. It’s a step down from the career-high 43 points that Hayton managed in 82 games last season. Hayton spent most of his time this season playing alongside Nick Schmaltz and Clayton Keller, a role that has since been filled by rookie Logan Cooley or Zucker, when healthy.
Evening Notes: Vejmelka, Kessel, Rust
ESPN’s Kevin Weekes is reporting that several teams are expressing interest in trading for Arizona Coyotes goaltender Karel Vejmelka. Weekes doesn’t get into the specifics of which teams have shown interest but does add the Vejmelka enjoys being member of the Coyotes. Ultimately if he stays or goes will come down to whether a team is willing to meet Arizona’s asking price.
The 27-year-old netminder has a very cap-friendly contract at $2.725MM per year and has another on his deal after this season. At a glance, it doesn’t look like a bargain because Vejmelka’s traditional statistics have been brutal. Since joining the Coyotes, Vejmelka has played 114 games in which he has registered a record of 33-63-11. He also has a sub .900 save percentage and a 3.54 goals-against average.
There is no defending those numbers as they aren’t great, however, his overall statistics are badly damaged by a very poor rookie season back in 2021-22. Last year, Vejmelka was quite solid, evidenced by his 11.1 goals saved above expected (Money Puck).
In other evening notes:
- TSN’s Pierre LeBrun is reporting that unsigned unrestricted free Phil Kessel has not closed the door on returning to the NHL and is still waiting to be signed. In the meantime, the three-time Stanley Cup champion is exploring the possibility of playing in some games in the Swiss League. Nothing has been decided yet, but the 36-year-old clearly still has the drive to play and would love to hit the 1000-point mark for his NHL career. The NHL Iron Man is no guarantee to reach the Hall of Fame, but if he were to pass the 1000-point mark it would go a long way to him having a chance to make it.
- The Pittsburgh Penguins have announced that they’ve placed forward Bryan Rust on the injured reserve with an upper-body injury. Rust has had a nice season thus far as he bounces back from a poor showing last year. In 22 games this year the 31-year-old has 10 goals and 10 assists. The Penguins badly need Rust to return to the lineup as the team has struggled to score goals and will finish this evening with a 13-13-3 record which has them sitting seventh in the Metropolitan Division ahead of the lowly Columbus Blue Jackets.
Latest Arizona Coyotes Injury Updates
Seattle Kraken netminder Philipp Grubauer has not played in the team’s last two games, and today head coach Dave Hakstol told the media, including team reporter Alison Lukan, that Grubauer’s status is considered week-to-week. The result of Hakstol’s announcement is that Grubauer’s availability for the Winter Classic in Seattle is now in question.
A former Vezina Trophy finalist, Grubauer has split starts this season with Joey Daccord. Grubauer’s form since signing a $5.9MM AAV contract with the Kraken has been poor, and this season has been no different. He has a .884 save percentage, a decline from the .895 mark he posted the year before. With Grubauer out, the Kraken will turn to a tandem of Daccord and Chris Driedger.
Some other injury notes from across the NHL:
- PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan reported three injury updates from Arizona today: forward Nick Schmaltz is injured and will be a game-time decision for Friday’s game, defenseman Sean Durzi is unlikely to play that game due to injury, and injured forward Jack McBain, who has not played in over a month, is expected to return to the ice. The best news of this trio is undoubtedly the return of McBain. The 23-year-old physical center scored 12 goals and 26 points in his rookie season last year, registering 304 hits along the way, which ranked second among all forwards. He had scored a healthy seven points in 13 games before getting injured in November.
- Bally Sports Florida’s Gabby Shirley reports that 2018 Norris Trophy winner Victor Hedman will not play in tonight’s game against the Edmonton Oilers due to an upper-body injury. It’s unclear if Hedman will miss more time beyond tonight’s game. The legendary 32-year-old defenseman has been one of the league’s best defensemen this season, scoring 27 points in 29 games. Without Hedman in their lineup, the struggling Lightning will face a tall task attempting to beat the Oilers, as Edmonton is riding an eight-game winning streak.
Arizona Coyotes Recall Zach Sanford
The Arizona Coyotes have recalled forward Zach Sanford from their AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners. In a corresponding move, the team has reassigned forward Ryan McGregor back to Tucson.
McGregor was recalled last week but did not end up skating in any games for the Coyotes. A 24-year-old 2017 sixth-round pick, McGregor is in his fourth season playing AHL hockey in Tucson and has yet to make his NHL debut. He has four points in 19 games to start this season.
Sanford, on the other hand, has done more than make a debut in the NHL: he’s a Stanley Cup champion and a veteran of over 300 games in hockey’s top league.
Sanford scored 16 goals and 30 points in 2019-20, but failed to build off of that breakout year in the following campaign. He was traded to the Ottawa Senators but couldn’t make an impact there, and has since bounced around the league a little bit. He was a depth forward for the Nashville Predators last season, scoring three points in 16 NHL games.
Sanford made more of an impact for Nashville’s AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals, scoring 12 goals and 28 points in 45 games. Signed to a contract in the offseason to play a similar role for the Coyotes, Sanford has only managed four points in 16 AHL contests.
He has scored a point in his one NHL game for Arizona, though, and should provide the club with some experienced depth.
Snapshots: Kane, Dahlin, Durzi
The Detroit Red Wings have announced that legendary winger Patrick Kane will make his debut with the club in their Thursday night matchup against the San Jose Sharks. The game will also mark Kane’s return from the hip resurfacing surgery that he underwent on June 1st.
Kane will look to become the third NHL player to return from a hip resurfacing surgery, with top centerman Nicklas Backstrom representing the second to ever return. Backstrom made it back for the second half of the 2022-23 season, and eight games this season, but is currently on a leave of absence from the Washington Capitals due to complications with his injury.
Thursday night will mark only the 20th regular-season game that Kane has played outside of the Chicago Blackhawks organization. He joined the New York Rangers at last season’s trade deadline, appearing in 19 games and scoring 12 points with the club. These performances brought his career totals to 1180 games, 451 goals, and 1237 points. Kane was originally the first-overall selection in the 2007 NHL Draft.
Other notes from around the league:
- The Buffalo Sabres have announced that Rasmus Dahlin is dealing with a lower-body injury and is questionable for the team’s Thursday game against the Boston Bruins. The Buffalo News’ Lance Lysowski shared that the team is still evaluating his status and what next steps may need to be taken. Dahlin has 21 points in 26 games this season, ranking seventh among all NHL defenders. Lysowski’s colleague, Mike Harrington, shared that Dahlin will travel to Boston with the team, but Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is dealing with illness and will not.
- Arizona Coyotes defenseman Sean Durzi is day-to-day and doubtful for the team’s upcoming Thursday game. However, Coyotes insider Craig Morgan shared that Durzi is expected to join the team on their upcoming three-game road trip.
Arizona Coyotes Recall Patrik Koch
The Arizona Coyotes have recalled defenseman Patrik Koch from their AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners.
The move puts the 26-year-old Slovak defenseman in a position to make his NHL debut, a debut that would come just a few short months removed from the start of his North American professional career. An undrafted veteran of the Czech and Slovak leagues, Koch was signed by Arizona this past summer after a solid season in Czechia.
Playing for HC Vítkovice, Koch scored 12 points in 46 games and helped the club reach the Czech semifinals. He also earned a spot on Slovakia’s team for the 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championship, where his country would only narrowly miss out on advancement to the playoffs.
So far this season Koch has played entirely in the AHL with the Roadrunners. He has most recently been listed on the team’s third pairing alongside Montana Onyebuchi, usage that does not indicate that he would be a prime call-up candidate. That being said, Koch provides quite a bit of bite and physicality, something other call-up candidates such as Victor Söderström or Maksymilian Szuber don’t offer as readily.
With the Coyotes preparing to play a tough Philadelphia Flyers squad that boasts fearsome forwards such as Nicolas Deslauriers and Garnet Hathaway, recalling Koch adds a bruising defenseman to an Arizona defense that is currently not overflowing with overwhelmingly physical players outside veteran Josh Brown.
Coyotes Expected To Announce Phoenix Arena Site By End Of January 2024
The Coyotes have pursued all options to avoid relocation and remain in the Phoenix metropolitan area since the team’s proposed arena and entertainment district in Tempe failed to pass a public referendum in May. It now seems the team is closer than ever to a resolution, as team president and CEO Xavier A. Guttierez told Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports last week that they expect to announce their chosen arena site by the end of the 2023 calendar year “or shortly thereafter.” Morgan reported that the location is expected to be a parcel of land within Phoenix city limits adjacent to the border with Scottsdale, one of the more affluent Phoenix suburbs, which TSN’s Darren Dreger added today is close to being finalized.
This timing is on track with what Guttierez outlined before the 2023-24 season began: a likely announcement around the turn of the calendar year. Morgan noted that while the site announcement is expected to come within the next few weeks, the final project bid likely won’t be complete until closer to the end of the regular season, which NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said was a more realistic timeline over the summer.
The season-long delay in confirming a new arena site shouldn’t affect the move-out timeline from their current home, the 4,600-seat Mullett Arena shared with Arizona State University, by much. Morgan said Sunday that the Phoenix-Scottsdale site “would allow the Coyotes to remain close to the same construction timeline as the Tempe site,” given the Tempe site would have required considerably more remediation before the team could break ground on the arena – anywhere from “at least” six to eight months. A standard two-year construction timeline would have the new site ready for the 2026-27 season, requiring a one-year extension on the Coyotes’ initial three-year lease agreement at Mullett.
Notably, the expected new arena site is not the parcel of land in Mesa that the Coyotes issued a letter of intent to purchase last August. On Tuesday’s edition of TSN’s Insider Trading, Dreger said relocation remains on the table if the Coyotes can’t close this deal within the next few weeks.
A step toward an arena resolution would go a long way toward supporting a Coyotes team that’s shown significant on-ice improvement this season. They’ve defeated the last five Stanley Cup champions in their previous five contests, are 6-3-1 in their last ten games, and are just two points behind the Jets for third place in the Central Division. It’s hard to imagine Stanley Cup Playoff hockey in such a minute arena as Mullett, but it’s quickly becoming a possibility as soon as this season.
Coyotes Have Shown Interest In Noah Hanifin
The Coyotes are among the teams that have demonstrated interest in acquiring Flames defenseman Noah Hanifin, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on Monday’s 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link). With Arizona now sitting first in the Western Conference wild-card race and just two points back of the Winnipeg Jets for third in the Central Division, it appears GM Bill Armstrong is gearing up to shift out of rebuild mode and begin spending assets to acquire more veteran talent.
A 6-3-1 surge in their last ten games has the Flames still in the playoff hunt, but a report last month from Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic indicates it hasn’t changed the Flames’ plans of selling off most of their pending unrestricted free agents. The first in-season move to get a value pack for a pending free agent came last week, dealing defenseman Nikita Zadorov to the Canucks for a pair of draft picks. More recently, LeBrun indicated the Flames could look to move Hanifin with an extension in place after previously offering him an eight-year deal worth roughly $60MM – a $7.5MM cap hit – before talks ended due to the team’s early-season slide.
While teams are still calling on Hanifin’s defense partner, Chris Tanev, the former is the top trade chip the Flames have to offer from their blue line. His value among Calgary’s pending UFAs is eclipsed only by top-line center Elias Lindholm.
Through his first five seasons in Calgary, after they acquired him from the Hurricanes during the 2018 offseason, Hanifin notched 31 goals, 125 assists, 156 points, and a +33 rating in 359 games. That works out to 0.43 points per game, a mark he’s outpacing so far this year with five goals and 12 points in 24 contests. He’s averaging a career-high 22:53 and is on pace for an even-strength Corsi share above 50% for his ninth straight campaign. For now, his services come at a financial bargain, costing just $4.95MM against the cap – significantly under market value for a first-pair-caliber defenseman.
You’re likely not winning a championship with Hanifin as your number-one defenseman, but he has a track record of handling heavy minutes while still displaying two-way prowess. The Coyotes’ most significant weakness is far and away their blue line depth, and adding Hanifin to a growing group that’s seen strong performances from Sean Durzi and J.J. Moser this season could boost their playoff chances by a significant margin. MoneyPuck currently lists the Coyotes with 68.4% odds to make just their second postseason appearance since losing in the 2012 Western Conference Final to the Kings.
If Armstrong does move to acquire Hanifin, the 26-year-old would end up playing the role the Coyotes envisioned Mathew Dumba would hold this season. Signed to a one-year, $3.9MM contract late in the summer, Dumba has floundered in the desert, posting just four points in 22 games and a -8 rating, the worst among Arizona defenders. His ice time has steadily decreased since the beginning of the season, and he’ll soon be averaging below 20 minutes per game for the first time since the 2015-16 season.
Hanifin is also a left-handed shot, an area of need for the Coyotes. They currently have a surplus of right-shooting defensemen, which has forced players like Dumba and Troy Stecher to play on their off-side.
His acquisition cost won’t be cheap, especially if there’s an extension in place as part of the trade. The Coyotes have plenty of draft capital, though, owning a jaw-dropping ten second-round selections over the next three years. They’ve also retained all their first-round picks for the next three seasons. They also have a quickly-growing forward prospect pool, including 23-year-old Jan Jeník, who had 47 points in 51 games with AHL Tucson two seasons ago and reportedly sought trade options last summer.