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Coyotes Recall Nick Merkley + Tocchet OverWhelmed + Chychrun's Bad Game

December 16, 2017, 2:20 PM ET [7 Comments]
James Tanner
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The Coyotes have recalled their top prospect, Nick Merkley, from the AHL. That is to say that Merkley is their top prospect among players not currently in the NHL.

A right-winger who was drafted in the first round, 30th overall of the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, Nick Merkley has been tearing up the AHL this year. He has 24 points in 20 games, which is good for 14th in the scoring race, however, if you just go by points-per-game, he's second after Dylan Strome.

Strome and Merkley were a killer pair in the AHL and it is going to be exciting to see them together in the NHL.

The Coyotes will play the Penguins tonight, and Annti Raanta will get his third start since returning from injury. He was great in his return against Columbus, allowing just one goal. Raanta was even better in his second game back against the Lightning.

Despite the Coytoes getting absolutely demolished by the league's best team, and despite letting in four goals, Raanta still stood on his head. He faced almost 50 shots and was by far the Coyotes best player.



Speaking of that game, it was nice to see Strome get some ice time - he ended up as the Coyotes sixth most used forward 5v5 and played 14 minutes overall.

What was crazy though is this: Tocchet used Chychrun like crazy 5v5 and he was destroyed.

While OEL skated only 13 5v5 minutes (posting a 61.54% CF in a game where his team allowed 48 shots) Chychrun got 19 minutes of 5v5 toi and ended up with a 14% CF. That is not a typo. With Chychrun on the ice the Coyotes attempted seven shots while the Lightning attempted 42.

How can an NHL coach not realize something is not working to that extent? Why would the Coyotes ever have a game where OEL wasn't their most used 5v5 player? OEL skated over seven minutes of special teams time - which partially explains it - but considering the importance of 5v5 minutes, this is just another example that shows Tocchet is over his head as an NHL coach.

Hopefully tonight will be better, I really look forward to seeing Strome and Merkley.

stats from naturalstattrick.com
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