Christian Dvorak, a player who the Coyotes are hoping will make up a part of their core for years to come made his season debut last night.
Out since the preseason with either an upper or a lower body injury, Dvorak finally returned to the lineup last night. He has no goals and no assists, playing frequently with Keller and Galchenyuk while putting up a Corsi in the mid thirties.
A pretty inauspicious debut, but what do you want for a guy debuting 75% into the season?
Dvorak is an interesting player. He was drafted in the second round, but people took to him right away and he had the hype of a first round prospect. His first two seasons looked OK - he was a decent enough player for a non-contending team in the middle of the lineup.
He got 37 points last year, and the Coyotes must have liked his game because they signed him to a six year 4.5 deal that was highly criticized.
If Dvorak's game takes a leap, suddenly they have a player locked up on a team friendly deal for the duration of his prime. The downside is tempered by the fact that there is no reason to think other NHL GMs are all that smart, and if he sucks, someone is bound to trade for a grindy player with bad numbers and a solid pedigree. It's the NHL, afterall.
With Dvorak, the Coyotes are hoping for a Mikku Koivu, but could very easily end up with a dud.
As for the game itself, a win is always fun and now the Coyotes have won an insane four in a row, and five of six.
Three of these games were in OT or a shootout, so they've been more lucky than anything else, but who is going to complain?
The Coyotes are two points back of a playoff spot, and three points back of seventh, with a game in hand on the Wild, who actively made their team worse (at least in the present) over the last several weeks.
The Coyotes are now six points ahead of the Oilers and six points behind the Golden Knights. This is pretty fun, considering the Coyotes are without their best goalie, second best defenseman and best offensive player.
cap info from capfriendly, stats from naturalstattrick.com