Drafted 12th overall in the 2013 NHL entry draft, the left shooting, 5'9, 200lbs Max Domi will be looking to make the Coyotes and make his NHL debut this fall.
Domi scored 34 goals and 93 points while taking 90 minutes in penalties last season for the Ontario Hockey League's London Knights. The hope is that he can translate his high scoring ways to the NHL where the Coyotes are starving for an offensive star.
Domi may just be able to provide that - although how much of it comes in his rookie season in which he is a dark-horse Calder candidate behind Tampa's Johnathan Drouin, and Florida's Aaron Ekblad is anyone's guess. To be sure Domi has the talent to be a star in the NHL but how he performs in his first season can't accurately be gauged today, that is certain.
Though a much hyped prospect leading up to the 2013 draft because of his famous father, Tie, and an incredible in-game between the legs pass that became a You-tube sensation about a month before the draft, Domi was expected to go in the lower half of round one (ranked between 17th and 20th) due to his size and struggles with diabetes. (During games he wears an insulin pump attached to his hip and needs to be constantly monitored).
Will Domi be that player? Anyone who says one way or the other is selling you something. You can't predict these things with any accuracy, but here's a quote from his former coach that might get you excited if you're a Coyotes fan.
"He has extensive offensive skills and his skating ability is -- and I hate to say it -- [Sidney] Crosby-esque," London coach Dale Hunter said. "You never want to compare [a player] to someone like that, but he has a very strong lower torso, so his center of gravity is amazing." -Dale Hunter
What Hunter is referring to here is the fact that Domi is next to impossible to knock down or knock off the puck and that he's about to become one of the best skaters in the NHL about one second after he makes the team. Hunter isn't one to blow smoke either - in fact, quite the opposite.
If there are any negatives to Domi's game, they are that he has a tendency to try to do too much and to under utilize his linemates, despite being an excellent passer. These are not real detriments, I do not believe. These are just tendencies players develop when they are consistently the best players on their team or in their league, game in and game out for their entire life. There are already people saying that Domi made great strides last season with these criticisms. He has gone from 28 assists in his rookie year in the OHL to 48 in his second to 59 last season, so it certainly seems that way.
There is no reason to believe that a player who works as hard as he does and has the NHL background that he does - who, as a rookie has already trained with Crosby - won't be aware of what his weaknesses are and try to correct them.
I think Domi makes the team this fall. He almost made it last season and given his skill level and the Coyotes lack of such players, he will need a disastrous training camp to fail to make the Coyotes. I can see Domi becoming one of the best players in the NHL - he will already be one of the best skaters and hardest workers as soon as he actually IS in the NHL, and these are two of the strongest indicators for success.
Unlike most rookies, Domi isn't going to be awed by the NHL or its players, having grown up around the league, so his adjustment period should be shorter and less awkward than is typical, add in the fact that the summer has been abuzz with people talking about how good he looked at various camps and training sessions and there is no reason to believe he won't step into the league and immediately be a star.
Of course, I have should tell you that Domi is the first player I have ever followed through junior - and seen play live - who ended up being drafted by the team I follow in the NHL and his father happens to be one of my former childhood heroes.
So I am more than a little biased. But I am also very excited because if Domi lives up to his incredibly high ceiling, then a team built around him and Oliver Ekman-Larsson is going to be something to behold for the next 10-15 years.
Thanks for reading.