The Most Exciting Arizona Coyotes Prospects

The Arizona Coyotes prospects have been, for me, the one saving grace this season.

First, we got to watch Max Domi skate circles around the opposition at the World Junior Championships, in which he and Sam Reinhart did some terrifyingly good things on a line with Anthony Duclair and Connor McDavid wasn’t even the best forward on the ice. (For the record, that was Max Domi. Being a Coyotes fan at the WJC was awesome).

Then, we got to see some of the team’s more NHL-ready prospects do some pretty incredible things on the ice with the big team.

Tobias Rieder broke the NHL record for fastest consecutive short-handed goals scored by a rookie earlier this season, and Lucas Lessio has managed to score in a shootout win over the Chicago Blackhawks — so if you want something to be excited about, the team’s best and brightest up-and-comers are making that pretty easy.

What many forget about, though, are the players in the major juniors that haven’t really made much of an impact on the big club yet.

Under-20 skaters aren’t eligible to play in the AHL, and many benefit from additional time playing in the major juniors — which includes the OHL, the WHL, and the QMJHL, in addition to American development leagues — so these players get tossed to the back of our minds once they’re reassigned following summer development camps. These are the skaters that may have the biggest impact on the club in coming seasons, though, and quite a few of them are making splashes big enough to warrant our attention already. This may be a hard season to watch, but here are four reasons why the best is yet to come —

1. Max Domi, LW

London Knights, OHL (team captain, 2014-2015 season)

Stats: 46 games played, 86 points recorded (26G, 60A)

Player of the Tournament, Team Canada, 2015 World Junior Championship (5G, 5A, 7GP)

How could we possibly put anyone first but Max Domi?

The team shocked fans this summer by reassigning Domi to the OHL for one final season of major junior eligibility, but it’s been paying massive dividends. The nineteen-year-old forward has served as captain of the London Knights this season, who have iced a line of him, Christian Dvorak (who we’ll get to), and top-ranked 2015 NHL Draft prospect Mitchell Marner. Combined, the three are putting up absolutely unreal numbers; ten games out on his teammates, Domi alone has eighty-six points in only forty-six games played so far this season.

At the U20 World Juniors this December, Domi caught the attention of hockey fans across North America by proving that he’s taken his prospect reports to heart — where he’s always been a fast, clever offensive star, the undersized forward has learned how to use his low center of gravity to his advantage defensively. He became one of the most effective penalty killers for an unfairly good Team Canada, and developed almost unreal chemistry with linemates Sam Reinhart and Anthony Duclair.

Coyotes fans have known that Domi has the offensive talent and drive to inject some scoring on the team, but his play this season has shown that he might be ready to help out with more than just offense and energy levels — for the first time since drafting him, Domi is showing the Coyotes that he has what it takes to be a leader on the team long-term.

2. Christian Dvorak,

London Knights, OHL

Stats: 55 games played, 99 points recorded (38G, 61A)

OHL Player of the Month for December, January

Domi isn’t the only Coyotes prospect tearing it up with the London Knights this season — his linemate Christian Dvorak has been just as deadly this season.

“After putting up only fourteen points in his thirty-three game rookie season with the Knights, Dvorak has finally found his offensive touch.”

The Illinois native spent a season with the Chicago Steel of the USHL, but has since transitioned to playing in the OHL on a team that historically produces some of the best offense in North America — and after putting up only fourteen points in his thirty-three game rookie season with the Knights, Dvorak has finally found his offensive touch. He went from thirteen points in his first fourteen games this season to topping leaderboards around the OHL; he’s not only proven that he’s developing at an impressive rate, he’s showing that he doesn’t need Domi to boost his game. During Domi’s stint at the WJC, Dvorak still managed to produce — and managed to be the player of the month for the OHL during both months the tournament was taking place.

Dvorak has always been a good skater (something he possesses that other Coyotes prospects, such as Henrik Samuelsson, don’t) and a monster defensively, but the fact that he’s managed to figure out how to finish plays near the opposition’s net show that he’s probably one of the most valuable prospects for the Coyotes moving forward.

3. Brendan Perlini, LW

Niagara IceDogs, OHL

Stats: 32 games played, 47 points recorded (22G, 25A)

I keep forgetting about Brendan Perlini, because he was out for so long with hand surgery — but since his return, he’s picked up right where he left off, scoring like crazy and carving out a two-way role for the Niagara IceDogs.

Where Dvorak is tall and fiery and Domi is short and smart, Perlini brings one of the most mature games to the Coyotes future considerations — add in the fact that he’s an absolute giant (no, really, he’s six-foot-two), and he brings more than a few necessary assets to the team’s lineup. While guys like Tobias Rieder and Mark Arcobello are short but speedy, a player like Perlini can balance them out with his sheer size — if he continues to play as aggressively as he has since his return, expect to see the team give him a decent look again this summer.

The only disappointment I have in regards to Brendan Perlini this season is that his injury prevented him from getting a look at the World Juniors this winter. His goal-scoring rate this season has been equivocal to that of Connor McDavid’s since his return to the ice — seeing him with McDavid, Domi, Lazar, and the other offensive prospects this December would have been invaluable.

4. Laurent Dauphin, C

Chicoutimi Sagueneens, QMJHL

Stats: 45 games played, 62 points recorded (26G, 36A)

It’s hard to evaluate the talent of guys in the QMJHL oftentimes, because many of the teams in the Quebec-based major junior league provide a lower quality of competition than their OHL and WHL counterparts. The Chicoutimi Sagueneens are no exception — with poor goaltending and a forgettable roster, they’re in dead last for their division in the Q heading towards the playoffs.

Dauphin has upped his offensive production, though, despite his team’s poor play — and leads his team in scoring by nearly twenty points, despite having played ten fewer games than anyone else on his team.

This is Dauphin’s final year of junior eligibility, so Coyotes fans will see him with either the Portland Pirates or the Coyotes as early as next October. As mentioned above, he’s coming from one of the lower-quality junior systems in North America, so he may need some time to adjust in the AHL — but he’s a two-way player described as a ‘jack-of-all-trades’, something the Coyotes need more of, so fans could see him sooner rather than later in the desert. He’s proven that his tendency not to lag around on the ice isn’t something he’s outgrown as he leaves adolescence behind, something that some junior players start to do as they get older — so if he can translate that level of play to the NHL level, his all-over talent could be valuable.

The best part? On a team that’s struggling to remain defensively responsible (something the Sagueneens share with the Coyotes), his +1 rating is one of the best on his team. The only two players who could be considered more defensively adept than Dauphin are defenseman Carl Tremblay, who is having his best season to date, and forward Samuel Hodhod, who is playing in his overage year and doesn’t seem to project past the CHL.