Coyotes' Mikkel Boedker has plenty of motivation

In the aftermath of such an ugly season for the Coyotes, the list of candidates for a resurgence is lengthy.

Goalie Mike Smith wants to remind everyone that he can once again anchor the Coyotes' plan for tight, defensive hockey. Center Martin Hanzal is ready to show his back can withstand the rigors of an 82-game season. And captain Shane Doan is eager to prove he can still be an effective contributor even as he’s closing in on his 39th birthday.

But one of the more motivated Coyotes might be winger Mikkel Boedker, who has identified plenty of reasons he’s primed to showcase his best in 2015-16.

“I want to help this team in the right direction, and I want to help myself in the right direction so those things go together,” he said. “Obviously with a contract year coming up again, it puts extra pressure on you and you want to improve and you want to prove that you’re worthy of your next contract. So it’s an important year for me and for this team, and I’ll do anything I can do to help us out.”

Let’s start with Boedker’s health, which interrupted what was evolving into perhaps his best offensive season.

He took a hit during a game Jan. 18 in Winnipeg against the Jets that damaged his spleen, requiring surgery to remove it. Boedker was sidelined for the remainder of the season, and another month of rehab awaited him when he departed the Valley for the offseason – exercises to strengthen and, essentially, teach his abdominal muscles how to work again. He’s back to his former self, just minus a spleen.

“There hasn’t been any issues, so that’s a real positive,” Boedker said.

Before the injury, Boedker led the Coyotes with 14 goals (his career high is 19) and had five goals in a four-game span earlier that month. The challenge for him will be to regain that productiveness and sustain it.

“To get your game at a level where every night the other team knows you can have an impact on the game, young players it takes a while to get to that,” coach Dave Tippett said. “But young, top players, that’s what they strive for and that’s what he wants to be.”

Then there’s his contract status.

Boedker will be up for a new deal after this season, and he will be eligible to start negotiating with the Coyotes in January after the two sides agreed to only a one-year commitment worth $3.75 million during the offseason. The city of Glendale reneged on its 15-year agreement with the Coyotes while Boedker and the Coyotes were in talks, but Boedker said that instability wasn’t the main reason he chose a one-year deal since the privilege of playing in the NHL is enough incentive for him.

If Boedker and the Coyotes don't re-up for next season before July 1, he'll become an unrestricted free agent.

“I think negotiating over seven months is not ideal,” he said. “ … Once you have unrestricted market looming next year, I think it makes sense to have me have an option to take that. But that being said, we can always work out a deal here in January so nothing is done or anything. I’m a Coyote and I love being here. I love it here.”

And aside from proving he’s worthy of a new deal that suits him, Boedker wants to be part of the Coyotes’ solution.

That sense of ownership is a valuable commodity, one that could certainly help spur the Coyotes on to better results this season.

“I want to be a part of it. I want to be a positive in it,” Boedker said. “I think that’s what we all want. We all want to be the difference makers. ... I think that was the hardest part last year. Even though they lost a lot of games, I would much rather be in it losing with them than being on the outside. I think obviously we all want to see where this goes, but it’s on us in the room. It’s not on the fans or anyone else.

“The only people that can control it is us in the room, and we have to pull together as a team and as a unit and make sure that it goes the right direction.”

Reach the reporter at sarah.mclellan@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8276. Follow her at twitter.com/azc_mclellan.