Louis Domingue hasn’t changed the way the Arizona Coyotes see their goaltending depth chart.

They say the top goaltender on their team is still injured veteran Mike Smith.

But they also want to watch their current netminding situation play out with Smith still shelved after surgery for a core muscle issue.

That’s because Domingue, a 23-year-old rookie who started the year with the team’s AHL affiliate in Springfield, has taken over the starting role in Smith’s absence and pushed the young Coyotes to a higher level in the standings. His overall play has solidified Arizona’s playoff position and given the Coyotes a strong goaltending asset for the future.

Through 12 games, Domingue is 7-2-3 with a 2.21 goal-against average and .928 save percentage. The Coyotes currently have 49 points, three ahead of the Vancouver Canucks for the final Pacific Division playoff spot in the Western Conference.

“Mike is still our top goalie. He’s done it, he’s proven it. We’re hopeful we get Mike back before the end of the year. All this does is just gives us, hopefully another good, young player that can fit in the NHL for us and fits into our plan going forward,” Arizona general manager Don Maloney said. “He’s another good young player we can use. People get caught up with, ‘Is Mike our number one?’ And stuff like that. We’re going to play whoever gives us the best chance to win. Rather than going outside the organization, we know when we look at Louis, he’s played really well. If he can keep this up as long as he can it certainly is beneficial to all of us.”

Domingue’s season with the Coyotes at the NHL level almost didn’t happen. After the team signed Anders Lindback in the summer Domingue reportedly looked into playing in Europe. He wanted a one-way contract and knew he wasn’t going to get one with the Coyotes for this season.

Instead in early September, the 6-foot-3 Domingue, who was picked in the fifth-round of the 2010 draft by Arizona spoke with Maloney himself about the contract. He believed it was best to stay in Arizona’s system under the watch of their coaches this season and he wanted to personally tell Maloney. Domingue eventually settled on a two-way contract.

“I wanted to be a part of the youth movement we have with the Coyotes,” Domingue said. “The future is bright in Arizona. I wanted to be a part of that. I knew I could do it, and maybe they didn’t think I could do it this year. But I’m down the road here now and I’m glad I called them.”

The Coyotes knew they had a good player in Domingue, but they didn’t expect this type of prolific play. He had a 2.55 goal-against average and .919 save percentage in 13 games with Springfield this season. Last year, Domingue had a 2.73 goal-against average and .911 save percentage in seven games with the Coyotes.

He had been in their system for several years, but didn’t make much of a jump until this year because of his conditioning. Maloney said Domingue has taken his workouts more seriously, which has led to higher success

“With Louis I’ve seen a huge change with his work ethic, in practice and in the gym,” Maloney said. “I’ve said this publicly before – maybe it was serving as Mike Smith’s backup last season or a natural maturing he said ‘if I put in the time and work on the ice in practice, off the ice in the gym and come in focused on what I can control, I can play in the NHL.’”

Domingue attributes a lot of his current success to former Coyotes goaltending coach Sean Burke, who is known for working well with taller netminders. Burke left over the summer to pursue an NHL management position, but a lot of the lessons he taught Domingue still stick.

“He helped me start in the NHL last year when I got my first taste. It was good for a lot of things,” Domingue said. “We worked on getting deeper in net and I really found my comfort zone there.”

Maloney described Arizona’s goaltending as “somewhat inconsistent” before Domingue took over. In 22 games played, Smith was 10-9-1 with a 3.06 goal-against average and .901 save percentage. Lindback was 5-5-1 with a 3.11 goal-against average and .893 save percentage.

Smith’s contract for the Coyotes often brings questions. His deal runs through 2018-19 at a $5.66 million salary cap hit. He’ll be 34 in March and put up similar goal-against average and save percentage numbers in 2013-14. If Domingue keeps this up, it’ll be hard to not play him. At very least, he’s earning a one-way deal for next year.

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