After being forced to dress a beer-leaguer as their emergency backup in last night’s win over Montreal, the Coyotes have recalled goalie Niklas Treutle from AHL Springfield.
On it’s own, not much of a story.
But within the context of the Coyotes’ insane crease conundrum, pretty interesting.
No. 1 netminder Mike Smith has been out since mid-December following core muscle surgery. Anders Lindback, originally signed to be Smith’s No. 2, suffered some kind of “off-ice injury” yesterday, which forced the club to sign Nate Schoenfeld -- a local amateur ‘tender and son of ex-Coyotes coach Jim -- to back up Louis Domingue.
(Per TSN, the Lindback injury might be serious, and he could be done for the season.)
Domingue, of course, came into this season as Arizona’s No. 3 on the depth chart. Prior to the year, he had a grand total of seven games of NHL experience.
He’s played 23 already this year, and is firmly entrenched as the Coyotes’ starting netminder.
And his new backup is Treutle (pronounced troyt-LAY, in case you were curious), a 24-year-old undrafted free agent that -- prior to signing with the Coyotes -- spent all of his professional career in the German League.
Signed from EHC Red Bull Muchen this offseason, Treutle has spent the ’15-16 campaign exclusively in the Springfield, where he’s gone 9-11-5 with a .909 save percentage and 2.91 GAA.
It’ll be curious to see how long the Domingue-Treutle combo will last. Smith has returned to partial practice and appears on track for a late-February/early-March return, but his timetable has never been very specific.
Whatever the case, life is going to be tough for Domingue and Treutle in the coming days. The Coyotes host the high-octane Dallas Stars this Thursday then, next Monday, head out on a five-game road swing that begins with a date against league-leading Washington.
Niklas Treutle is on way to AZ & won't make practice.
— Arizona Coyotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) February 16, 2016
So, Nathan Schoenfeld will practice w/the team today instead of working at the bank.