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WATCH LIVE: Coyotes visit Wild on NBCSN

By Sean LeahyOct 16, 2018, 7:30 PM EST

NBC’s coverage of the 2018-19 NHL season continues with Tuesday night’s matchup between the Arizona Coyotes and Minnesota Wild at 8 p.m. ET. You can watch the game online and on the NBC Sports App by clicking here.

As they look to stop their slow start to the season, the Arizona Coyotes received good news on Tuesday. Alex Galchenyuk, who’s get to play this season since being acquired over the summer from the Montreal Canadiens, practiced with his teammates for the first time since suffering an injury during preseason.

Galchenyuk will likely take over No. 1 duties when he’s completely healthy. For now, he’s been cleared for contact but there’s no timetable for a return.

The Wild traveled home after Monday’s 4-2 loss to the Nashville Predators staring at a 1-2-2 record and last place in the Central Division. Head coach Bruce Boudreau emphasized the imporatance of putting together a few wins together, especially with a weekend back-to-back away at Dallas and at home against Tampa Bay.

“If you look at our schedule, we have to get to .500 quick, and then you have to start moving above .500 if you want to stay in this race,” he said.

What: Arizona Coyotes at Minnesota Wild
Where: Xcel Energy Center
When: Tuesday, October 16th, 8 p.m. ET
TV: NBCSN
Live stream: You can watch the Coyotes-Wild stream on NBC Sports’ live stream page and the NBC Sports app.

PROJECTED LINEUPS

Coyotes
Richard Panik – Derek Stepan – Clayton Keller
Lawson Crouse – Dylan Strome – Christian Fischer
Michael Grabner – Brad Richardson – Nick Cousins
Brendan Perlini – Josh Archibald – Vincent Hinostroza

Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Jason Demers
Alex Goligoski – Jordan Oesterle
Kevin Connauton – Niklas Hjalmarsson

Starting goalie: Darcy Kuemper

[WATCH LIVE – 8 P.M. ET – NBCSN]

Wild
Jason Zucker – Eric Staal – Jordan Greenway
Zach Parise – Mikko Koivu – Mikael Granlund
Nino Niederreiter – Eric Fehr – Charlie Coyle
Marcus Foligno – Matt Hendricks – J.T. Brown

Ryan Suter – Matt Dumba
Jonas Brodin – Jared Spurgeon
Nick Seeler – Greg Pateryn

Starting goalie: Devan Dubnyk

MORE: Your 2018-19 NHL on NBC TV schedule

Coyotes’ Panik arrested for criminal trespassing

Scottsdale Police/ABC 15
By James O'BrienApr 17, 2018, 4:01 PM EST
5 Comments

Arizona Coyotes forward Richard Panik was arrested for criminal trespassing on April 8 and then released with a citation, according to ABC 15.

Panik, 27, reportedly appeared to be intoxicated while refusing to leave the entrance of Scottsdale gastropub Bevvy. The incident reportedly took place around 8:50 p.m. local time.

The Coyotes released a statement to ABC 15 about Panik’s arrest, noting that they “are aware of the incident and still gathering information at this time.” Beyond that, the Coyotes didn’t provide a comment on the matter.

[NBC’s Stanley Cup Playoff Hub]

Panik is currently under contract with the Coyotes through the 2018-19 season. He was traded by the Blackhawks in the deal that sent Anthony Duclair to Chicago. He’s bounced around the NHL quite a bit during his NHL career (335 regular-season games, also 12 playoff contests), spending time with the Lightning, Maple Leafs, Blackhawks, and now Coyotes.

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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.

‘Yotes believe ‘unluckiness’ one of reasons for Panik’s struggles

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By Joey AlfieriJan 11, 2018, 11:36 AM EST
6 Comments

As you’ve probably heard by now, the Arizona Coyotes traded away Anthony Duclair to the Chicago Blackhawks last night. For the most part, fan reaction on social media suggests that the ‘Hawks did pretty well on this trade.

Since the deal went down, PHT has focused on the Duclair angle (stories you can read by clicking here and here), but it’s also important to look at what the Coyotes received for their once promising young forward.

Richard Panik is the piece that will be able to help Arizona the quickest because Laurent Dauphin will be staying in the minors for now. Panik, who had a solid season last year, has struggled pretty badly in 2017-18.

“We feel like some of it this year has just been some unluckiness,” Chayka said, per the Arizona Republic. “We still think he’s playing a well-rounded game, still think he’s doing a lot of good things that he was doing in the past.

“He’s 26 years old, so he’s still a young veteran. But he does provide some veteran experience and takes a bit of a load off some of our younger players … That’s a void we were looking to fill, and we felt that he’d be a good fit for us.”

So, let’s take a look at Panik’s stats from last year (he had 22 goals and 22 assists in 82 games) compared to this year (he has six goals and 10 assists in 37 games).

He opened the 2017-18 season with three goals in his first three games and five goals in his first nine contests. He finally found the back of the net in his last game as a ‘Hawk on Tuesday night, but he went 27 games without a goal. During that time, he was made a healthy scratch five times.

The first thing that jumps out from Panik’s stat line is his low five-on-five shooting percentage , which currently sits at 5.26 percent. Last season, he was firing at 11.76 percent during the same situation. His overall shooting percentage was 14.19 percent last year. This year, that number has dipped to 8.57 percent. Is that unlucky or is that him just coming back down to earth?

The average overall shooting percentage in the NHL last season was 9.2 percent. This year, it’s slightly better at 9.3 percent. That’s not too far off from Panik’s 8.57 mark.

In his defense, his advanced stats have all been better this year. If we take a look at his even-strength stats, the Coyotes forward has seen his CF% rise from 49.53 to 56.76, his FF% has gone from 49.41 to 53.18 and his SF% went from 49.09 to 54.06 this season (stats via Natural Stat Trick)

Those numbers might translate into him scoring with a little more regularity, but it’ll be interesting to see if he can come close to replicating the totals he put up last season.

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Joey Alfieri is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @joeyalfieri.

Sounds like Duclair and Coyotes were both ready for a split

By Adam GretzJan 10, 2018, 8:34 PM EST
12 Comments

A couple of years ago the Arizona Coyotes had a pair of exciting rookies in Anthony Duclair and Max Domi that looked like they could be core building blocks well into the future.

Today, Domi has three goals in 43 games (after scoring nine in 59 games a season ago) and Duclair is now a member of the Chicago Blackhawks following the Wednesday evening trade that sent Richard Panik and Laurent Dauphin to the desert.

For Duclair, it’s a fresh start and an opportunity to rediscover the scoring touch he had during his rookie season while playing for a team that hopes to be a Stanley Cup contender this season.

If nothing else he is going to get an opportunity to play with significantly more talent surrounding him.

[Trade: Could Duclair be Blackhawks’ next great find?]

Shortly after the trade Coyotes general manager John Chayka talked about the move and made it sound as if this was something that had been in the works for quite some time.

“It’s gone back for a few years now, where the team wasn’t particularly happy with the player and the player wasn’t particularly happy with the team,” Chayka said in a conference call, before later adding that there are a lot of factors that go into a trade.

“It’s almost been two years now that I’ve been gauging the interest in Anthony. It’s a tough trade to make since he’s obviously a very talented player. For us, it was just the determination that this was the best time to move forward.”

“There are a lot of things that go into a trade. Some of them are readily apparent. You see Anthony play and his speed and skill is obvious to everyone. There are also some things that I think should stay behind closed doors.”

Obviously, he did not elaborate on what those things were. Just a couple of days before the trade it was reported that Duclair had requested a trade.

Originally acquired as part of the trade that sent defenseman Keith Yandle to the New York Rangers during the 2014-15 season, Duclair burst onto the scene the following season by scoring 20 goals in his first full season in the NHL. He followed that up with a disappointing season in 2016-17 that saw him score just five goals and add 10 assists in 58 games.

So far this season his goal production is back on track to being where it was during his rookie season. His nine goals in 33 games would put him on a 22-goal pace over 82 games.

With Duclair now on his way to Chicago it’s interesting to look back at the Yandle trade just three years later. Along with Duclair, the Coyotes also received defenseman John Moore, a second-round draft pick in 2015 and a first-round pick in 2016. Arizona later traded that second-round pick for a pair of third-rounders (Adin Hill and Jens Looke). The 2016 first-round pick was traded to Detroit as part of the agreement that sent Pavel Datsyuk’s contract to Arizona. Arizona also received Detroit’s first-round pick that season which it used to select defenseman Jakob Chychrun who has a chance to be a pretty outstanding defenseman when healthy.

After Wednesday’s trade, the Coyotes now have Chychrun, Panik, Dauphin, Hill and Looke to show for the Yandle.

Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.

Trade: Could Duclair be Blackhawks’ next great find?

By James O'BrienJan 10, 2018, 6:44 PM EST
9 Comments

A day after the Chicago Blackhawks made Brent Seabrook a $6.875 million healthy scratch, GM Stan Bowman made a move that reminded the hockey world that he’s still one of the NHL’s nimblest minds.

The fact that he made a promising move with the Arizona Coyotes after a Connor Murphy – Niklas Hjalmarsson trade that didn’t work out very well (for either side, really) only adds icing to the cake for Blackhawks fans.

Here are the official terms:

Blackhawks receive: Anthony Duclair and Adam Clendening.

Coyotes get: Richard Panik and Laurent Dauphin.

The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reports that no salary was retained in the trade.

The biggest names here are Duclair and Panik. With LeBrun reporting that no salary was retained in the deal, it seems like it’s either a solid win or a significant win for the Blackhawks; that all depends upon how Duclair handles the change of scenery he requested.

Objectively, Duclair is younger (22) and cheaper than Panik (26). Panik’s cap hit is $2.8 million through 2018-19, while Duclair is a pending RFA with a $1.2M cap hit. The negative side is that Duclair could play exceptionally well and drive up his price, but the struggling Blackhawks would gladly deal with that “problem,” much like they were generally happy to deal with Artemi Panarin being so darn effective.

At the moment, Duclair’s production is more Panik-like than Panarin-like, mind you. There’s actually little separating Duclair’s numbers (15 points in 33 games) from those of Panik (16 points in 37 games).

Duclair’s potential, however, is what makes him very intriguing, especially for a Blackhawks team that’s found more than a few diamonds in the rough over the years.

If you’re a Blackhawks fan who’s already pleased with some elements of the deal, Sportsnet’s Jonathan Willis might make you downright giddy, as he pegged Duclair as the possible hidden gem of the trade market just yesterday:

Duclair looks pretty good at first blush. Last season, which was a mammoth disappointment, he still outperformed the team average. Over 172 games with one of the league’s worst teams, Duclair has actually been on the ice for more goals for than against, which is difficult to do. It’s a massive achievement: Arizona’s goal differential improves by almost a full goal for every hour Duclair plays versus every hour he doesn’t.

While his 2016-17 season was brutal at times, you don’t have to dig into fancy stats to find the only reasons to be excited. Duclair scored 20 goals in 2015-16, his first full season in the NHL, after being involved in the Keith Yandle Rangers trade. His 19-percent shooting percentage indicates there was some luck there, but he was very young, and still is at 22.

Now, the Blackhawks have some problems, and Duclair isn’t the defenseman they likely need the most. There’s also a chance that he’d provide the same production as Panik, as it’s worth doubling back that they’re near equals in at least the simplest stats right now.

Still, there’s an undeniable “nature versus nurture” element to this that could make it very exciting to see how a seemingly more skilled, inarguably younger player might do with more talented people around him. Not to mention a change of pace.

And, hey, at minimum he saves cash-strapped Chicago some money.

You might say Bowman’s back, although he’s been doing this for years.

Also:

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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.