Arizona Coyotes: Buyer Beware On Mikkel Boedker?

With the Arizona Coyotes looking likely to deal Mikkel Boedker before the trade deadline after failing to convince him to sign a long term deal, should other buyers beware when it comes to the 26 year old forward?

The Arizona Coyotes are likely to part with Mikkel Boedker before Monday’s trade deadline.

Despite their best efforts to sign him to a respectable deal with considerable term, Boedker and his agent have been unwilling to budge.

Their reported demand is $6M per year on a long term deal and it is no surprise the Arizona Coyotes’ front office is balking at that price.

That changes the question from “how do we sign him?” to “what can we get for him?” if you’re general manager Don Maloney. The rumors have circled that though the Coyotes haven’t received an offer of a first round pick, it’s not unlikely that they’ll be able to secure at least that level of asset in trade.

If you’re a team on the market for scoring, however, should you pump the brakes on giving up good assets for Mikkel Boedker?

Dimitri Filipovic of Sportsnet and the PDOcast thinks so.

Yesterday he spoke with Jeff Marek on the Marek vs. Wyshynski podcast about the one trade deadline target he’d be the most concerned about acquiring.

The name he brought up was Arizona Coyotes forward Mikkel Boedker. Filipovic says that the price tag is one reason he is wary of the Dane.

Referencing the contract situation, Filipovic tells Marek, “I mean, in those reports that the Coyotes were trying to work out a long term deal with him because he’s an impending free agent this summer and he was asking for like $6M a year on a long term deal, and…I would be very wary of something like that. I think he’s a perfectly fine player and if he’s playing sort of in your middle six, kind of moving between the second line and the third line, that’s perfectly reasonable and he can be productive.”

It’s interesting to note that Filipovic feels Boedker is a fit in the “middle six” and that he’s a player who should float between the second and third lines. That sounds like someone who should make significantly less than $6M per year.

The conversation moves further along with Dimitri Filipovic stating that, “[Boedker’s] had, it’s just been a perfect storm this year where his counting stats look good, right, like he’s on a career pace for points, for goals, assists…behind that there isn’t much substance to it. I dug up a fun stat on him where I wouldn’t have thought this at all if I hadn’t looked at it.”

“He leads the league in terms of ice time received on the power play for forwards this season. Even ahead of guys like Ovechkin and Stamkos.”

That is a pretty amazing stat when you think about it. Mikkel Boedker, a forward who has never scored 20 goals in a season, has received more power play time than any other forward in the NHL.

That lines up with the Arizona Coyotes being the team who has drawn the most penalties in the NHL, as well. Not only is he getting copious amounts of time on the power play, he’s getting more frequent power play opportunities period.

Thanks to that enormous gift from Dave Tippett his stats have been padded well.