Arizona Coyotes Rookie Anthony Duclair Scores 20th Goal Of The Season
Arizona Coyotes rookie Anthony Duclair scored his 20th goal of the season on Monday night against the St. Louis Blues.
It has turned into a week of milestones for the Arizona Coyotes and their talented rookies.
Max Domi eclipsed 50 points on Saturday night with a two-point night against the Capitals, and now Anthony Duclair has scored his 20th goal.
The winger’s big goal came in a losing effort against the St. Louis Blues on Monday night thanks to a bit of wizardry from Alex Tanguay and a sublime finish by the Duke himself.
For Arizona Coyotes’ fans, goals like the one Duclair scored on Brian Elliott have become increasingly common since #10 and his buddy #16 entered the lineup full-time at the start of the 2015-16 season.
Duclair scored his 20th goal of the season after stealing the puck in the neutral zone against the St. Louis Blues last night.
Duclair passed it to Tanguay who sauces a nice little touch pass over Joel Edmundson’s stick back to the Duke. From there, #10 went backhand then forward and beat Brian Elliott’s desperation lunge to poke at the puck.
You can’t write them up much prettier than that.
Prior to the 2015-16 season, most Arizona Coyotes fans would’ve given Max Domi a 40-point threshold for a highly productive year, with other probably falling somewhere in the 30 to 40 point range as a guess for Anthony Duclair’s output.
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Flash forward to the end of the campaign and the Duke has 20 goals and 44 points on the season, which has to be considered a success no matter how you measure it. Max Domi is not far behind with 18 goals of his own and 51 points on the season, which is good enough for second on the team.
The pair have shown an uncanny knack for finding each other in open space on the ice, and it’s no surprise that head coach Dave Tippett puts the two on the ice together with Martin Hanzal (when healthy) when the team needs to play catch up.
If there’s one quibble to have with Duclair’s rookie campaign, it has to be his reluctance to shoot the puck.
He has fired just 184 shots on the season and often goes several games where he’s putting just one or zero per night on net, which has left him with a gaudy 19.2% shooting percentage. Duclair trails only Paul Byron (22.9%) and Adam Henrique (19.6%) in shooting percentage for players who have scored at least 10 goals this season.
Odds are a shooting percentage that high is unsustainable over the course of several seasons, however Duclair’s linemate Alex Tanguay has managed to post an impressive 18.6% across 16 seasons, seven of which he scored more than 20 goals.
Next: Max Domi Breaks 50 Point Mark In Superb Rookie Season
Regardless of the sustainability, with a shot like the Duke’s, fans and the Arizona Coyotes’ coaching staff would love to see him put more shots on net.
In the meantime we’ll enjoy these 20 goals and hope he’s aiming for 25 plus next season.