With the Arizona Coyotes 2015-16 season complete, it’s time to dive into each player’s performance and make a final tally on how they fared this season.
The Arizona Coyotes group of forwards carried a good-sized contingent of veteran pluggers whom, for better or worse, saw a good bit of playing time in 2015-16.
Kyle Chipchura was one of those veteran plugs eating up an average of 10:13 minutes per night in the Coyotes’ bottom six during 70 of the team’s 82 games this season.
For Chipchura, life in the NHL is about the same thing it has always been since he scratched and clawed his way into the Arizona Coyotes lineup for a long term stay starting in 2011-12.
He’s out there to grind down the opponent, be strong on the forecheck, and very, very occasionally chip in a touch of offense.
Chip’s 2015-16 campaign was mostly uneventful. He bagged 4 goals and 8 assists for a total of 12 points, including delivering the pass on the beautiful goal that you see above. Beyond that, he played a grinder’s game as you would expect.
One notable statistic from the season, however, was #24’s sudden drop in possession.
Over the past couple of years, Chipchura had remained pretty steadily around 50% Corsi For at 5v5 in all situations. This season, however, that number dropped to an abysmal 44.4%. While the whole team was pretty bad at generating shots and holding onto the puck, Kyle Chipchura and Boyd Gordon combined to be by far and away the worst two everyday forwards on the Arizona Coyotes roster in possession.
Unfortunately for the Yotes, they played on the same line together.
Chipchura was also involved in four fights in 2015-16, which is half the amount he engaged in during the 2014-15 season and the lowest total of bouts he’s ever had in an NHL season. Whether that’s a sign of his age (30), or a sign of the times is up in the air. Even when he fought often, he didn’t win a whole lot of those brawls so perhaps he has simply decided to choose his battles more wisely.
The most notable bout of the four for Chipchura was when he took on Alex Petrovic of the Florida Panthers. I say notable loosely, as it’s the only fight of Chip’s this season that Hockey Fights users voted him the victor.
The 6’2 forward made $950,000 this season on the fourth line and it seems conceivable that the Arizona Coyotes may wish to bring him back on a one-year deal at a similar or lesser value for 2016-17.
The possession drop is concerning, but it’s possible that real culprit in Chip’s precipitous drop was Boyd Gordon centering him, and not Kyle Chipchura’s own steady play finally taking a dip. Gordon’s possession stats have been poor for three straight years.
Next: 10 Best Goals From The Second Half Of The Coyotes 2015-16 Season
What happens with Gordon, whom is also an unrestricted free agent, will likely have an impact on Chip’s future in the desert.
I would bet it’s a lock that if Gordon is replaced with the younger, cheaper Tyler Gaudet that we’ll see #24 back in the Arizona Coyotes lineup when the puck drops the first time in 2016-17.