Arizona Coyotes Player Grades: Kevin Connauton

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 roster lacked a lot of steady talent on the blue line in 2015-16. More than a few names filled in throughout the season to varying degrees of success.

Kevin Connauton was claimed by former general manager Don Maloney off the waiver wire from the Columbus Blue Jackets in January. At the time the claim on Connauton was seen as a fairly shrewd move by Maloney, with Connauton looking to challenge struggling Nicklas Grossmann for playing time.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, it wasn’t quite that simple.

Maloney then went, possibly at the NHL’s behest, and traded enforcer John Scott to the Montreal Canadiens in an ill-advised attempt to bury the lede (and Scott himself) regarding Scott leading the All-Star vote. That trade returned big defenseman and former first-rounder Jarred Tinordi to the Arizona Coyotes, muddying the team’s defensive plans even further.

As time passed on, Tinordi was busted for violating the league’s Performance Enhancing Substances Program and suspended 20 games. Meanwhile, Connauton played spot duty and eventually filled in admirably for Oliver Ekman-Larsson during the Swede’s absence due to injury.

Connauton scored just 4 goals and tallied only 5 assists in his 38 games in the desert. Despite that, he did show flashes of offensive brilliance when given the opportunity.

Connauton also helped some of his teammate’s ability to drive play. However, his WOWY chart (with-or-without-you) shows us that shots actually tended to come at the Arizona Coyotes more heavily with #44 on the ice.

For Kevin Connauton, things were particularly brutal whenever he was paired with the aging Zbynek Michalek. He fared the best when paired with blossoming young defenseman Connor Murphy during OEL’s absence. This lines up with what we saw with our eyes, as well. Connauton appeared to step in seamlessly for Ekman-Larsson and provide a fairly respectable imitation of the Arizona Coyotes’ best player.

The amount of shots coming towards the Yotes’ net with Connauton on the ice is a touch concerning, but is also mitigated to some degree by the partners he was paired with. Michalek is not the defender he was in the past. Michael Stone had a breakout season offensively, but he’s not a particularly strong defender either.

When paired with those two Coyotes, Kevin Connauton, whom is an offensive defenseman himself, was already starting on the back foot.

Kevin Connauton is a restricted free agent. His future with the team will be up to whomever takes over as the Coyotes new general manager.

Next: Arizona Coyotes 2015-16 Player Grades: Kyle Chipchura

I’m unsure if Connauton will ever be more than a bottom pairing defenseman. It seems unlikely.

Based on the 38 game sample size we received in 2015-16, however, I would argue it’s in the Arizona Coyotes best interest to allow him to continue in their bottom pairing next season.