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 traded away one of their favorite sons in February when winger Mikkel Boedker was shipped to the Colorado Avalanche for prospects and Alex Tanguay.
The Danish forward was one of few first round picks by Don Maloney early in his tenure that actually made some semblance of an impact and stuck with the team, though he never quite lived up to his billing.
Boedker became an extremely polarizing player for Arizona Coyotes fans during the 2015-16 season due to his refusal to sign what was rumored to be a longer term contract worth $5M to $5.5M per year.
Some fans felt it was yet another continuation of the Coyotes organization failing to retain it’s key players. Others, such as myself, felt that Boedker’s refusal to sign was a blessing in disguise because his production and underlying statistics did not match up with the pay he was seeking.
Mikkel Boedker played in 62 games for the Arizona Coyotes last season, putting up 13 goals and 26 assists. For a time it appeared like 2015-16 was going to be his breakout season, with 20+ goals appearing to be a virtual certainly…but then Boeds went through a stretch where he scored just 1 goal in 26 games.
His lack of production coincided with rising concerns over his new contract, and his dry spell (among others) is a big part of why the Yotes fell out of the playoff race so hard and fast after staying in the thick of it for so long.
When evaluating #89, a quick glance at his WOWY chart shows us that the majority of his teammates fared better defensively without Boedker on the ice. Less pucks came towards the Coyotes net when he was on the bench, and that no doubt had some part to play in his minus-28 plus/minus rating with Arizona. In most cases you can discount the use of that stat, however Boedker fails both the eye test and the underlying stats back up his one-way playstyle.
It goes without saying that Boeds was a drag on possession. He posted a Corsi For percentage of 45.7% in all situations at 5-on-5 across the 80 games he played in 2015-16. It’s little surprise that Antoine Vermette started being a little more productive with Alex Tanguay on his wing instead of #89.
Mikkel Boedker did have his moments, though.
Carving up the Islanders defense was something special, and the Ottawa Senators never want to play against Boeds again after he netted back-to-back hat tricks against them.
It’s go time for Mr. Boedker this summer. He’s finally a free agent after turning down the Arizona Coyotes and being traded. He made a bet on himself.
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Unless someone wildly overpays, I’d wager he may come up disappointed that he didn’t take the offer he had in the desert.
If he gets paid, though, more power to him. I’m just glad it’s not the Coyotes on the hook for another contract that the player will never live up to.