Arizona Coyotes All-Star Break Grades – Conor Garland
By Jim Lynch
Conor Garland is one of the best goal scorers the Coyotes have had recently. I know Phil Kessel was brought in to save the Coyotes this offseason, but if this all-star break grade proves anything it is that Garland is our guy.
Conor Garland has a knack for finding the right pieces of ice in the game. I don’t want to belittle him as a player or anything along those lines, he is very talented and is playing great, but I think his biggest talent is his hockey IQ.
Garland is finding open ice at the right time and is capitalizing on great passes and plays from linemates, however, he is also dishing out those great passes. Garland has 16 goals and 12 assists so far this season. While his scoring pass has slowed a little as of late, that is not changing the fact that he is incredibly talented at scoring goals when needed.
The former 2015 5th round pick, started scoring out of nowhere, and honestly, fans and media alike need to stop calling him a breakout player and just consider him one of the team’s top guys. Just look at his numbers so far in his career.
| Scoring | Goals | Assists | Shots | Ice Time | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Age | Tm | Lg | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | EV | PP | SH | GW | EV | PP | SH | S | S% | TSA | TOI | ATOI | FOW | FOL | FO% | BLK | HIT | TK | GV | Awards |
| 2018-19 | 22 | ARI | NHL | 47 | 13 | 5 | 18 | 1 | 12 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 118 | 11.0 | 179 | 601 | 12:47 | 10 | 8 | 55.6 | 17 | 33 | 25 | 10 | |
| 2019-20 | 23 | ARI | NHL | 50 | 16 | 12 | 28 | 4 | 12 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 116 | 13.8 | 189 | 680 | 13:36 | 1 | 3 | 25.0 | 18 | 20 | 21 | 15 | |
| Career | 2 yrs | NHL | 97 | 29 | 17 | 46 | 5 | 24 | 22 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 10 | 7 | 0 | 234 | 12.4 | 368 | 1281 | 13:12 | 11 | 11 | 50.0 | 35 | 53 | 46 | 25 |
Provided by Hockey-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/21/2020.
Because of how well Conor Garland has been, and because of how well he is going to continue to be alongside players like Taylor Hall and Christian Dvorak I am giving Garland an A- grade for his play so far this season. He leads the team in goals, not Phil Kessel, the alleged offensive weapon brought in this offseason!
It’s hard to imagine a time where the Coyotes did not have Conor Garland on their team tearing things up. He got hot last season towards the end of the season, and he just continues to improve as he goes along. I just hope that John Chayka continues to get talent to play with Garland and make him better.
We still have a long way to go this season, and if the Coyotes are to succeed they are going to need Garland to bring his A-game the rest of the way! Here is to Garland continuing to increase his shooting percentage past 13.8% this season!