Arizona Coyotes: Welcome Back Boedker/Hanzal

Arizona Coyotes Really Missed Boedker, Hanzal Last Season

Mikkel Boedker :

He missed 37 games last season due to his spleen needing to be removed surgically. He was on a good pace to score 25 goals and have a breakout season when he fell to his injury. His speed was definitely missed, as he is always a breakaway possibility. The additional speed the Arizona Coyotes will have this coming season, adding Max Domi, and Anthony Duclair will make the team even more dangerous with Boedker back in the lineup.

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The pressure will be on Boedker to perform, especially after receiving a salary hike from $2.8M, to his present contract he just signed of $3.75M. The jury is still out as to why he only signed a one-year contract. He was about to go to salary arbitration when the two sides agreed on his contract terms. Either Boedker wanted too much for a multi-year contract, or perhaps doesn’t feel too secure with the arena lease mess, not knowing for sure where he will be in years to come.

In either case, it will be an asset the team was without for almost half the season, and if Boedker can start out like he did last season, when he scored five goals in his first three games, including this hat trick against the Oilers, things will look bright.

Here’s the stats on Boedker:

Martin Hanzal :

Dec 1, 2014; Edmonton, Alberta, CAN; Arizona Coyotes forward Martin Hanzal (11) skates against the Edmonton Oilers at Rexall Place. Mandatory Credit: Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports

To say the Arizona Coyotes missed the BIG guy is an understatement. His 6′ 6″ frame is hard to miss. I’m sure opponents didn’t miss getting hit by him either. His .65 points a game for the 37 games he played put him at a respectable pace of accumulating about 53 points on a full season schedule. That was just it, he missed so many games that he was not able to help the team, until he finally determined the source of his pain was due to a herniated disc in his back. He missed the equivalent of a full season (82 games) since he started playing full-time during the ’08-’09 season.

Management has been frustrated by Hanzal’s poor health preventing him from contributing to the team’s success.

General Manager Maloney said Hanzal’s back had been getting progressively worse in recent seasons.

“We can’t keep doing this. We have to find a solution,” Maloney said. “He’s still a young man (27). We’ve got to get him better. We need to get him where he’s healthy and can help us win.”

He is expected to make a full recovery, and be ready to play by the start of the upcoming new season. Having both Hanzal and Boedker go down with season-ending injuries surely did not help the team’s quest to make the playoffs. Inserting both of these key players back into the lineup will certainly help the Arizona Coyotes improve offensively. Adding in Max Domi, and Anthony Duclair, and possibly Brendan Perlini and/or Christian Dvorak can only give the team a well needed shot in the arm it was lacking last season.

If Boedker can contribute 20-25 goals, and Hanzal can add another 15-20 goals in addition to his excellent defensive play on key opposing forwards, the Arizona Coyotes expect to have quite a different outcome compared to last season.

I’m all in on that… are you?

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