Arizona Coyotes Player Grades: Louis Domingue

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 lost Mike Smith to long term injury in December and were left with an uncertain situation in net.

Despite not being the first choice of former general manager Don Maloney and head coach Dave Tippett, Louis Domingue arrived in the desert from Springfield and put the team on his back for a month and a half.

He proved to be a huge boost to a team that nearly lost him to Europe over the summer.

The Quebec native stole the hearts of Arizona Coyotes fans after his arrival, with chants of “LOUUUU!” ringing out around Gila River Arena every time he made a big save. Coyotes game ops even got into the act with “Louie/Louis” themed music and video.

Domingue took what appeared to be a fatal blow to the team’s season and backstopped his way to the NHL’s Rookie of the Month award for January with a 6-3-2 record in his starts and a .925 save percentage.

At the time of the award, Domingue had a pretty stellar .924 save percentage and two shutouts in 17 outings.

Unfortunately, Louis’ season (as well as the Coyotes) went on a downhill trajectory from that point forward.

The rookie netminder found himself getting shelled and the Arizona Coyotes falling out the playoff race in February. More concerning than the sudden slump, however, were the mental lapses that led to an inordinate amount of soft goals and even a couple of pure laughers like the Dustin Brown goal below:

In hindsight, we can infer that in December and January Domingue was playing a little above his head. We can also probably note that his February slump was as much about fatigue and the porous defense in front of him as it was his own flaws.

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While he finished the season with a disappointing .912 save percentage in 39 appearances, the Arizona Coyotes may have found a partner for Mike Smith that will not only push the veteran goaltender, but who can also step in and perform admirably when needed.

With a diminished workload and a little more experience, it’s fair to speculate that Domingue will be improved in 2016-17.

It’s not a certainty, however.

Louis Domingue’s $605,000 two-way contract is up and he’s a restricted free agent. Odds are he’s seeking a one-way contract and a bit of a pay raise to stay with the Coyotes.

Unless new general manager John Chayka is planning on making some kind of splash this offseason in the goaltending department, he should lock Domingue up for another year or two.

With Smith and Domingue in tandem next season, the Arizona Coyotes should be much improved on the back-end compared to what was essentially three months (October, November, and February) of goaltending abyss in 2015-16.

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He was a pleasant surprise last season. Hopefully he and the coaching staff can build on that in 2016-17.

Domingue deserves to return based on his play and his promise. Also, who doesn’t love shouting “LOUUUU!”?