With Valentines right around the corner, I figured this would be a great opportunity to shed love on some deserving Coyotes’ who have been flying under the radar. The players on this list have been thriving in one or more advanced statistics. The Coyotes who deserve some love during this Valentine’s season are:
Jack McBain
McBain plays a great physical game and brings a lot of grit onto the team. This is evident as he leads the team with 179 hits, which is also 8th among all skaters this season.
Barret Hayton
Among all Coyotes’ regular centers, Hayton is the only player with a faceoff win percentage above 50%. Hayton has a 50.8% faceoff win percentage, and Bjugstad is the next most successful center with 47%. Aside from being the most consistent Coyote in faceoffs, Hayton leads the team in penalties drawn with 22 and net penalties with 10, meaning that he drew 10 more penalties than penalties taken. His 22 penalties drawn are tied for 14th in the NHL.
Lawson Crouse
Not only is Crouse on track to set a new career high in goals, but his shooting percentage has also been on fire. He has the highest shooting percentage on the team, with 18.7%. This is very noteworthy as most elite NHL shooters have a shooting percentage of above 15%.
Nick Schmaltz
Schmaltz is currently tied with Clayton Keller for the team lead in takeaways with 29, despite playing 16 fewer games than Keller and averaging one minute less of ice time per game. Among all regulars, Schmaltz leads the team with 2.41 takeaways per 60 minutes. Similar to Crouse, Schmaltz’s shooting percentage has also been on fire, as he currently has a shooting percentage of 17.1%.
Josh Brown
Brown is not afraid to throw his body in front of a puck. This is exemplified as he currently leads all regular skaters with 6.48 blocked shots per 60 minutes.
Nick Bjugstad
Bjugstad has been a steal for the Coyotes this season. For only $900,000, Bjugstad has been outperforming his contract and is due for a pay raise next season. According to CapFriendly, Bjugstad has the lowest cost per goal (salary divided by the number of goals) with $69,230 and has the second lowest cost per point (salary divided by the number of points) with $39,130 behind Mattias Macceli.
The Morning Skate 