With Hutton struggling, what is the Coyotes’ goaltending plan?

When evaluating the Coyotes’ goaltending performance through the first five games of the season, remember the ultimate goal. This is a team constructed to finish near the bottom of the standings, if not at the bottom. There are few guys more important to achieving that goal than the guys in goal.

That said, it’s hard for a coach to keep putting a goaltender in net who isn’t even giving his team a remote chance to win. It steals confidence from the team and the skaters often start playing with caution, even timidity. That has been the case with Carter Hutton in goal. In two starts (one from which he was pulled), he has allowed 14 goals to give him a league-worst 8.75 goals against average and a league-worst .702 save percentage among the 60 goalies who had seen action before Saturday’s games.

At times, those unflattering numbers were a product of poor play in front of him, but as the graphic below shows, a lot of times they were not. Before the Coyotes’ 3-0 loss to the New York Islanders at Gila River Arena on Saturday, they had the worst goals saved above expected mark in the NHL.

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Hutton has only played two games, but the extreme results in those games — 8-2 and 7-4 losses — led coach André Tourigny to put rookie Karel Vejmelka back in goal two days after he allowed five goals in a loss to the Edmonton Oilers. 

“He’s been our better goaltender of the two so far and he had a real good camp,” GM Bill Armstrong said Saturday. “As his body of work continues, we’ll see what he can do. He’s big, he’s mobile with good sense so we want to see some more games and hopefully he can steal us a win.” 

In a perfect world, Vejmelka, 25, would serve as a backup in his first season of North American hockey, growing his game and confidence slowly. The 2021-22 Coyotes season is anything but a perfect world, however. It’s more like an alternate universe.

“Vej had a really good game in Buffalo and we got a point with him in net so we decided to give him a shot, give him a chance,” Tourigny said. “He’s not that young. He’s not a 21-year-old kid and the other thing is he’s been a pro before (in the Czech Extraliga). He played a lot of games in a season so we’re not worried about that.” 

Hutton has forced the coaching staff’s hand with that decision, and now he is under pressure to get his game straightened out in a hurry. He already knew that he was facing a major challenge, trying to recapture his game behind a team with a stripped down roster, but an ankle injury on March 22 at Madison Square Garden that ended his final season in Buffalo made that challenge even greater.

“Carter is still trying to get his rhythm; trying to get in shape,” Armstrong said. “Because of the injury, it was a tough grind for him to kind of get back to where he wants to be. He wasn’t able to dive into his game. He’s healthy now and he’s got to find this game again, but he’s been through this before. It’s not his first rodeo.”

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The Coyotes could have put Hutton back in this weekend. He hadn’t played since Monday against the Blues, but the staff decided that a little extra work with goalie coach Corey Schwab and some mental rest this week might do him good.

“I always found when I was with the Blues that if you can give them a little bit of a break to grab a reset, and get back to their game, it always helps us out,” Armstrong said. “If you’re getting pounded every night, team after team after team, when you just can’t find your game, it’s not fun.”

The Coyotes are definitely still focused on getting Hutton’s game back. They have no intention of waiving him, benching him or making any other move that might keep him out of the lineup. Arizona is about to embark on a six-game road trip and Hutton will factor prominently on that trip. Two games is not enough to pull the plug on any experiment, no matter how strong the reaction from analysts and fans.

“It’s always that way with goaltending or pitching, right?” Armstrong said. “It’s early in the season, we’ll see how the body of the work looks after the 10-game, 20-game mark, and we’ll evaluate from there. 

“I think with some goaltenders, you don’t want to put them in situations where they’re uncomfortable and they’ve got to carry the mail all the time. I think it’s a good thing that Vej has stepped up and found his game and had some success, but we’ll see how it moves forward.”

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