Next, next, next man up: Injuries create roster challenges for Coyotes, Roadrunners

After practice on Thursday, a reporter asked Coyotes coach André Tourigny how difficult it has been to fill out a roster with all of the recent injuries that the Coyotes have sustained.

“You think we have a challenge?” Tourigny said, turning his attention to his AHL cohort. “Talk to (Tucson Roadrunners coach) Jay (Varady). You will see what a challenge is.”

The challenge became greater for both the Coyotes and Roadrunners coaching staffs when Clayton Keller sustained a broken femur late in a 5-2 win against the San Jose Sharks at Gila River Arena.

With Keller lost for the season, the Coyotes have 10 players out of the lineup. Entering Friday’s game against the Anaheim Ducks, Arizona had lost 442 man games to injury or illness which ranked sixth in the NHL per mangameslost.com. 

Keller, Lawson Crouse (also out for the season), Christian Fischer, Jakob Chychrun and J.J. Moser were all lost within the past three weeks, forcing a rash of recalls from Tucson. Forwards Hudson Fasching, Michael Carcone, Jan Jeník, defensemen Cam Dineen and goaltender Josef Kořenář were all recalled in March and are on the current Coyotes roster.

Those recalls have, in turn, put a major strain on the Roadrunners roster.

“I think as we speak today, there were nine players who were in Tucson’s opening night lineup that are up with the Coyotes right now,” Coyotes assistant GM and Roadrunners GM John Ferguson Jr. said. “Listen, nobody likes to use injuries as an excuse because it needs to be anticipated, it needs to be controlled for, and it needs to be in your planning, but this has been outside of that planning. I have a lot of years of experience and I have never seen a situation to this extent.”

It’s not as if the Roadrunners have enjoyed a clean bill of health to absorb all of these losses.

Forwards Ryan McGregor, Hudson Elynuik and Liam Kirk are currently out with injuries and the Roadrunners have dealt with recent injuries to forward Terry Broadhurst (returned Friday, missed three straight games); forward Blake Speers (returned Friday, missed 13 straight); defenseman Victor Söderström (returned Saturday, missed 17 straight); and defensemen Ty Emberson and Cole Hults, who both returned earlier in March.

Couple that with all of the recalls and the Roadrunners have had to search far and wide for players to fill out their roster. Unlike the Coyotes, those players do not arrive with a knowledge of the current systems and philosophies in place. That presents a challenge both in creating chemistry with teammates and in continuing the development of key prospects in such a chaotic environment.

“ATOs, PTOs, you name it, and not just from our ECHL affiliate in Rapid City, who have been a great partner for us,” Ferguson said. “They simply don’t have the manpower to supply all that we’ve needed. We’ve looked elsewhere in the East Coast Hockey League and outside of it, based out of necessity.”

Recent Roadrunners reinforcements (courtesy of Roadrunners media relations)
F Anthony Rinaldi, PTO, Greenville, ECHL (added 2/20, released 3/21)
D Andrew Nielsen, PTO, Utah, ECHL (added 2/23)
D Quinn Wichers, PTO, Rapid City (added 2/27, returned 3/9, added 3/15, returned 3/29)
F Zack Andrusiak, PTO, Cincinnati, ECHL (added 3/3, released 3/9)
F Stephen Baylis, PTO, Rapid City, ECHL (added for third time this year on 3/13)
F Mitch Lewandowski, PTO, Michigan St., (added 3/9)
F Phil Lagunov, PTO, Vermont, (added 3/17)
F Colin Theisen, PTO, Arizona State (added 3/21)

New Coyotes goalie Harri Säteri has arrived in Arizona. Once he gets some practice time under his belt, the Coyotes should be able to return Kořenář to Tucson, but with a two-game trip coming to Chicago and St. Louis on back-to-back nights, the Coyotes may need to recall Ivan Prosvetov to play in one of those games. 

If the injuries keep coming, the coaches and managers will have to find more creative solutions and more young players will have opportunities to make impressions in an extreme version of next-man up.

“At training camp, you look at your lineup and you move players around. ‘That’s the player we have now. How can we maximize that group? How can we make that group of players better?’” Tourigny said. “That’s what we do every day for 82 games. We just change the puzzle of the players and we ask ourselves, ‘Who can fill that role? Who can play in that situation.’”

With Crouse and Keller out of the lineup, one of those situations is the penalty-killing unit where both logged significant minutes. The new players in the lineup may get a crack at filling those roles, and so might some other Roadrunners who have yet to be recalled. Ferguson said that forwards Ben McCartney, Boko Imama and Blake Speers are all possibilities. Maybe Söderström, Cam Crotty or Ty Emberson will get a look on the blue line. 

“It’s a huge credit to individuals who have come up and filled those roles, but also to the organization developmentally, and that shouldn’t go unnoticed,” Ferguson said. “As great a challenge as it has been, it does represent a great opportunity for us and for those players. It’s encouraging to see how everybody has responded.”

Top photo: Forward Jan Jeník (Getty Images)

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