It was announced Sunday that Arizona Coyotes‘ center Christian Dvorak was assigned to the AHL Tucson Roadrunners for the purpose of conditioning.
The Coyotes will assign center Christian Dvorak to Tucson of the AHL today. The plan is for him to play Wednesday in San Diego against the Gulls and then they will evaluate from there.
— Craig Morgan (@craigsmorgan) February 17, 2019
Christian Dvorak has been on injured reserve since the beginning of the season with a pectoral injury which required surgery.
Christian Dvorak Off To Tucson Roadrunners
He will return where it all started for him in the AHL where he only played two games for the Portland Pirates scoring one goal and one assist.
What This Means For The Arizona Coyotes
It wasn’t immediately announced how long the conditioning stint will last. However, the NHL collective bargaining agreement states that conditioning loans can not last longer than two weeks. The Roadrunners have four games in the next eight days. So, he will get his chance to get back into shape under game conditions.
That means that the Coyotes could have him back in the lineup perhaps before the end of the month.
Christian Dvorak has put up decent numbers over the past two seasons, tallying 70 points with 30 goals to his credit.
He was a prolific scorer while in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) where he accumulated 244 points with 99 goals over three seasons. He just signed a lucrative six-year contract worth $26.7 million.
Injuries Have Decimated the Team
The Arizona Coyotes can definitely use the services of Christian Dvorak. They have had an inordinate number of injuries to key starters. This is especially true since they also lost a talented center Nick Schmaltz to a season-ending injury after just appearing in 17 games with the Coyotes.
With the recent return of center Brad Richardson, the team is finally getting an impression of what it is like to have a full set of centers to put out on the ice.
They went out and acquired Jordan Weal from the Philadelphia Flyers about a month ago. That helped to augment their depleted troops at the center position.
The Playoff Hunt Is On
The on-again, off-again Coyotes are still in the playoff hunt with 24 games remaining. The addition of a talented two-way player like Dvorak must give them some confidence.
The team outplayed the more talented Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night by shutting them out 2-0. Defensive play was the key and Christian Dvorak can certainly help there as well as in the faceoff circle. He has a 49.2 percent success ratio. Puck possession was exactly how the Arizona Coyotes stopped the Maple Leafs.
The Coyotes are now just three points back of a treasured playoff spot. They have two games in hand on the Vancouver Canucks and one on the Minnesota Wild.
It will soon be shown if Christian Dvorak still has what it takes to help his team surge to the playoffs.
It would be nice since the Desert Dogs have not been there since 2011-12. A whiteout would definitely give this franchise a much-needed vote of confidence going forward. It wouldn’t hurt their new ownership bid or new arena construction.
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