The Arizona Coyotes have announced that forward Conor Garland is out week-to-week with a lower-body injury. This is a painful loss as the team fights to remain in fourth place in the West Division. Sportsnet provided the update Thursday afternoon.
Coyotes forward Conor Garland is out week-to-week with a lower-body injury.https://t.co/38sFITGgRG
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 22, 2021
Coyotes Conor Garland Out Week-To-Week
2020-21 has been something of a breakout season for the 24-year-old skater. His 10 goals and 32 points in 45 games aren’t going to win any major awards, but it does translate to a career-best 0.71 points per game. Garland also has a 52.2 percent Corsi For and 5.7 Relative Corsi. It’s a very solid offensive season no matter which offensive metric one wants to use. Some may point out that Garland is succeeding thanks to roughly 64 percent of his zone starts coming in the offensive end, but there’s no debating his jump in productivity.
Arizona originally drafted Garland in the fifth round of the 2015 Draft and may have found a quality middle-six gem with the late selection. He has appeared in 160 NHL games to this point with 45 goals and 89 points while averaging 14:45 minutes per game over three seasons. Garland will never be the top scorer from a class that includes Connor McDavid, but he has already surpassed several contemporaries including Denis Gurianov and Lawson Crouse. There is also plenty of time for him to improve on a good year starting in 2021-22.
How Arizona Replaces Garland
The Coyotes have several options they can use while Garland recovers. Michael Bunting has appeared in 12 games and has an incredible seven goals and eight total points. They may also find an opportunity to reinsert Barrett Hayton into the active lineup. It’s certainly not good that Garland is out during a tight race, but they are not devoid of alternatives.
His absence means that some players will need to shoulder more burden on offence. Expect both Bunting and fellow youngster Lane Pederson to cover some of Garland’s minutes at both regular strength and on the power-play.
Main Photo:
