Several updates on the Arizona Coyotes have come in today via PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan, news regarding five players. The first bit of information is that trade deadline acquisition Brett Ritchie is returning to the team’s lineup after he missed their game against the Edmonton Oilers with an upper-body injury. Ritchie got off to a hot start in the desert, scoring four points in his first three games, but he was moved off of the team’s top line and received just nine minutes of ice time in Arizona’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks, and has not registered a point since his three-point game on March 12th.
Now presumably back to full health or at least a healthier position, he’ll have the chance to re-enter coach Andre Tourigny’s lineup and put a good string of games together as the Coyotes enter the final stretch of their season. The 382-game veteran is on an expiring league-minimum contract and will be hoping that some quality play will earn him another NHL contract in a few months.
- Coyotes forward Laurent Dauphin is injured and out on a day-to-day timeline. Though the 27-year-old is scoreless through 16 NHL games in Arizona this season, he has been a difference-maker for the Coyotes’ AHL affiliate, scoring 16 goals and 41 points in 45 games. Like Ritchie, he’s on an expiring league-minimum two-way contract.
- Forward Bokondji Imama is being sent down to the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners, per Morgan. He replaced Smith in the lineup for the team’s game against Edmonton and skated in just under seven minutes of ice time. He’s been up and down quite a bit from the NHL and AHL recently and has five total NHL games played in 2022-23. In the AHL, he has 13 points and 96 penalty minutes in 43 games.
- To replace Imama on their roster, Arizona is recalling forward Nathan Smith. The former Winnipeg Jets prospect played in 10 NHL games last season after signing from Minnesota State University but hasn’t gotten onto NHL ice this year. He’s scored 11 goals and 25 points for Tucson, and will now be in a position to test his mettle against NHL competition once more.
- Harvard University was defeated by Ohio State University in the first round of the NCAA’s Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Championship, ending their season. With that loss as a backdrop, Morgan reports that it won’t be a surprise to see one of Harvard’s key players, John Farinacci, “sign quickly” with Arizona. The 22-year-old is a 2019 third-round pick who scored 19 points in 18 games this season as Harvard’s captain and would be expected to play a role in Tucson with the hope of developing into an NHL option.