While Dylan Guenther's opportunity with the Coyotes was only supposed to be short term, Josh Doan knew he would not be coming back to the AHL.
Dylan Guenther has been through a lot since being drafted ninth overall by the Arizona Coyotes back in 2021.
Despite playing 33 games for the Coyotes during the 2022-23 season, Guenther spent the majority of his time in the Western Hockey League where he thrived.
This past training camp, it seemed that Guenther would finally make the NHL on a full-time basis, but instead general manager Bill Armstrong opted to send him down to play in the American Hockey League for the Tucson Roadrunners.
In Tucson the 20-year-old proved once again how much his game has grown since being drafted. Through 29 games, Guenther had ten goals, 18 assists and 28 points.
With an opening in the Coyotes’ lineup early in January, Armstrong made the move to call-up Guenther from the Roadrunners.
Originally it was supposed to be just a short term assignment for Guenther, but his Roadrunners teammate Josh Doan knew it would become a lot more than just that.
“If you ask anybody in that locker room, when they said there was kind of a two or three day opportunity, we all kind of chuckled saying he won’t be back,” Josh Doan said on the PHNX Coyotes podcast. “He’s been so good for us and he is so determined to be up there and stick that he’ll get the job done one way or the other.
“We were all pumped because he is a guy that had battled the last year of playing in the NHL and playing in juniors, hoping to start in the NHL and then sending him back to us to work on some things and he stayed positive throughout the whole thing. There is no guy that it is easier to be happy for.”
Doan was exactly right. Guenther ultimately took his opportunity and never looked back.
Through his 19 games with the Coyotes thus far, he’s tallied six goals, five assists and 11 points while standing out as one of the team’s top offensive players.
He plays a valuable role on a line alongside Logan Cooley and most recently was even paired with Clayton Keller which just shows the level of trust coach André Tourigny has in the young forward.
Tourigny also put Guenther on the first wave of the power play where he has become an offensive threat, using his powerful shot.
The future for Guenther is bright in Arizona and he will only continue to develop his game over time.