It came as a shock when forward Dylan Guenther was called up by the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday from the Tucson Roadrunners of the AHL. The big question was: Is Guenther here to stay with the Coyotes or is this just a temporary fix while the team still has a couple players out? Coach André Tourigny talked to the media after practice on Saturday and addressed their plan regarding Guenther. “The situation with Zucker created a situation where we needed what he can bring to our team on the short-term,” Tourigny said about Guenther. “So he is here on the short-term while Zucker is not there. Having said that, he is part of the future for us in the long-term for sure, there is no doubt about it, but in the short-term we will have these two games and then we will take what is the best decision for Guenther from there. 240106_Tourigny_MediaSrcum “We thought last week, the best decision for Guenther was to play in the AHL, so we will see next week if that would have changed. Right now, that is where our minds are at.” This is an interesting choice for the Coyotes to make The 20-year-old has 10 goals, 18 assists and a team leading 28 points in 29 games for the Roadrunners this season. He clearly has been thriving in Tucson as he is playing heavy minutes due to being one of the team’s top forwards which has seemed to help his development. For the Coyotes, they have struggled offensively through the past couple of games. Barrett Hayton is still dealing with an upper-body injury while Jason Zucker has two games left on his three-game suspension. The Coyotes are in dire need of an offensive spark and it’s evident that they want to see what Guenther is capable of in this short time span before Zucker returns. 240106_Guenther Media Scrum By doing this, Arizona will be able to gauge how much Guenther has progressed over the past few months, but also put the young prospect back in the AHL to continue his development, something the organization has been keen on doing. At Saturday’s practice, Guenther was paired up on a line with Matias Maccelli and Jack McBain. Playing alongside a player like Maccelli will take a lot of puck handling duties off of Guenther and he should benefit from playing with a great facilitator. Guenther also practiced on the first power play unit, so he will have a full opportunity to put his skill sets on display. He may not be with the Coyotes for a long time through this stint, but nonetheless it’s still a big opportunity for Guenther who is on the right path to becoming an effective NHL player in the future.
