By the numbers: A look at the Coyotes’ 2019-20 season
Aug 27, 2020, 7:33 AM
Conor Garland #83 of the Arizona Coyotes celebrates with teammates on the bench after scoring a goal against the Pittsburgh Penguins during the first period of the NHL game at Gila River Arena on January 12, 2020 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
The Arizona Coyotes got into the playoffs. Soon thereafter, their season was over.
It was a long year, one that saw a months-long coronavirus-caused hiatus halt the Coyotes in their tracks. They resumed it, and now a short offseason awaits.
Reflecting on the 2019-20 season, here are seven subjects to be dissected by numbers, some that are relevant and useful and some that are useless trivia. Make of it what you will:
PENALTY KILL SUCCESS
Arizona finished fifth in the NHL in penalty kill success at 82.7%. Only Carolina, Boston, Edmonton and San Jose were better. It’s the second season in a row the Coyotes were top 5 in the league on the PK, and no team has a higher penalty kill percentage than the Coyotes over the last two seasons. Ironically, it doomed them in the final two games against Colorado in the playoffs.
RELATED STORIES
POWER PLAY STRUGGLES
The Coyotes were 18th in the NHL in power play percentage this season. As unexciting as it is to be in 18th place, it was the first time Arizona’s power play has been ranked inside the top 20 since 2015-16 (20th). The Coyotes haven’t had a top-10 power play since 2014-15 (7th).
BIG SPENDERS
Per CapFriendly, the Coyotes finished with the second-biggest cap hit in the NHL at $85,089,798. That was second only to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
TOP-3 GOALTENDING
The Coyotes had the third-highest team save percentage in the NHL behind only Dallas and Boston. Darcy Kuemper (3rd) and Antti Raanta (7th) each ranked in the top 10 in the NHL in save percentage (min. 25 games played). Two other teams had both of their goalies in the top 15, with Dallas’ Anton Khudobin (1st) and Ben Bishop (9th) and Boston’s Tuuka Rask (2nd) and Jaroslav Halak (11th).
BALLIN’ ON A BUDGET
Conor Garland led the Coyotes in goals with 22 (Christian Dvorak was second with 18) despite being the lowest-paid player on the entire team. Garland is on a deal paying him $775,000 per season and has the lowest cost-per-goal ratio in the NHL by far among players not on entry-level deals, per CapFriendly.
POINT PRODUCTION
Nick Schmaltz led the Coyotes with 45 points. But that was only tied for the 91st-most in the NHL. Ten defensemen had more points than that, and three players (Alex Ovechkin, David Pastrnak and Auston Matthews) had more goals than that. Taylor Hall had 52 points, but only 27 of those were with Arizona.
FAT CHANCE
The Coyotes owned 57.17% of the scoring chances in a game when Dvorak was on the ice, according to NaturalStatTrick. Dvorak’s on-ice scoring chances percentage was the highest on the team, with Taylor Hall and Conor Garland following second and third, respectively. All three of those players started more than 65% of their shifts in the offensive zone.
