Sept. 24, 2022 | 5:00 PM MST | INTRUST Bank Arena, Wichita, Kan.
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Wichita, meet the NHL.
The Arizona Coyotes open their preseason slate against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday at INTRUST Bank Arena, home of the ECHL’s Wichita Thunder, in what is the first-ever NHL game in the city. Wichita, which has a population of just under 400,000 residents, is the state’s largest city.
The Coyotes, working with an expanded 53-player roster as training camp kicked off, will send a team that’s a mixture of veterans, rookies, and players on a tryout. The team has just a few weeks to trim that to 23.
Arizona will take the ice under second-year head coach André Tourigny, who guided the Coyotes to a 25-50-7 record in his first year at the helm. The team showed true growth under the guidance of Tourigny last season, and finished the year with three straight wins – all over playoff-bound teams.
Saturday’s roster is expected to feature a few of the Coyotes’ 2022 NHL Draft picks, including forward Conor Geekie (Round 1, 11th overall), forward Julian Lutz (Round 2, 43rd overall), and defenseman Maksymilian Szuber (Round 6, 163rd overall ). All three had strong showings in last weekend’s NHL Rookie Faceoff Tournament.
Geekie, who recorded 24 goals and 46 assists in 63 games with the WHL’s Winnipeg ICE last season, will be getting his first taste of NHL-caliber play against the Blues. He also had one goal and one assist in three games at the rookie tournament last week.
“I want him to soak it in and learn from all of our great pros we have,” Tourigny said after the first day of training camp on Thursday. “The NHL is a tough league, it’s every day, and every day you need to be at your best. You cannot coast through a day.”
Player to Watch: Keep an eye on forward Zack Kassian, who will be making his Coyotes debut. The gritty forward was acquired from Edmonton during the 2022 NHL Draft, and had 19 points in 58 games with the Oilers last season. He seems to be a The team with a natural fit given Arizona’s hard-nosed style of play.
A LOOK AT THE BLUES
St. Louis is opening its preseason slate as well. The Blues made it to the second round of the playoffs last season, where they fell to the Colorado Avalanche in six games. They beat the Minnesota Wild in six games in the first round.
St. Louis is expected to feature a roster that includes a pair of first-round selections: Forwards Jake Neighbors (2020, 26th overall) and Zachary Bolduc (2021, 17th overall). Bolduc recorded 99 points in 65 games with the QMJHL’s Québec Remparts last season, and then chipped in eight goals and four assists in 12 playoff games.
Neighbors, meanwhile, played alongside Coyotes prospect Dylan Guenther as captain of the WHL champion Edmonton Oil Kings last season. He recorded 45 points in 30 regular season games before adding 17 points in 19 playoff contests.
Neighbors also played nine NHL games with the Blues throughout the months of October and November last season, notching a goal and an assist in the process.
Player to Watch: Forward Logan Brown, a former first-round pick (2016, 11th overall), who played in a career-high 39 games with the Blues last season. He recorded four goals and seven assists over that span.
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