Radim Vrbata is leading the Arizona Coyotes in many offensive categories.
Raise your hand if you thought Radim Vrbata would be leading the Arizona Coyotes in points.
I don’t see many hands raised out there.
After re-signing with the Coyotes in the offseason, there were rumblings that Vrbata was past it.
He’d seen better days.
Vrby was coming off of a season where he had scored just 13 goals and pitched in 14 assists for the Vancouver Canucks. It was his worst full season since 2003 in Carolina.
Returning to the desert seems to have rejuvenated the winger, however.
With the team struggling for points in the standings and goals on the ice, Vrbata is the one constant who keeps plugging away now that Max Domi is out with injury.
The 35-year-old Czech has put up 8 goals and 14 assists for 22 points.
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He holds the team lead in all categories.
His next closest challengers are Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who has went through his own slump this season, and Max Domi, who was also producing well before injuring his hand while fighting Garnet Hathaway and being forced to miss extended time.
Vrbata also leads the team in shots by a large margin and is shooting lower (7.5%) than his career average of 9.2% which suggests there may yet be room to grow.
Radim Vrbata is also one of three Arizona Coyotes (Tobias Rieder and Jordan Martinook being the others) who seem to influence things in a positive direction on the ice regardless of what line combo they are placed with.
It’s fair to argue that without #17, the Yotes may well be looking up at the Colorado Avalanche instead of down.
His offensive contributions have kept the team afloat in the 11 wins and five overtime losses it has earned points in.
If everything else happened exactly as it has, the Coyotes would likely be facing their worst season in franchise history without Vrbata.
That’s quite a bit of value achieved by John Chayka on a $3.25M contract.
It certainly looks much better than the $4M per year winger that was signed in San Jose this past offseason.
For the Arizona Coyotes to be successful moving, other players will need to step up offensively.
Chief among them is OEL, and the return of Max Domi will surely help matters.
In the meantime, Radim Vrbata will keep being the old guy showing the young guns a thing or two.
Oh, and he doesn’t want to hear any more about being washed up.
