Dylan Strome‘s journey to the NHL hasn’t been as smooth as some of his NHL peers.
So as many NHL youngsters are approaching that all-important nine-game mark — after which a season is burned off their entry-level contracts — Strome is still waiting for game No. 4.
Strome made his big-league debut on Oct. 18 against the Ottawa Senators (where he registered his first NHL point — an assist), then played back-to-back nights vs. the Montreal Canadiens and New York Islanders just two nights later. Arizona has since played three games, all of which have seen Strome as a healthy scratch, and so far the expectation is that he’ll sit again Saturday night against the Colorado Avalanche.
“I’m more worried about my fourth game now than my ninth,” Strome said Thursday, according to Craig Morgan of arizonasports.com. “I’m just trying to get my fourth game, fifth game, sixth game — whatever I can to work back in the lineup.”
As is the case with many rebuilding franchises, the Coyotes are taking a patient approach with their prospects. So just because Strome has been watching games instead of playing them, that doesn’t mean management is unhappy with him.
“The belief out there that we’re not happy with Dylan’s game, that’s just not true,” general manager John Chayka told Morgan Thursday. “We’re very excited and happy about the progress he’s made in the last three weeks to a month. He went from a player who has gotten by on talent for a while to becoming one of our hardest workers in practice and that’s a prerequisite to being a top player in the NHL: your work ethic and your level of commitment every day in practice.”
With one of the league’s deepest pools of young talent, the Coyotes have become an increasingly difficult roster to crack.
“You’re trying to balance what’s best for the players and their long-term needs with the needs of the team and where that player is in all of that,” Chayka said.
“You’ve got to define exactly what it is that player’s needs to play at the NHL level and excel and be the player you drafted or acquired him to be,” said Chayka. Then you ask what’s the best place for that development to occur.”
Last year, that place for Strome was with his OHL club, the Erie Otters.
After being selected third overall in 2015, Strome was sent back to the Otters following training camp, where he proved to be a dominant force all year to the tune of 111 points in 56 games. That was the same for the Coyotes’ other developing centremen, Laurent Dauphin and Christian Dvorak — both of whom have also gotten some NHL ice time this year.
“Dvorak and Dauphin and Crouse [who plays on the left wing] can all play farther down the lineup,” head coach Dave Tippett said. “A guy like Strome, for him to play, he’s got to play up to give him what he needs. He’s probably the one guy, for him to do what he can do, he has to play higher in the lineup.”
Another prospect currently toeing the line of junior-vs-pros is defenceman Jakob Chychrun, who has played six games so far. Read more about his journey to the nine-game mark here.
