Christian Dvorak is perfect for the Rangers
By Steve Paulus
As the New York Rangers keep searching for a solution to their problem at center, there is one name that keeps coming up. Christian Dvorak of the Arizona Coyotes is rumored to be available and if he is, he is a perfect fit for the Rangers. The question is, what would it take to get him?
First, let’s get into Dvorak and why he is such a good fit.
Meet Christian Dvorak
Christian Dvorak is a 25-year-old left shot center from Palos, Illinois. He was a second round pick of the Arizona Coyotes in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft. He is 6’0″, 195 pounds and has played five seasons in the NHL.
He is a product of the Ontario Hockey League, a prolific scorer for the London Knights. In his last two years in junior hockey he scored 93 goals and 137 points in 125 games. In the OHL playoffs over those two years he scored 19 goals and 48 points in 28 games.
With the Coyotes he has 67 goals and 146 points in 302 games. He’s made the playoffs only once, getting into nine games in the 2020 playoffs when he tallied two goals and three points.
He peaked with 18 goals and 38 points in 2019-20, but this shortened season, he registered the best goals per game (0.30) and points per game (0.55) numbers of his career.
Of interest to the Rangers is his ability in the faceoff circle. He has a lifetime winning percentage of 51.5% and hasn’t been under 50% since his rookie season. In the playoffs, he didn’t do as well, winning only 57 of 134 faceoffs (42.5%).
in 2020-21 he led all Arizona forwards in ice time, averaging 18:24 minutes per game. He also led all Coyotes centers in power play ice time and was a regular on the second penalty killing unit. His even strength Corsi For percentage of 46% was not great, but the Coyotes were a bad team. The prior year, when they made the postseason, his CF% of 51.3% was second best on the team.
He’s also sturdy, missing time in only one season. He played only 20 games in 2018-19, missing 58 games because of a pectoral injury. The other four seasons he missed a total of eight games.
Apart from his attributes as a player, he also has four more years to go on a contract with an AAV of $4.45 million that will take him through the 2024-25 season. . If he improves,that will be a very favorable contract for any cap strapped team.
Is he available?
Ordinarily, a player like Dvorak would be an untouchable, but Arizona General Manager Bill Armstrong has been busy this off-season and has shown no reluctance to part with proven assets. He’s already traded defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and forward Connor Garland to Vancouver, and Darcy Kuemper to Colorado,
Arizona is in full rebuild mode and they are stockpiling draft picks. They have an incredible seven picks in the first two rounds of the 2022 draft. Armstrong has shown no hesitance to trade to build for the future. He was able to pry Conor Timmins from Colorado in the Kuemper trade. Timmins was the Av’s best defense prospect, a 22-year-old who was the 32nd overall pick in 2017.
They retained salary in the trades with Vancouver and Colorado and also took on the contracts of Andrew Ladd and Loui Eriksson.
To makes matters interesting, there have been numerous reports that Dvorak could be had and a number of teams are interested including the Rangers. The teams mentioned include Ottawa, Pittsburgh, Vegas, Minnesota, Calgary, Montreal, San Jose and Boston.
On his latest 31 Thoughts podcast, Elliotte Friedman talked about why Dvorak is attractive, calling him “a physical banging center who can get points. Those guys are hard to find. There’s lots of teams out there that really like him.”
The downside is the many teams interested. When David Krejci decided to return to the Czech Republic, the Bruins became a contender. Teams like Minnesota and Ottawa have the cap space and the Senators have the prospects to deal.
What would it take?
One report is that it would take a first round pick and a prospect, but that seems too good to be true. In that case, the Rangers could swap next years’ pick (lottery protected) and Ryan Strome along with a top defense prospect like Zac Jones or Matthew Robertson.
If they really believe that Dvorak is the answer, would they be willing to swap a top prospect like Braden Schneider or even Nils Lundkvist? If Arizona insisted on Filip Chytil it would still leave Strome available to be traded.
One intriguing factor is with the trade of Darcy Kuemper, the Coyotes are badly in need of goaltending. They signed 35-year-old Carter Hutton and also traded for 23 year old Josef Korenar of the Sharks. Hutton is getting old and Korenar has played all of 10 games in the NHL.
If the report is true that Alexandar Georgiev has asked the Rangers to investigate a trade so he can be a number one goalie, is Arizona a logical destination?
Is he worth it?
Christian Dvorak is not a known commodity to Ranger fans. He hasn’t played against the Blueshirts since November 2019 and playing for a team from the west means late nights if you want to see him in action.
Centers like Dvorak are not usually available. His salary, faceoff prowess and offensive upside make him a very attractive target. The Coyotes would probably prefer to trade him to a team on the East Coast.
Dvorak is making less than Ryan Strome who will be looking for a raise after this season and he is locked in for four more years. Replacing Strome with Dvorak would be a financial wash and could give the Rangers the cap space to make a run at extending Mika Zibanejad.
Ranger fans who are dreaming of a Mark Scheifele trade are just dreaming. All indications are that the Eichel saga will end up with him anywhere but New York City. No one knows what Chris Drury is working on but his to-do list is getting shorter. He’s made the team physically stronger and tougher with Ryan Reaves. He’s made the team harder to player against with Barclay Goodrow and Sammy Blais . He’s shored up the defense with Patrik Nemeth and Jarred Tinordi.
He still needs to get Igor Shesterkin under contract, but that is inevitable and may already be done. He still needs to figure out the long term plan at center and improve their ability to win faceoffs. Is Dvorak the answer? He could be, but at what price.