Skills have endeared Crouse to Coyotes
Coming into this season, it was clear the Coyotes were going to need several of their young forwards to step up their game if the club was going to be contending this season.
If we had created a poll on which of those players was most likely to do that, the most popular choices would have been Brendan Perlini, Christian Fischer, Dylan Strome and Christian Dvorak.
But through the first nine games of the 2018-19 season, the Coyotes’ mostimproved player might actually be Lawson Crouse.
Crouse went under the radar this offseason because, well, he only played in 11 games in the NHL last year. The 21-year-old spent most of last year with the club’s AHL affiliate in Tucson, refining his game alongside other Coyotes forward prospects such as Strome and Nick Merkley, among others.
He put up respectable numbers with the Roadrunners, tallying 15 goals and 17 assists in 56 games. Crouse spent a significant amount of the season playing on a line with Strome, and the two have rekindled their chemistry with the Coyotes this season.
“He’s a big man who can skate with pretty good hands and a great shot,” head coach Rick Tocchet said of Crouse. “He’s starting to put these things together. Maybe last year he had two of the four going.
“Now his hockey IQ has gotten better since I’ve been here. I think Tucson did a great job with him last year. He’s filled that role and he’s a two-way guy.”
Crouse scored the Coyotes’ first 5on-5 goal of the season in the team’s 4-1 road win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Oct. 18 at United Center. He scored a short-handed, empty-net goal in Thursday’s 4-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks at Gila River Arena.
Although Crouse has spent the last two games playing on the team’s top line with Alex Galchenyuk and Clayton Keller, look for him to rejoin Strome on the team’s fourth line for the time being with Richard Panik expected to draw back into the lineup.
But don’t view Crouse’s move from the first to fourth line as a demotion. If anything, it’s a testament to his versatility as a player.
“What I like about ‘Crouser’ is you can play him up and down the lineup,” Tocchet. “He can play the first line, sometimes he’s in a fourth-line role. He can get in on penalty kills and maybe somewhere down the road we’ll start putting him on the power play.”
Crouse, who was the 11th overall pick in the 2015 draft, said that his objective is to play the same style regardless of the forwards with whom he is paired.
“I think the game that I play doesn’t really change regardless of where I am in the lineup,” Crouse said. “I’m pretty fortunate in that sense. I just try to go out and execute and not really worry about the rest.
“It was nice having that stint up there with the first line and that they put the trust in me to give me that opportunity. I think I made the most of it. I feel like I’m a better player because of it."
What makes Crouse so valuable to the Coyotes is his unique skill-set. The owner of an imposing physical frame (6-4, 220), Crouse is able to use his body to play hard while also possessing smooth skating ability, good hands and a competent NHL shot.
This uncommon toolbox affords Tocchet the luxury of being able to slide Crouse up and down the lineup. According to Tocchet, a former power forward himself, there aren’t many players with a combination of physical and offensive skill in the league today.
“A big guy that can skate, who has good hands and is willing to help out his teammates once in a while, nowadays it’s hard to try and find those guys,” Tocchet said. “It’s a skilled, quick game, but there’s still room for those big guys that can skate and score and protect their teammates.”
Crouse has also endeared himself to his teammates not just for his play, but for his penchant to protect his teammates and police his game. In the second period of Thursday’s game, Canucks forward Antoine Roussel put Keller in a headlock and dragged him down to the ice, giving him a face full of snow to boot.
Along with captain Oliver EkmanLarsson, Crouse immediately stepped in to challenge Roussel and took a nasty hit to the face for it. Both he and Roussel were issued matching 10-minute misconducts for the skirmish, but the gesture went a long way for Keller, who scored the go-ahead goal not long after.
“It means everything to me,” Keller said of Crouse and Ekman-Larsson stepping up after he was taken down. “It’s just part of the game. The guy just dragged me down a bit and the guys responded. … It shows what kind of guys they are, sticking up for me.”