[ad_1]
The 2023-24 Arizona Coyotes are constructing a brand new period of hockey within the Valley of the Sun. They boast one of the proficient prospect swimming pools within the league, highlighted by Dylan Guenther and Logan Cooley. In the ultimate installment of our prospect highlight collection, the place we provide you with an in-depth evaluation of gamers to maintain tabs on this season, we check out winger/heart Samuel Lipkin.
With a lot, if not all the roster set already for opening evening, anticipate a man by the title of Lipkin to stake his declare and additional push his title into the Coyotes’ future plans/core. At 6-foot-2, the Quinnipiac ahead has his eyes set on successful back-to-back nationwide championships this upcoming season.
Growing Up As The Underdog
Coming off a nationwide championship, one would assume Lipkin was at all times a bonafide winner. He tore it up from an early age in triple-A, registering 254 factors between 2016 and 2020. He was additionally a star at La Salle College High School in Pennsylvania, racking up 64 factors in 45 video games over two seasons.
Related: Coyotes’ Top 10 Prospects for 2023-24
Latest News & Highlights
Like his fellow prospect/future teammate Josh Doan, Lipkin opted to play for the Chicago Steel of the United States Hockey League (USHL). He recorded a mere 11 factors in 34 video games through the 2020-21 season, however the Steel allowed him to play 19 video games for the New Jersey Rockets of the National Collegiate Development Conference, the place he registered 12 objectives and 25 factors in 19 video games. This further improvement would show very essential to Lipkin’s rise, registering 71 factors in 59 video games in his second season, whereas serving as captain for the Steel. Yet, regardless of the turnaround in his recreation, he was missed, falling to the seventh spherical, earlier than the Coyotes chosen him 223rd general within the 2021 NHL Draft.
2022-23 Season Rewind
Upon being drafted, the Philadelphia native elected to additional his improvement and profession with Quinnipiac University. He entered his freshman season as a part of a really proficient roster, together with Skyler Brind’Amour, Collin Graf, and Jacob Quillan, and completed the season with 14 objectives and 29 assists for 43 factors in 39 video games.
The 2022-23 season proved to be a giant one for the Bobcats, who ended the 12 months 34-4-3 for 60 factors, ending atop the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC), with a convention report of 20-2-0. They made it to the Frozen Four event, knocking out closely favored Michigan, and captured the nationwide championship towards fellow/future teammate Logan Cooley and the University of Minnesota 3-2 in additional time on Lipkin’s game-winning assist. This was the Bobcats’ first males’s hockey nationwide championship in program historical past.
Blazing His Own Path
For Lipkin, his meteoric rise within the group’s pipeline is unheralded. Once thought-about an underdog prospect, somebody who would spend their profession as a minor leaguer, his place within the group’s future has quickly shifted over the previous 12 months. The Coyotes have discovered themselves with a bonafide ahead who’ll solely enhance in his sophomore season. While common supervisor Bill Armstrong hoped to have him in Tucson this upcoming season with the crew’s American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, Lipkin as an alternative has his eyes set on repeating as national champions.
He will return as one of many high gamers within the NCAA this season, to no shock, in accordance with his coach Rand Pecknold. “He committed to us when he was roughly 16 and we loved him because he had good size, a high IQ, great character and some power-play skills as more of a net-front, bumper type guy,” mentioned Pecknold, who spoke of the progress Lipkin made this previous season.
For Lipkin, the work isn’t over and he is aware of it. “Going to play in the AHL was definitely an option and I really considered it just because I really trust the organization and trust the people that surround it. I just wanted another year for my body and strength to develop. Getting bigger, faster and stronger are the keys to my development and I think I’ve got a great spot to do that at Quinnipiac.” This upcoming season is an important one for the man who continues to work his means up the pipeline. The Coyotes have themselves a diamond within the tough prospect who’s solely going to get extra recognition the extra he develops.
[ad_2]
Source link
