Anthony Duclair once looked like a future cornerstone for the Rangers. Now he’s struggling to earn ice time for the worst team in the NHL and wants a fresh start.
Duclair requested a trade from the Coyotes, Craig Custance of The Athletic reported Thursday. The 22-year-old Duclair has seven goals and 13 points in 31 games for the last-place Coyotes this season. He has been a healthy scratch 10 times, and perhaps could be a candidate for a Rangers reunion.
The Rangers drafted Duclair in the third round of the 2013 draft. He was briefly a breakout wonder for the Rangers, racking up six points in his first nine NHL games as a teenager at the start of the 2014-15 season. Duclair had one point in his next nine games before being returned to the QMJHL.
He was part of a trade package that landed Keith Yandle from the Coyotes just before the trade deadline that season. The following year he had a similar hot start, racking up five goals and seven points in the first six games of the 2015-16 campaign.
Duclair finished that season with 20 goals and 44 points, but he has scuffled in the season and a half since. He has 12 goals and 28 points in 89 games since the start of the 2016-17 season. Three of his seven goals this season came on one night against the Senators.
While Duclair has never consistently fulfilled his potential, Yandle’s short tenure (the end of 2014-15 and all of 2015-16) with the Rangers also was marked by inconsistency and criticism of his play.
His possession numbers were a positive relative to the team’s struggles in that area, but he drew ire at times for perceived shortcomings in the defensive zone and was typically not trusted by Alain Vigneault to play big minutes like he has both before and after his time with the club.