Tippett: Duclair needs to prove he's an NHL player

With change comes opportunity.

Poised to miss the playoffs for the fifth straight campaign, the Arizona Coyotes will use the final weeks of the season to evaluate their roster.

Part of that evaluation will include young forward Anthony Duclair, recalled from the AHL on Wednesday. The scoring winger struggled through his second season in the NHL, so much so that he was demoted in January.

After he collected just nine points through the first 41 games of the season, the Coyotes sent Duclair to the minors, believing he could find his confidence and scoring touch with some time in the AHL.

Duclair recorded eight points in 16 games with the Tucson Roadrunners, but came away with only a single goal. He scored 20 goals with the Coyotes last season.

With his stint in the minors not working as planned, the Coyotes elected to bring Duclair back to the big leagues.

"We want him to play to his potential. He set a standard for his play last year that he has to get back to," Coyotes coach Dave Tippett told reporters. "For whatever reason, he hasn't come close to that this year."

Duclair will be in the lineup Friday when the Coyotes take on the Carolina Hurricanes.

"Play better, earn some confidence, which I'm not sure he did, so we'll see how it goes up here," Tippett said when asked what the team had hoped to achieve by having Duclair play in Tucson. "We've got to have a look at him. We've got to see where we're at with him."

The Coyotes acquired Duclair from the New York Rangers at the 2015 trade deadline in the deal that sent blue-liner Keith Yandle to Manhattan. Duclair made his debut with the Coyotes last season and had some success alongside fellow rookie Max Domi, but that performance hasn't carried forward to 2016-17.

"We're looking to give him an opportunity to show that he can get back to that potential," Tippett said. "He needs to use these last games to re-establish himself as an NHL player."