Jan Jenik has emerged as one of the brightest spots in a very depleted Arizona Coyotes prospect pool.
Selected in the third round of the 2018 NHL Draft, the young Czech made a huge leap in 2019-2020 before a season ending injury stalled his momentum.
After the long offseason provided by COVID, Jenik has now played his first 24 games as a professional for the Tucson Roadrunners to mixed results.
Those expecting Jan Jenik to become an immediately impactful player might be disappointed, however there are definitely encouraging signs in the young forward’s play.
Jan Jenik stickhandling prior to the April 10th, 2021 matchup with San Diego. (photo: Kate Dibildox)
The Tucson Roadrunners wore these unique threads on April 9th and 10th, 2021 to celebrate their first five seasons in the desert as the affiliate of the Arizona Coyotes.
The sweaters invoke the beautiful kachina sweaters that both the Coyotes and Roadrunners wear, but instead of the now familiar kachina logo from either club, these feature a brand new fifth anniversary crest design that looks quite a bit like what you’d typically see as a patch.
They are much better looking in person, and I’d love to see this exact style brought back with the Roadrunners kachina crest in place of the fifth anniversary design.
Jan Jenik shown again from the photo above matched to the jersey with some parallel stick marks next to the fifth anniversary crest.
Jenik’s jersey has a nice amount of wear for having been on his back for just two games.
The front features most of it, with the primary point of wear being the left elbow. There are multiple burns there including one that was a clear hole and has been glued over.
The front crest has two parallel stick marks to the left of it which led to the single photomatch of the jersey. The top of the “5” on the crest has a stick mark as well but it doesn’t show as well in the photos.
The back numbers and sleeve numbers feature a surprising amount of loose or pulled threading, as well.
The Roadrunners split the two games in their fifth anniversary jerseys. They also scored a ton of goals.
Jan Jenik had a fight in the first game and a goal in the second while wearing this sweater.
Jenik definitely sits firmly in the “shit disturber” mold as a young forward who is not afraid to mix it up and go into the dirty areas and ride the line himself.
It remains to be seen if he can translate his production in the OHL to the AHL and eventually the NHL, but the signs are there. While we wait for his offensive game to re-emerge, he won’t hesitate to be impactful in other facets of the game.