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 finally been able to complete a partial season with the Tucson Roadrunners and is now in the midst of his first full professional season.
He wasn’t immediately impactful on the scoresheet, but you can definitely say you notice him on the ice every single night. Now the points are coming, too (11 points in 14 games this season).
Jan Jenik celebrates a Roadrunners goal against the Ontario Reign on May 16th, 2021. (photo credit: Kate Dibildox)
Jan Jenik wore this one in four of those five games, but did not dress for the game on February 20th.
Jenik’s game worn jersey has decent wear for one of this style.
The left sleeve is mostly clean with a few loose threads in the sleeve numbers. The front of the sweater is also fairly clean beyond some wash wear and has a long loose thread on the top right part of the crest that shows up in several photos.
The actual wear is mostly found on the left sleeve. There are two different clusters of burns — one in the purple area below the maroon/white band, and another just above it. The purple burns show up in at least one photo (above). The left sleeve #1 also has a stick mark on it that has been matched to a few photos.
The back is fairly pristine with a bit of wash wear and Jan Jenik’s signature on the numbers.
I saw this jersey in action on May 16th, 2021 against the Ontario Reign. The Roadrunners took the “L” that day, but Jenik was all over the ice stirring things up and tallied a goal and an assist. That makes this one a pretty neat one to have in the collection.
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.