The Times podcast: Coyotes go urban; humans freak out
After a brutal season-ending injury, the Coyotes’ top prospect, Mikkel Boedker, didn’t take long to make his mind up about where he wants to play next season.
In one sentence: “I just don’t want to go back there.”
“I just think that this time next year or the year after next year is when Coyotes ownership has to make a decision on what to do with the team,” Boedker told The Arizona Republic in an interview Thursday morning on the “All The Cons” show. “I want to finish my career in Arizona, and then probably go somewhere in Europe. I want to play in the NHL. To go somewhere in Europe, I would love to go to Sweden, or Finland or wherever it is. But I’d have to go somewhere, too. That’s part of the decision, but definitely that’s part of my decision.”
Bred in Edmonton, Boedker was a mainstay on the Oilers’ depth chart and their first-round draft pick for the 2003 NHL Entry Draft. But his injury, which tore away his ACL and ended his career, derailed his NHL playing career.
“It was just a freak accident,” he said, adding later: “I mean, sometimes you’re in the wrong spot, and you’re just going to get hit by something. I didn’t know that I wanted to be right there when that happened. But I wanted to be with the organization. I just didn’t want to go back there.”
At the time of his injury, the Coyotes were making a play for his rights to another team, but he wasn’t about to let it happen. It took a few years for the Coyotes to finally find a team to take him on,
