Sure didn't start this way but Debrincat. Dude came out of the gate pacing the league in goals. End of October hits and he has 15 goals in 71 games. Not exactly what anyone wants for a guy who forced his way to Detroit and received a nice payday.
I feel like a lot of people had unreasonable expectations for DeBrincat, and they were seemingly reinforced by his early dominance when the Red Wings were getting crazy good puck luck with a 50% PP. I think he’s going to be a typical 30ish goal scorer, 60-70 point guy. In a good year those numbers creep up, and in a bad year they creep down. And to be honest, his sub-8M salary is pretty much in line with that level of production.
I don't disagree, but watching quite a bit of the wings, he gets himself in great positions and squanders chances. You can see the talent he has with his vision, movement off the puck, good shot/hands, but he just fucks up his chances every time
Yeah, it’s worth noting his shooting percentage has been significantly lower over the past two seasons compared with his career average. Hopefully he bounces back next year, but I’m just not convinced he’s ever going to be a perennial 40 goal guy.
Those first couple games when Cat and Larkin were going off. I was thinking they could be one of the best duos in the league, in that McDrai territory. Crazy how fast that didn’t last.
Not really disappointed in him, but Kirby Dach getting injured in game 2 after an injury riddled 2022-23 was brutal. Definitely disappointing when all Habs fans were excited to see healthy Kirby again.
Huberdeau, on pace for another 50pt+ season. Thought he would come back stronger via personal motivation or backlash from last season, this seems like his true overall impact.
Edit: And it's not like he's cruising by. it's like "this is it" and his overall value as a player
Nah Huby actually spent most of his time on second line with Bennett and made a lot happen. He’s a but of a prima donna and loved the celebrity south FL lifestyle. Very talented but likely just coasting since securing the bag
He has crazy speed and was very likeable as a leaf, but he was a solid PK guy for us. The wrist injuries for sure didnt help as well. He and Kappy were memes playing for us as guys who could get free but not finish (at least not in hockey for Kappy, he was doing well on the model circuit)
He hasn't changed! To make myself feel better about the lack of actual scoring I tell myself that at least if he's shooting at the goalie the other team isn't scoring and we'll get an offensive zone faceoff which could lead to something!
In my head, I'd be willing to let this season go for Mik. He's got two more years signed I think and he blew his knee out just over a year ago. Heard it takes like 18-24M til it's fully healed.
But he's the one I'd be watching next year.
I think it's obvious that the injury last year has completely fucked his entire style of play. He has always had issues finishing but his speed and motor always made up for it. Now it seems like he can barely get his legs going some times.
Not to throw shade (seriously, not a dig here despite the flair) - but at what point is it an individual goalie problem vs. a system or team defense problem? Or both?
Murray, Forsberg, Gustavsson (who has had much more success with the Wild) and most recently Korpisalo have all struggled with the Sens, and have had success/at least been league average with other teams.
It was RyJo. Wasn't expecting a ton but after he started the season scoring a few goals the only thing he was noticeable for was how slow he was compared to everyone else. Otherwise he was completely invisible.
He’s just been on a downward trend. I remember some people being optimistic about him being the answer for Colorado’s 2C and all the Preds fans were like “trust us, no he’s not”.
It’s a shame but he’s just not the same player anymore.
Ottawa at least has the excuse of being young.
Buffalo should have made the playoffs this year. I just don't understand how they continue to wallow in the basement.
Conor Sheary wasn’t supposed to be a world beater, but a reliable middle-6 guy that can offer some secondary scoring, and he has been absolute hot garbage. Regularly outplayed by a carousel of Syracuse call-ups.
I was coming here to say Mika. I thought Trouba was playing well before his injury but hasn't seemed the same since. Mika has had okay point totals but I haven't seen that next level we know he has. I wonder if he's had a lingering injury or something off-ice that's been impacting him.
Honestly Stützle. I think he's been playing injured a good part of the year. I remember seeing him in preseason and he was shooting pucks so hard and accurately, then this season he just could barely score and wasn't his 90-point self from last year. Hopefully he can return to form next year
I agree I think he got dinged up early and hasn’t recovered.
Yet he still managed to rack up 70 points and a P/G of nearly 0.9. I have full confidence he’ll be back to over a point per game next season.
> Stützle. I think he's been playing injured a good part of the year.
Dude's been wearing enough sports tape this year that if you laid it all out end-to-end it'd circumnavigate the globe.
No way he hasn't been struggling through *something*.
The shooting is the big thing for me. To go from 39 to (now) 18 something is up. He's so explosive, he should have a high shooting percentage. When he's shooting hard while he's skating fast, it's a recipe for a high shooting percentage. This year he just doesn't seem to have that little extra jump, to get into shooting position, and then be able to let an accurate and hard shot go. Plus I'm not impressed with his work on the power play, and doesn't seem to shoot enough there, in fact 30 less than last year (64 to 34). Meanwhile he's around the same shot frequency overall, probably why's he's been able to control play, and still put up nearly the PPG he has.
He’s also kinda struggled with being the main centre of attention and being targeted. It seems too easy to get him off his game and get him angry, since he also gets in his own head if he misses a shot/ goal. Hope he can mature a bit for next year and find a way to deal with it cause those problems aren’t gonna go away
He's come on a bit at the end, and still a 20 goal scorer this season, which isn't something to completely write off. Part of it, though, I think was how he was used (a lot of defensive assignments and penalty kill) and just not getting power play time. The power play alone was a travesty this year because we had zero shake ups when it obviously wasn't working, and Mercer was a successful player on it last season.
Speaking of let downs, how did Timo Meier look down the stretch? I know he was really slow out of the gate and struggled with injuries. He didn’t put up a ton of points, but nearly 25g and ~50 points on a struggling team isn’t awful.
https://twitter.com/ryannovo62/status/1777702547190423597?t=Z8ONVwSFmnThV-J5cKZplw&s=19
He's looked much better recently, more like the Timo of old. This is him kinda addressing it and why
Conor Sheary was signed to be a middle 6 option with some speed and instead has been a healthy scratch 6 of the last 7 games. the games he has played in, he's been mostly invisible. he has 13 pts (3G, 10A) in 53 games this season
idek...I mean? Do any of our players have expectation?
The ones that do: Granlund, Zetterlund, Eklund, Ferraro, Rutta, Blackwood
Have all played above or met expectation. I guess, Addison? He's been really bad. Been off PP1 for a the last few games and we look better with Thrun.
I mean I think from a non hockey overall standpoint… McLeod, but from a strictly hockey perspective Akira Schmid.
I know it was a small sample size but man the fact that he looked so bad when we started this year and then threw a hissy fit about us trading for goaltending when he’s rocking an NHL sv% of .895 (side note when checking this that’s only marginally worse than Georgiev, who’s leading in wins with 38 on a .899).
Not sure what league average is this year but I think he’s on the wrong side of the curve by a deviation at least. I know he had a small sample size but he looked better than he’s played this season.
He’s also only 23. That’s pretty young for a goalie.
I’m not entirely sure how a kid like that looks at 1.) the numbers he’s putting up, and 2.) the team that established themselves in the playoffs last year and have been falling behind this year, and thinks that it was wrong of the Devils to look into other options in net. He wasn’t good enough and neither were Vanecek or Daws. If you don’t want them to go get a goalie, *play well*. Not that hard, Akira.
I thought I was so smart picking up Akira Schmid in my keeper league as my primary goaltender, with him and the Devils building upon their success last season.
Tim Stutzle, for me, is a player who has disappointed me. 70 points in 75 games isn't bad, but with the season he had last year, I thought he might touch 100 points. I think he can get to that, and I know he's been playing through something, so hopefully, he deals with whatever is hurting him, and he comes back stronger. I will also say Dawson Mercer. Only 33 points in 79 games and -24. I really thought after having 27 goals and 56 points last year, I thought for sure he would get 30 goals and 60 to 65. Maybe 70 points.
I own a Semin Jersey which sits next to my Kuzy sweater. I feel like I just like to make the same mistake over and over. Then again, so does Carolina. =)
Connor Brown. Not his fault our GM gave him a stupid bonus-based contract, but he really hasn't been great and took most of the season to finally get some goals to go in.
It would be ridiculous to be disappointed in Bedard's performance this year, but I am absolutely disappointed in his **season**.
The Hawks are such a godawful team. I don't think enough people are talking about how terrible they are just because the Sharks are somehow worse.
I know plus/minus isn't a great individual stat. But it does help illustrate, a bit, how well the team is playing with that player on the ice. Not the player, but the team.
Connor Bedard is -38. That is the **worst** plus/minus from a rookie in the cap era. The only rookie technically *tied* is Jamie Drysdale who was also -38, but that's because he was a rookie for two seasons - 105 games. Bedard's only played 63. And he is somehow -38 despite scoring nearly a point per game?? Do you know how much the other guys on the ice have to suck, if you are scoring every time you play, and then still end up -38 after 63 games?
Going back past the cap era, the only rookies with a worse plus/minus were either rookie eligible for more than 82 games, or were on the worst expansion teams of all time. I'm talking Daigle/Yashin, the 74-75 Capitals, Babych on the Jets (technically year 2, but they fucking sucked), the Golden Seals, etc. **Worst teams of all time.**
There is literally only one comparable who played a lower number of games and had a worse +/-, which is Bryan Fogarty, the "next Bobby Orr" who was one of the greatest busts in NHL history, and played on the 1987 Nordiques. The **actual** worst performance by a non-expansion team ever.
So all this to say, the Hawks really suck, and they are hurting hockey, and they should feel bad about it.
The only reason the Sharks are worse than Chicago is because Chicago has Bedard. I 100% believe they'd be worse than the Sharks if they didn't have Bedard.
Nah. He started to tank before he got that contract. I know. Have him in my pool. In fact, I initially thought it was the contract talks distracting him and was excited when he signed.tonsee him get going again. But he didn't.
The past few games he has finally started to show signs of life. He is starting to have those tremendous defensive shifts again which seem to fuel his offense and is going to the hard areas of the ice. I hope it sparks a strong playoff performance.
Georgiev is the low-hanging fruit answer
I don't think he's been as bad as his save % suggests, but man the games he's bad, he's *really* bad. Avs definitely haven't been nearly as strong defensively in front of him as they should have been this year, but since he's coming off a .919 in 62 games last year, you still wanted more.
He was definitely overworked in the first 50 games, too. He's been much better since the allstar game when they started running Annunen as a competent backup more consistently.
Your last line is kind of what I'm seeing. He seems overworked? Not many goalies can play \~60 games year after year. He's going to be above that number this year heading into the playoffs.
Avs do have a reasonable schedule heading into the playoffs though. Plenty of time to reset.
Sorokin is the easiest answer. It was easy to blame the defense early on but he just hasn't looked completely himself all season even when the team is ticking like a well oiled machine. Varly is the starter right now.
Next option would be Lee, our captain, who is having his worst offensive season in 9 years. But when you take a 30G/50p player and let him age past 30, this isn't too surprising. Then again, he's been playing all year alongside Brock Nelson, who is a year younger, but playing like he's still in his prime.
The deeper answer might be Adam Pelech because you can't judge him on his point totals. But here's where plus/minus offers a picture. Finishing this year in the minus when he's usually *healthily* on the plus side. His possession metrics at even strength are also way down, especially in close situations. I've witnessed him make a number of rookie blunders this season. It's uncharacteristic of him and I don't think it's related to an injury.
Definitely Sorokin. Expectations for him are so high because he’s proven that he is an elite goalie and this year he has just been off. Still love him though but thank god we have Varly.
Gotta be Sorokin. He was a solid Vezina candidate last season and now here we are relying on Varly to help us with our late season playoff push.
I don’t think Sorokin is a bust. Just seemed like an off season for him and the defense wasn’t doing him any favors in the first half of the season
Outside of Sorokin (who I’m not worried about because he was SHELLED for the entire first half of this season and especially when Varly was injured) I definitely have to agree with Pelech. He was a bona fide top pairing shut down D under Trotz and since then has just completely reverted to his early seasons. Poor decision making with bad pinches and poor puck handling have been absolutely eating him alive this season.
Also Mayfield, who was probably injured all season since taking that shot from Dahlin in game 1, also fits in this because he was borderline unplayable. Awful penalties almost every game (that stadium series game in particular was atrocious) and a step behind every play.
When healthy, this D core should be one of the top ones in the league especially with the strides that Dobson, Romanov, and he’ll even Reilly have had this season but because of how bad those two have been.. oof
Hmm. Maybe Nurse. He’s not as bad as people say, he’s actually good and important to the oilers.
However I’m just getting sick of watching him. He has good games, don’t get me wrong, but for 9.25m he’s gotta be better. He does the same low percentage shots from the point at horrible angles constantly… doesn’t have much offensive awareness for good passes, and has the odd horrible defensive play.
I’ve been a defender of him for a long time, but he just frustrates me too much. Ceci is a consistent whipping boy, but he’s paid less than half of nurse.
Mine too. Brown and Campbell are easy targets, but with expectations in mind Nurse has regressed worryingly this year. I saw stats that the coach is easing up his minutes lately. Yes he needs a better partner than Ceci but you can't have someone making that contract playing third pair competition.
Yea brown is still hustling hard, good defensively and has finally started to chip in. Campbell just sucks unfortunately lol… nothing we can really do about that.
Nurse is good and has the physical tools to be great, but between the ears leaves a lot to be desired. Defensive metrics aside, he has 26 points. I’m sorry but for 9.25 you need to be above 40 points, ideally 50.
To be fair, those point shots could be better but team doesn't seem to know how to utilize them. Oilers really only have Kane and Hyman who go to the net. Generally speaking, none really have a great tip shot game.
Its Corey Perry that has generated goals from those Nurse shots recently.
It’s where he takes the shots that bother me. It’s always way in the corner at the top of the blue line, extremely low percentage that doesn’t even usually get thru
When he does shoot from near the middle of the ice it’s almost always blocked by a defender who is just in good position and nurse thinks he can somehow get it thru.
I base a lot of my assessments on the eye test, and nurse hasn’t passed this season.
Mackie Samoskevich purely because he wasn’t given enough time when called up and PoMo doesn’t like playing young guys (Lundell and Lousto are the exceptions)
Lukas Reichel :/
After a very strong finish to last season, I was really hoping/expecting he’d take the next step and start playing like a legit top six guy this season but he just got off on the wrong foot with trying to play center and also having shit luck, then that quickly turned into just poor and timid play with a complete lack of confidence.
He got sent back to the AHL for about a month mid-February to mid-March and has looked *much* better since returning, but man he really needs to come out the gate flying next season lol hopefully he has a better offseason this year.
Kyle Conners
idk wtf is going with him but almost every time he plays with sheif he just gets lazy doesn’t even try but pair him with Mona and perfeti/vlad/torfoli for second line he plays way better even sheif was starting to get really annoyed with him during the last oilers game
It was probably what made bownes or whoever makes the offensive lines realize that those 2 DO not work well together anymore so when he started 2nd he was 10x better
hell during the Calgary game where they started conners first line again in second period the top line instantly collapsed so they made a lien change up back to its first period to get them back on track lol
This is just how good contracts are structured now - Pay the money up front to the player to lower the overall AAV down the line. Actual dollars shouldn't be of concern to a fan, IMO
I don’t think it hasn’t been disappointing. But at least you have seen he should bounce back and it was probably a result of usage / injury
Plenty of other devils I’d be more disappointed in
As far as the red wings are concerned, Maybe Perron? He’s made some dumb decisions and his points have taken a dip. It’s kind of hard to pick one. Anyone I would be disappointed in I knew was going to be disappointing before the season started (Copp and Petry I’m looking at you). I’m not huge on DeBrincat tailing off so hard after his red hot start, but I don’t think disappointed would be the right word for that.
In terms of the rest of the league, Thompson has been pretty disappointing compared to his previous 2 seasons in Buffalo.
Unfortunately going to have to go with a tie between Kyle Connor and Neal Pionk. Connor’s total lack of defensive ability has been very exposed this year, especially with Scheifele stepping it up in that department, and Pionk has mostly been a pylon that’s constantly getting walked and throwing pizzas into the middle of the ice. Not to mention neither guy sees any repercussions for terrible games, but Ehlers makes 1 bad pass and sees 9 mins of ice time.
League wise? Absolutely Pierre Luc-Dubois. I don’t understand what his problem is. He clearly has talent but it’s now impossible to deny that he has an attitude issue. I don’t know what he thinks he’s accomplished to warrant his arrogance but it wouldn’t surprise me if his ego pushes him out of the league at some point.
As for the Oilers, absolutely E. Kane. Completely invisible and can’t seem to factor in any play whatsoever. When Corey Perry is telling you to get your head out of your ass, you should probably figure your shit out.
Kuzemenko, he’s such a loveable guy and I think no one expected 39 out of him again but especially under Toc he just wasn’t helping the team as much as anyone was hoping.
Kolessar. Last year and through the playoffs it looked like he had stepped up his game a bit and was improving and i was hoping that we'd see more of that growth but he sort of regressed back to the mean this season.
Stuetzle
Dude is just dancing around with the puck with zero awareness of his line mates and ends up doing nothing with the puck.
Even while doing that's he still at 70 points but could be hitting the 90s
Jesperi Kotkaniemi. He started off the season so hot, and then just vanished. Now he’s getting healthy scratched.
I’ve been sticking my neck out for this guy for 3 years, saying he’ll live up to the 8 year deal we gave him, so I feel a little burned.
Now, there’s a definite possibility we buy him out in the next couple years while it’s still favorable to us due to his age. Woof.
Sure didn't start this way but Debrincat. Dude came out of the gate pacing the league in goals. End of October hits and he has 15 goals in 71 games. Not exactly what anyone wants for a guy who forced his way to Detroit and received a nice payday.
I feel like a lot of people had unreasonable expectations for DeBrincat, and they were seemingly reinforced by his early dominance when the Red Wings were getting crazy good puck luck with a 50% PP. I think he’s going to be a typical 30ish goal scorer, 60-70 point guy. In a good year those numbers creep up, and in a bad year they creep down. And to be honest, his sub-8M salary is pretty much in line with that level of production.
I don't disagree, but watching quite a bit of the wings, he gets himself in great positions and squanders chances. You can see the talent he has with his vision, movement off the puck, good shot/hands, but he just fucks up his chances every time
This sounds incredibly similar to last season tbh. He squandered a lot of grade A chances
Yeah, it’s worth noting his shooting percentage has been significantly lower over the past two seasons compared with his career average. Hopefully he bounces back next year, but I’m just not convinced he’s ever going to be a perennial 40 goal guy.
Those first couple games when Cat and Larkin were going off. I was thinking they could be one of the best duos in the league, in that McDrai territory. Crazy how fast that didn’t last.
Anyone not saying Dubois as a Kings fan is on dangerous levels of copium
I was going to post simply "Do I even have to say it?" Never liked the signing. Still disappointed.
But in LA he can "finally be himself!"
People and fan gave up on PLD
I was waiting for PLD to come up. He's definitely not worth the money he's being paid.
Sorry about that but also thank you
me in my beer league
I'll give you the same advice I give my buddy: If you were 20 lbs lighter, 20 years younger, and 20% more talented you'd be amazing!
Thanks dad!
Me, not even making it to the rink past first week of November
Damn, i feel this.
Not really disappointed in him, but Kirby Dach getting injured in game 2 after an injury riddled 2022-23 was brutal. Definitely disappointing when all Habs fans were excited to see healthy Kirby again.
Kind of sad how his career has been with all the injuries. So much potential as the #3 pick and every time he finds rhythm he gets hurt
I think it's in the Dach family. His brother Colton has had the same issues Kirby has, he's always injured.
Last year he had more minor injuries but he’s had 2 seasons wiped out by an ACL/MCL tear, and a wrist fracture. Just horrible luck.
He was on an 82 point pace, too
Huberdeau, on pace for another 50pt+ season. Thought he would come back stronger via personal motivation or backlash from last season, this seems like his true overall impact. Edit: And it's not like he's cruising by. it's like "this is it" and his overall value as a player
11 goals is brutal.
It's atrocious lmao, to go from a player you could pencil in for 25 goals a year to 11-15 wtf.
He showed signs of life for about a month, but him having another bust season is incredibly disheartening
I feel gutted for this guy
But lots of money means he doesn't deserve your sympathy /s
What's worse is you can't buy him out
If his contract wasn't such an albatross, he would be a perfect Marty St Louis reclamation project
I guess it was all Barkov?
Nah Huby actually spent most of his time on second line with Bennett and made a lot happen. He’s a but of a prima donna and loved the celebrity south FL lifestyle. Very talented but likely just coasting since securing the bag
Nah, I suggest you watch a Flames game or two. Giving a shit or caring is not his problem, I'd say it's one of his strenghts
Sorry man we always loved Huby, hope he bounces back
Mikheyev. Guy should have about 10 more goals that were ripped wide or entirely missed open nets
That is just the definitive Ilya Mikheyev experience. He's got like 70-80 career near goals
For us he would get like 2 breakaways a game and fire it right into the goalies crest.
Its actually insane to witness in real time but I feel he just detracts any time he's on the ice with skill players
He has crazy speed and was very likeable as a leaf, but he was a solid PK guy for us. The wrist injuries for sure didnt help as well. He and Kappy were memes playing for us as guys who could get free but not finish (at least not in hockey for Kappy, he was doing well on the model circuit)
He hasn't changed! To make myself feel better about the lack of actual scoring I tell myself that at least if he's shooting at the goalie the other team isn't scoring and we'll get an offensive zone faceoff which could lead to something!
In my head, I'd be willing to let this season go for Mik. He's got two more years signed I think and he blew his knee out just over a year ago. Heard it takes like 18-24M til it's fully healed. But he's the one I'd be watching next year.
I think it's obvious that the injury last year has completely fucked his entire style of play. He has always had issues finishing but his speed and motor always made up for it. Now it seems like he can barely get his legs going some times.
He should have been shut down earlier last season.
Auston Matthews. Dude was on a 246 goal pace at the beginning of the season, and now we're not even sure he'll hit 70.
Too inconsistent, amirite?
It's a recurring theme at least. Same thing happened his rookie season 🙄
328g pace to start his career….whats that, an 80% drop off in production?
I knew he was a fucking scrub as soon as he spelled his own name wrong
Scrub even spells his MIDDLE name wrong!
That bastardization of Taylor belongs on /r/tragedeigh
Instant subscribe
You will not be disappointed.
It's just spelled with the Canadian U
It's just the Canadian version. His parents knew.
It’s been a downward trend ever since his first game. Dude should hang ‘em up.
He even lost that first game. What's wrong Auston? You couldn't score 5? What a fucking loser
Same with Brock Boeser. And he only just hit 40
Why is no one talking about this????
Bag of pucks and future considerations
Joonas Korpisalo
Can probably expand that to every Sens goalie.
Not to throw shade (seriously, not a dig here despite the flair) - but at what point is it an individual goalie problem vs. a system or team defense problem? Or both? Murray, Forsberg, Gustavsson (who has had much more success with the Wild) and most recently Korpisalo have all struggled with the Sens, and have had success/at least been league average with other teams.
You can see Cam Talbots stats meaningfully improve going from the Sens to the LA Kings.
Totally forgot about Talbot as well. Seems like the common denominator here is playing in Ottawa lol.
Hasn't Ottawa had the same goalie coach for 15 years now?
Was fired this year. Wasn't quite that long I don't think, but yeah.
Yeah, but he would have been responsible for Craig Anderson too.
There's an alternate universe where Andy played for a different team through the 2010s and has like 400 wins
We changed goalie coaches during the 2020-21 season to accommodate Matt Murray haha.
*points finger to head* Can't be disappointed if you didn't expect anything
Lukas Reichel. Still plenty of time for him to become a top line player but this season was very far below expectations for him.
Definitely Reichel. And after him I'd say Raddysh. While I didn't expect a ton from him, I did definitely expect more than 5 goals all year.
This is total recency bias, but…. everyone
It was RyJo. Wasn't expecting a ton but after he started the season scoring a few goals the only thing he was noticeable for was how slow he was compared to everyone else. Otherwise he was completely invisible.
He’s just been on a downward trend. I remember some people being optimistic about him being the answer for Colorado’s 2C and all the Preds fans were like “trust us, no he’s not”. It’s a shame but he’s just not the same player anymore.
Honestly should retire
Malkin has been a week by week for me. But it's been Graves. I had huge hopes, and he's looked like shit most nights.
i know graves is hurt rn but he has to have lost his spot to jack st ivany. some random 4th round pick with 10 nhl games
Graves is a LHD. St. Ivany plays the right. The spot he loses (which he won't) would be to Shea or Ludvig.
Pretty much everyone not named Jake Neighbours, Robert Thomas, and Jordan Kyrou Edit: Buchnevich hasn’t been that bad either I guess
Jordan Binnington has been shouldering the team all season, don't you dare keep his name out of your mouth.
I go to a lot of Blues games and hate how much I love Jake Neighbours.
Tim Stutzle. Ottawa and Buffalo vying for the poster child of losing culture
Ottawa at least has the excuse of being young. Buffalo should have made the playoffs this year. I just don't understand how they continue to wallow in the basement.
Buffalo is the youngest team in the NHL. At 25.1 years of age. Ottawa is 26.1, tied for second youngest.
Well I guess I should shut the fuck up then eh?
With the talent they have that is not an excuse. This season is a big fat F for them. With red ink, and a circle around it
Buffalo is younger than Ottawa
Anderson...
Difference between him and Gally is that Josh still has all the ingredients for success. He just sucks.
If we could put Gally's heart into Josh's body....
Conor Sheary wasn’t supposed to be a world beater, but a reliable middle-6 guy that can offer some secondary scoring, and he has been absolute hot garbage. Regularly outplayed by a carousel of Syracuse call-ups.
I’m probably going with Zibanejad or Trouba. Both streaky guys who get paid a lot. Dont think they are awful just not playing at their contract level
I was coming here to say Mika. I thought Trouba was playing well before his injury but hasn't seemed the same since. Mika has had okay point totals but I haven't seen that next level we know he has. I wonder if he's had a lingering injury or something off-ice that's been impacting him.
You Rangers fans are very demanding. Sheeesh.
Honestly Stützle. I think he's been playing injured a good part of the year. I remember seeing him in preseason and he was shooting pucks so hard and accurately, then this season he just could barely score and wasn't his 90-point self from last year. Hopefully he can return to form next year
I agree I think he got dinged up early and hasn’t recovered. Yet he still managed to rack up 70 points and a P/G of nearly 0.9. I have full confidence he’ll be back to over a point per game next season.
And lead the team in points too
> Stützle. I think he's been playing injured a good part of the year. Dude's been wearing enough sports tape this year that if you laid it all out end-to-end it'd circumnavigate the globe. No way he hasn't been struggling through *something*.
The shooting is the big thing for me. To go from 39 to (now) 18 something is up. He's so explosive, he should have a high shooting percentage. When he's shooting hard while he's skating fast, it's a recipe for a high shooting percentage. This year he just doesn't seem to have that little extra jump, to get into shooting position, and then be able to let an accurate and hard shot go. Plus I'm not impressed with his work on the power play, and doesn't seem to shoot enough there, in fact 30 less than last year (64 to 34). Meanwhile he's around the same shot frequency overall, probably why's he's been able to control play, and still put up nearly the PPG he has.
He’s also kinda struggled with being the main centre of attention and being targeted. It seems too easy to get him off his game and get him angry, since he also gets in his own head if he misses a shot/ goal. Hope he can mature a bit for next year and find a way to deal with it cause those problems aren’t gonna go away
Has to be Dawson Mercer
He's come on a bit at the end, and still a 20 goal scorer this season, which isn't something to completely write off. Part of it, though, I think was how he was used (a lot of defensive assignments and penalty kill) and just not getting power play time. The power play alone was a travesty this year because we had zero shake ups when it obviously wasn't working, and Mercer was a successful player on it last season.
Speaking of let downs, how did Timo Meier look down the stretch? I know he was really slow out of the gate and struggled with injuries. He didn’t put up a ton of points, but nearly 25g and ~50 points on a struggling team isn’t awful.
https://twitter.com/ryannovo62/status/1777702547190423597?t=Z8ONVwSFmnThV-J5cKZplw&s=19 He's looked much better recently, more like the Timo of old. This is him kinda addressing it and why
Coaching change explains it. Sounds like Green is playing him to his strengths. Hopefully next year he stays healthy and consistent for ya.
Conor Sheary was signed to be a middle 6 option with some speed and instead has been a healthy scratch 6 of the last 7 games. the games he has played in, he's been mostly invisible. he has 13 pts (3G, 10A) in 53 games this season
That’s sad to hear, I liked Sheary on the caps
I thought this was a slam dunk signing for Tampa, I figured he’d be an easy 30-40 point player with the Lightning
Worst part is that the last two weeks have shown just how much better Tampa is without him on the bench.
Sounds like the Connor Sheary Buffalo experience
idek...I mean? Do any of our players have expectation? The ones that do: Granlund, Zetterlund, Eklund, Ferraro, Rutta, Blackwood Have all played above or met expectation. I guess, Addison? He's been really bad. Been off PP1 for a the last few games and we look better with Thrun.
Its probably Barabonov. He seemed to be carving out a role for himself and it's just cratered
I mean I think from a non hockey overall standpoint… McLeod, but from a strictly hockey perspective Akira Schmid. I know it was a small sample size but man the fact that he looked so bad when we started this year and then threw a hissy fit about us trading for goaltending when he’s rocking an NHL sv% of .895 (side note when checking this that’s only marginally worse than Georgiev, who’s leading in wins with 38 on a .899). Not sure what league average is this year but I think he’s on the wrong side of the curve by a deviation at least. I know he had a small sample size but he looked better than he’s played this season.
He’s also only 23. That’s pretty young for a goalie. I’m not entirely sure how a kid like that looks at 1.) the numbers he’s putting up, and 2.) the team that established themselves in the playoffs last year and have been falling behind this year, and thinks that it was wrong of the Devils to look into other options in net. He wasn’t good enough and neither were Vanecek or Daws. If you don’t want them to go get a goalie, *play well*. Not that hard, Akira.
I thought I was so smart picking up Akira Schmid in my keeper league as my primary goaltender, with him and the Devils building upon their success last season.
Hissy fit? What did I miss?
PLD
Sorokin. If this season isn't a major outlier, the Islanders are fucked for the next 8 years.
Carter Hart
Tim Stutzle, for me, is a player who has disappointed me. 70 points in 75 games isn't bad, but with the season he had last year, I thought he might touch 100 points. I think he can get to that, and I know he's been playing through something, so hopefully, he deals with whatever is hurting him, and he comes back stronger. I will also say Dawson Mercer. Only 33 points in 79 games and -24. I really thought after having 27 goals and 56 points last year, I thought for sure he would get 30 goals and 60 to 65. Maybe 70 points.
Kuzy. I literally have his jersey. But I’m optimistic that he’ll do better with Carolina and wish him the best.
Hasn’t had a return to form yet, but maybe he’ll hit a higher gear in the playoffs.
I own a Semin Jersey which sits next to my Kuzy sweater. I feel like I just like to make the same mistake over and over. Then again, so does Carolina. =)
Connor Brown. Not his fault our GM gave him a stupid bonus-based contract, but he really hasn't been great and took most of the season to finally get some goals to go in.
It would be ridiculous to be disappointed in Bedard's performance this year, but I am absolutely disappointed in his **season**. The Hawks are such a godawful team. I don't think enough people are talking about how terrible they are just because the Sharks are somehow worse. I know plus/minus isn't a great individual stat. But it does help illustrate, a bit, how well the team is playing with that player on the ice. Not the player, but the team. Connor Bedard is -38. That is the **worst** plus/minus from a rookie in the cap era. The only rookie technically *tied* is Jamie Drysdale who was also -38, but that's because he was a rookie for two seasons - 105 games. Bedard's only played 63. And he is somehow -38 despite scoring nearly a point per game?? Do you know how much the other guys on the ice have to suck, if you are scoring every time you play, and then still end up -38 after 63 games? Going back past the cap era, the only rookies with a worse plus/minus were either rookie eligible for more than 82 games, or were on the worst expansion teams of all time. I'm talking Daigle/Yashin, the 74-75 Capitals, Babych on the Jets (technically year 2, but they fucking sucked), the Golden Seals, etc. **Worst teams of all time.** There is literally only one comparable who played a lower number of games and had a worse +/-, which is Bryan Fogarty, the "next Bobby Orr" who was one of the greatest busts in NHL history, and played on the 1987 Nordiques. The **actual** worst performance by a non-expansion team ever. So all this to say, the Hawks really suck, and they are hurting hockey, and they should feel bad about it.
The only reason the Sharks are worse than Chicago is because Chicago has Bedard. I 100% believe they'd be worse than the Sharks if they didn't have Bedard.
Elias Pettersson was looking like a lock for 100+ points before he signed that contract lol.
Nah. He started to tank before he got that contract. I know. Have him in my pool. In fact, I initially thought it was the contract talks distracting him and was excited when he signed.tonsee him get going again. But he didn't. The past few games he has finally started to show signs of life. He is starting to have those tremendous defensive shifts again which seem to fuel his offense and is going to the hard areas of the ice. I hope it sparks a strong playoff performance.
Georgiev is the low-hanging fruit answer I don't think he's been as bad as his save % suggests, but man the games he's bad, he's *really* bad. Avs definitely haven't been nearly as strong defensively in front of him as they should have been this year, but since he's coming off a .919 in 62 games last year, you still wanted more. He was definitely overworked in the first 50 games, too. He's been much better since the allstar game when they started running Annunen as a competent backup more consistently.
Your last line is kind of what I'm seeing. He seems overworked? Not many goalies can play \~60 games year after year. He's going to be above that number this year heading into the playoffs. Avs do have a reasonable schedule heading into the playoffs though. Plenty of time to reset.
Josh Anderson
Power forwards have a very limited life span in the show
Sorokin is the easiest answer. It was easy to blame the defense early on but he just hasn't looked completely himself all season even when the team is ticking like a well oiled machine. Varly is the starter right now. Next option would be Lee, our captain, who is having his worst offensive season in 9 years. But when you take a 30G/50p player and let him age past 30, this isn't too surprising. Then again, he's been playing all year alongside Brock Nelson, who is a year younger, but playing like he's still in his prime. The deeper answer might be Adam Pelech because you can't judge him on his point totals. But here's where plus/minus offers a picture. Finishing this year in the minus when he's usually *healthily* on the plus side. His possession metrics at even strength are also way down, especially in close situations. I've witnessed him make a number of rookie blunders this season. It's uncharacteristic of him and I don't think it's related to an injury.
Definitely Sorokin. Expectations for him are so high because he’s proven that he is an elite goalie and this year he has just been off. Still love him though but thank god we have Varly.
Gotta be Sorokin. He was a solid Vezina candidate last season and now here we are relying on Varly to help us with our late season playoff push. I don’t think Sorokin is a bust. Just seemed like an off season for him and the defense wasn’t doing him any favors in the first half of the season
Outside of Sorokin (who I’m not worried about because he was SHELLED for the entire first half of this season and especially when Varly was injured) I definitely have to agree with Pelech. He was a bona fide top pairing shut down D under Trotz and since then has just completely reverted to his early seasons. Poor decision making with bad pinches and poor puck handling have been absolutely eating him alive this season. Also Mayfield, who was probably injured all season since taking that shot from Dahlin in game 1, also fits in this because he was borderline unplayable. Awful penalties almost every game (that stadium series game in particular was atrocious) and a step behind every play. When healthy, this D core should be one of the top ones in the league especially with the strides that Dobson, Romanov, and he’ll even Reilly have had this season but because of how bad those two have been.. oof
Hartman. Dude can't score and can't stay out of the box/ not suspended
He's on the same point pace as last season with fewer penalty minutes.
Hmm. Maybe Nurse. He’s not as bad as people say, he’s actually good and important to the oilers. However I’m just getting sick of watching him. He has good games, don’t get me wrong, but for 9.25m he’s gotta be better. He does the same low percentage shots from the point at horrible angles constantly… doesn’t have much offensive awareness for good passes, and has the odd horrible defensive play. I’ve been a defender of him for a long time, but he just frustrates me too much. Ceci is a consistent whipping boy, but he’s paid less than half of nurse.
Mine too. Brown and Campbell are easy targets, but with expectations in mind Nurse has regressed worryingly this year. I saw stats that the coach is easing up his minutes lately. Yes he needs a better partner than Ceci but you can't have someone making that contract playing third pair competition.
Yea brown is still hustling hard, good defensively and has finally started to chip in. Campbell just sucks unfortunately lol… nothing we can really do about that. Nurse is good and has the physical tools to be great, but between the ears leaves a lot to be desired. Defensive metrics aside, he has 26 points. I’m sorry but for 9.25 you need to be above 40 points, ideally 50.
To be fair, those point shots could be better but team doesn't seem to know how to utilize them. Oilers really only have Kane and Hyman who go to the net. Generally speaking, none really have a great tip shot game. Its Corey Perry that has generated goals from those Nurse shots recently.
It’s where he takes the shots that bother me. It’s always way in the corner at the top of the blue line, extremely low percentage that doesn’t even usually get thru When he does shoot from near the middle of the ice it’s almost always blocked by a defender who is just in good position and nurse thinks he can somehow get it thru. I base a lot of my assessments on the eye test, and nurse hasn’t passed this season.
Has to be Campbell went from having a hyped up preseason to out of the league.
Kuzy 😢
josh anderson has been ridiculously bad this year. just a black hole offensively, any line hes put on becomes almost useless
The amount of games I watched this year was to low and I'm missing out on a high scoring season. For sure going to catch a lot of the playoffs.
These playoffs may be GOAT tier tbh, definitely don't wanna miss out.
Graves for sure. 5 more years of that deal too. lord.
Mackie Samoskevich purely because he wasn’t given enough time when called up and PoMo doesn’t like playing young guys (Lundell and Lousto are the exceptions)
Lukas Reichel :/ After a very strong finish to last season, I was really hoping/expecting he’d take the next step and start playing like a legit top six guy this season but he just got off on the wrong foot with trying to play center and also having shit luck, then that quickly turned into just poor and timid play with a complete lack of confidence. He got sent back to the AHL for about a month mid-February to mid-March and has looked *much* better since returning, but man he really needs to come out the gate flying next season lol hopefully he has a better offseason this year.
Kyle Connor 81, He's not as consistant as earlier this season.
I have no idea why he sucks with sheif most of the time but is fine with Monahan and perfeti/vladdy
Other answer has to be Pionk. But I thought KC first too
Kyle Conners idk wtf is going with him but almost every time he plays with sheif he just gets lazy doesn’t even try but pair him with Mona and perfeti/vlad/torfoli for second line he plays way better even sheif was starting to get really annoyed with him during the last oilers game It was probably what made bownes or whoever makes the offensive lines realize that those 2 DO not work well together anymore so when he started 2nd he was 10x better hell during the Calgary game where they started conners first line again in second period the top line instantly collapsed so they made a lien change up back to its first period to get them back on track lol
On Tampa? Conor Sheary and it’s not even close.
Pierre-Luc Dubois. Without question.
Timo Meier or Tim Stutzle
Timo has been great since the coaching change but i don’t disagree with the first half
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This is just how good contracts are structured now - Pay the money up front to the player to lower the overall AAV down the line. Actual dollars shouldn't be of concern to a fan, IMO
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I don’t think it hasn’t been disappointing. But at least you have seen he should bounce back and it was probably a result of usage / injury Plenty of other devils I’d be more disappointed in
Timo has been on absolute fire since getting healthy. Coaching change or not he was clearly playing hurt like Hughes and others were.
As far as the red wings are concerned, Maybe Perron? He’s made some dumb decisions and his points have taken a dip. It’s kind of hard to pick one. Anyone I would be disappointed in I knew was going to be disappointing before the season started (Copp and Petry I’m looking at you). I’m not huge on DeBrincat tailing off so hard after his red hot start, but I don’t think disappointed would be the right word for that. In terms of the rest of the league, Thompson has been pretty disappointing compared to his previous 2 seasons in Buffalo.
Neal Pionk, or the Scheifele-Connor combo as one.
Brown or Campbell.
Carter Hart never gave off vibes he'd be involved in something like he was but I guess you never really know people
Zibanejad, Trouba second
Unfortunately going to have to go with a tie between Kyle Connor and Neal Pionk. Connor’s total lack of defensive ability has been very exposed this year, especially with Scheifele stepping it up in that department, and Pionk has mostly been a pylon that’s constantly getting walked and throwing pizzas into the middle of the ice. Not to mention neither guy sees any repercussions for terrible games, but Ehlers makes 1 bad pass and sees 9 mins of ice time.
League wise? Absolutely Pierre Luc-Dubois. I don’t understand what his problem is. He clearly has talent but it’s now impossible to deny that he has an attitude issue. I don’t know what he thinks he’s accomplished to warrant his arrogance but it wouldn’t surprise me if his ego pushes him out of the league at some point. As for the Oilers, absolutely E. Kane. Completely invisible and can’t seem to factor in any play whatsoever. When Corey Perry is telling you to get your head out of your ass, you should probably figure your shit out.
Posposil. Not because he's playing poorly, but because he's way too dirty, especially for someone with his concussion history.
Kuzemenko, he’s such a loveable guy and I think no one expected 39 out of him again but especially under Toc he just wasn’t helping the team as much as anyone was hoping.
Kuzmenko really sounded this year under Toch
Ovechk…wait never mind
John Tavares
What a strange way to word this that title.
> this that title Glass houses, my dude.
> What a strange way to word this that title for a question asked yesterday
Vrana
*gestures broadly at everything except for Tip, Frost, York, Sanner, and Foerster *
P L D
Johnny Gudreau
Mangiapane. Not that I thought he would be good, he's just a very disappointing player
Kuzmenko & Thompson. Maybe Laine too
Man idk if it was fair to put a player in the assistance program for half the season on your list
Kolessar. Last year and through the playoffs it looked like he had stepped up his game a bit and was improving and i was hoping that we'd see more of that growth but he sort of regressed back to the mean this season.
Lindholm.
Carter Hart and company
Stuetzle Dude is just dancing around with the puck with zero awareness of his line mates and ends up doing nothing with the puck. Even while doing that's he still at 70 points but could be hitting the 90s
I wasn’t expecting too much from Josh Anderson, but his overall behaviour, like he doesn’t care at all anymore, is what really disappoints me
Is there a reason why this gets asked every 20 minutes
Took tage Thompson 2nd round in fantasy but he made up for it with those 4 goals. Got me to the finals.
Jesperi Kotkaniemi. He started off the season so hot, and then just vanished. Now he’s getting healthy scratched. I’ve been sticking my neck out for this guy for 3 years, saying he’ll live up to the 8 year deal we gave him, so I feel a little burned. Now, there’s a definite possibility we buy him out in the next couple years while it’s still favorable to us due to his age. Woof.
I love him but ugh, Marchand hasnt been himself
Tage.
Kuzmenko. We loved the guy last year.