*All statistics for this article are accurate as of January 10th, 2022.

It might come with the territory of the Jets being unable to continue to meet the expectations set from their 2018 Western Conference Final run, but there’s been a growing narrative in the hockeyverse that perhaps Mark Scheifele isn’t the correct guy to be the number one center for a team with Stanley Cup aspirations. Or maybe it’s just twitter. It can be a harsh world out there.

Add that to the fact that the Jets were picked by many (myself included) to have a renaissance of sorts, the fact they sit 10th in the Conference in points percentage will only add speculation. Cup contender? They gotta make round one first.

The major critique with Mr. Scheifele comes from the defensive side of the puck. He’s been an elite talent offensively for quite some time, but still has conversation surrounding him regarding “commitment to playing without the puck” and “not leaving the zone early”. These are topics typically associated with 22 year old players, but Scheif is 28 years old and has a few years of his prime left. Ideally, he’d be at worst a good two-way center at this point, but that just isn’t the case.

The 2016 draft launched the emergence of two young superstars who will be compared, contrasted, and analyzed over the course of the next two decades. You know the story: Auston Matthews blazes his own trail and dominates the Swiss league. Patrik Laine has one of the most incredible 17-year old seasons in history, and makes a better-than-expected case to go first overall.

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Jake Guentzel is one of those 3rd round picks that looks good right from the get-go, then looks incredible four years later. His rise to 13 goals in last year’s playoffs has been as picture perfect as a 3rd round selection gets. Continue reading

Only two players have outpaced both Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin to win an Art Ross when they’ve each scored 100 points. The first was Joe Thornton in 2005-06 when they were both rookies.

In fact, Croz and Ovi have shared the league for 12 seasons but have “only” scored 100 points simultaneously three times. During those seasons of health and elite point production, however, there was one man who stood above them all in the spring of 2010.

His name was Henrik. Continue reading

Up until the last two or three years, the Canucks have done a phenomenal job of Patrick Whiteing their first round picks away (see the 2007 NHL entry draft). To the Canucks’ credit though, for every first round pick Nathan Smithed, they’ve been able to Alex Edler and Kevin Bieksa some later round picks into legitimate NHL players. It seems as though the trend will continue with 2012 fifth round pick, Ben Hutton. Continue reading