If you missed the review of the great Jake Muzzin, here it is!
Jordan Nolan #71
Age: 25
Contract Status: $700K through 2014-15 (RFA)
Stats:
Other stats:
Not much
Fights: 6
His season:
In my opinion there was no other player on the team who had a bigger drop off this season than Jordan Nolan. Despite his relatively paltry point totals from last season, Nolan showed promise as a potential as a sort of reckless, less offensive gifted Wayne Simmonds. A Wayne Simmonds 2.0 if you will. However, Nolan took a step backwards in his development, showing a knack for questionable choices with the puck and difficulty playing in his own zone. After 61 regular season games which some him come and go in the starting lineup, Sutter decided to not risk his play and benched him in the postseason. He still has a decent offensive skill set, and when he throws the body around he can really be a handful with this size. Problem for Nolan is that when his line was on the ice he hardly had time to think about offense. Opposing teams absolutely crushed him. I’ll spare you the minutia of going through it all, but in short, Nolan faced the worst competition on average and did very poorly against them. In fact, usually he was outscored by them. If there was one glaring weakness the Kings had all season, it was that their fourth line was pretty regularly dominated by opposing teams fourth lines. In the greater scope of problems, that’s one that isn’t a huge deal. Still though, with the potential Nolan showed last year to perhaps take a step forward, this season was ultimately disappointing.
As far as the rough stuff goes, which is what Nolan is somewhat known for, he had 6 fights on the year (Oooooh aaaaawwweee) and was fairly high up on the hit counter in relation to his icetime. The physical play is definitely not the issue with Nolan. He can be quite nasty do deal with for defenders given his size and strength. Also, how could you not love looking at that lettuce when the helmet eventually does fly off for fisticuffs?
(Can I express here how much Bollig looks like Renly Baratheon? Nolan went all Stannis on him right here.)
Moving forward:
After this year there really isn’t much to do except look forward. Both he and Kyle Clifford face interesting years, as the fourth line is almost completely up for grabs with several new faces are attempting to get jobs. Adam Cracknell and Andy Andreoff are both going to make a push, and if Nolan can’t cut the mustard this season he may not be with the Kings much longer. As far as average fourth liners go, Nolan isn’t the worst thing in the world, but there are definitely better in house options to consider if he continues to be too risky to play in the future. That much has to clean up. Nolan isn’t going to be a 20 or 30 point player, but if he can take a page out of the Trevor Lewis play book and play solid in his own end he would be a roster mainstay. That has been a tremendous challenge thus far.
Not F worthy in my eyes. He did contribute a decent point total from the fourth line, but man were his possession numbers and his D-zone play a train wreck.
Final Grade: D
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