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In this edition of the hotstove we pick players within the Central Division that we expect will have a breakout season.
Todd Cordell
My top choice is St. Louis Blues forward Robby Fabbri.
Fabbri got noticeably better as the season went on and really kicked it up a notch in the playoffs tallying 15 points in 20 games and proving to be one of the Blues' most consistent offensive threats.
As a whole his season counting totals won't blow anyone away but he finished 68th in 5v5 points per 60 minutes played, which means he produced at a 1st line rate. With more ice the points will come and there's no reason to believe he won't be used a lot more this season. I expect at least 50-55 points assuming he stays healthy.
James Tanner
The breakout player for the Central Division will be Nathan MacKinnon.
Entering his fourth NHL season at the age of 21 (!!) MacKinnon is about to take the next step and become an elite scorer who competes for the Art Ross.
I think that even after years and years of low offensive totals, most of us are still conditioned to think of end-of-the-year totals in terms of Lemieux and Gretzky. So we don't think MacKinnon's 51 points last year were anything special.
However, scoring 60 points in 82 games is 1st line material, and that's roughly were MacKinnon finished last year. He is one of the league's fastest players and poised for a huge break-out, away from Patrick Roy.
If there is one player in the entire league primed for an explosion and career year, I think It's MacKinnon. I would look for him to finish top ten in scoring, or higher, , somewhere between 70-90 points.
Peter Tessier
Oh I so don't want to be homer here but I'm going to have to put a Jets player's name into consideration here. Nik Ehlers. However, he's not the only one I would consider as Robby Fabbri too could excel beyond his rookie season.
Of course it's not just rookies who could excel and have that break out season but it's last year's rookies who will have the most focus on them, particularly the two of Fabbri and Ehlers who made significant impacts in their debuts.
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