Zach Werenski had just another fantastic game on Sunday against the Nashville Predators. He recorded a goal and two assists, his ninth multi-point game of the season and first three point game. Per
Corsica he had a 65.22% Corsi at 5 on 5 and a 2.98 game score, his highest mark in a game this season.
His points though are what is interesting here. Those three pushed him up to 36 on season. He is just two points back of Jakub Voracek, and three back of Rick Nash for the Blue Jackets rookie scoring record. Werenski has only played 58 games so there is a reasonable chance he surpasses both players before the season is up. To be in the conversation with Nash and Voracek is impressive in and itself but to put up those points as a defencemen is amazing.
Werenski is having the best rookie season in Blue Jackets history, but he's been overshadowed in the Calder Trophy talk because of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander in Toronto, and Patrik Laine in Winnipeg. Werenski though has been the best rookie defencemen this season by far. His 36 points lead rookie d-men and are sixth in the rookie scoring race. Werenski is not just having a great season, he's having one of the best season’s all time for a rookie defencemen.
Using
Hockey Reference’s Play Index, it shows that Werenski’s 36 points are tied for 73rd all-time by a rookie defencemen in the history of the NHL and his 0.62 points per game have him in a tie for 33rd. At first glance those aren’t that impressive but keep in mind this is in the entire history of the NHL so players who played in the high flying 80’s and those who were rookies at 25 are included on the list. If we limit the list to just those that played after the lockout in 2004-05, Werenski jumps into a tie for 17th with Francois Beauchemin. When you look at points per game, he climbs all the way up into a tie for second.
Another point to consider here is the ages of each player. Of the six players listed just Werenski and Myers are teenagers. When limiting the data to just teenaged rookie defencemen you really start to see just how well Werenski stacks up with some of the NHL’s all-time best.
There have been 101 defencemen to play at least 40 games as a teenaged rookie. Werenski ranks 17th in points right ahead of Erik Johnson and Paul Coffey. If he can get to 40 points he will move into the top 10 and into a tie with Scott Niedermayer and Cam Fowler. It’s insane what Werenski has done this season, and looking at his points per game it’s simply mind-blowing.
Werenski currently has the sixth highest points per game mark for a teenaged rookie defencemen. The five players ahead of him consist of four Hall of Famers and Dave Babych who was a two-time All-Star who played 1195 games and scored 723 points. The four players after are a mixed bag. Fowler and Myers are both solid players. Berard had a fine NHL career which spanned 619 games, and included two seasons as a member of the Blue Jackets. Hess was never able to replicate his rookie season and was out of the NHL by the time he was 28, having played just 329 games.
It’s only fitting that in one of the best rookie classes ever there is at least one player putting up a historic season. With 24 games remaining Werenski has chance to add to his point totals and keep climbing up the leaderboards. Hopefully he can continue to score at the same rate and hold his position as one of the best teenaged defencemen seasons ever.
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