Mark Scheifele- growing up.
Last night marked a rare milestone in the NHL, a first career hat trick and it was earned by Mark Scheifele of the Winnipeg Jets against Les Canadiens. Schiefele has been hot of late, with 6 goals and 10 points in his last 5 games. While the Jets are not having the success they had last season Mark Scheifele is having a career year.
Scheifele, if you are not familiar with his story, was the pick taken right before Sean Couturier in the 2011 draft. Couturier had fallen in the draft and most fans assumed the pick would him when Kevin Cheveldayoff, the newly appointed inaugural GM, stepped up to the microphone.
Instead it was Mark Schiefle of the Barrie Colts, a study under former Jets great Dale Hawerchuk, and at that point most fans let out a collective ‘who??’.
Scheifele came out to training camp that fall and proceeded to wow the fans and the team. So much so that he earned a spot on the opening roster. However once the season started and the hopefuls from opposition training camp rosters were cast aside the game became much harder for Scheifele. That’s when the flaw, the one that has still dogged him to this season, became noticed. He wasn’t strong enough. The nickname ‘Bambi’ came as did the hashtag #Scheifeledown among other comments and jokes about his ability to stay upright. I’ve used them and they have been warranted, but that is starting to change and last night might have been the beginning of the end for the old Scheifele.
Randy Turner, long time Winnipeg Free Press writer and twitter humourist tweeted the following:
Give Scheifele credit. Has worked very hard in off-season to build core strength. Looks like Bambi is becoming a buck. #NHLJets
— randy turner (@randyturner15) March 6, 2016
In Scheifele’s first full season he played 63 games with 13 goals and 21 assists for 34 points. He followed that up last year with 82 games played 15 goals and 34 assists for 49 points but now he has 20 goals and 20 assists in 53 games. With 18 games left to play Scheifele could end up with close to 54 points if he keeps his season pace going.
That would put him with Eric Staal and Bryan Little for point totals from last season. Right now he sits ties with Jordan Staal, Frans Nielsen, Zibanejad and Trocheck so far this season. He is only 6 points behind Toews, 8 behind Henrik Sedin and 10 behind Tavares. The question that some Jets fans are now starting to ask is what is his ceiling as opposed to will he ever reach potential?
That’s the difference that Scheifele has shown between this season and last. With the team scoring at a rate of 2.65 goals per game this season compared 2.80 last season Scheifele has upped his rate. Without getting too deep and diving into advanced metrics, we’ll leave that to the post mortem on the season, Scheifele has impressed and changed the conversation about him. Now Jets fans, still looking for some positives to finish the season, can watch and hope for good things with Scheifele. After they can hope he and the Jets find a good contract because he’s going to get paid.