When the Columbus Blue Jackets acquired Scott Hartnell in exchange for R.J. Umberger, the consensus was the Jackets won the trade (see here, and here).
That has certainly held true, as Hartnell scored 28 goals, tallied 60 points, and was one of the best players on a 40-win team, while Umberger tallied just 15 points in 67 games for the Flyers.
Everyone knows Hartnell is a very good player, but I don't think anybody expected him to be as good as he was last season, and that goes well beyond point totals.
Note: Minimum 200 minutes together...sorted from most minutes (left) to least (right).
As you can see, Hartnell played more than 200 minutes with 11 different players at even-strength. He had a positive impact on each of them, as all 11 posted better possession numbers - in some cases the difference was significant - with Hartnell than they did without him.
Nine of the 11 players generated better than 50% of the shot attempts while sharing the ice with Hartnell. Oddly enough, zero of those nine drove possession at a 50% clip without him.
Hartnell's best days may be behind him, but he's still a very effective player, and there's nothing to suggest he won't continue to be moving forward.
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