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Last blog I wrote how no one wanted a Jet, at least how unlikely it is that Chevy deals from a position of strength. Today on the 1290 show Paul Edmonnds, Troy Westwood and Matt Leibl were talking about the two Jets most likely to attract interest, those being Setoguchi and Jokinen.
In their discussion they revealed that Gooch knows he has to pick it up the final 22 games and work toward attracting interest. The knock against him as Edmonds said was that he was on his third team in 7 years and was not playing well for a guy needing a deal next season. I tweeted to Edmonds that Jokinen had been on 3 teams in 9 years ( I was wrong it’s 5 teams in 9 years). They read the tweet on air and pointed out that Jokinen was 35 thus his movement starting later and less stigma attached to him. His movement began at age 26- (not including Islanders) and would be 6 teams in 9 years if you counted the two stints with Flames.
My point was really that if a player moves teams is that really an indication of his value, I’m not so sure that’s a good way of looking at what Setoguchi is worth. For instance Setoguchi was traded to the Wild when he was 25, just one year younger than Jokinen’s first move from a team.
The real knock against Setoguchi is that he’s underperforming as a Jet. The implied point that was made by the Big Show crew was that his underperformance is why he has been on 3 teams in 7 years. Then is it not worth noting why Jokinen has been on 5 in 9, especially if he started his leapfrogging only one-year later in sage than Gooch?
Before Setoguchi arrived in Winnipeg, two years earlier he was traded for Brent Burns and 2nd round pick the day after signing a 3 year deal. So I’ll take a pass on him being somewhat underperforming as he had a hat trick with an OT winner in that year’s playoffs. The fact is the Sharks have been a forward producing machine and were not afraid to move him for Brent Burns- a stud defenseman. You have to give to get, take note Chevy.
In one season Setoguchi went from Pavelski, Clowe and as Heatley as his three most frequent even strength line mates to Heatley, Koivu and Cullen. The points went from 41 in SJ to 36 in Minny, 22 goals to 19. The first year with the Wild he had 1.78 points per 60 mins played vs 2.34 the second campaign during the shortened season. This year he is at 1.65 points per 60 mins played.
That’s a big drop in one year but why? If I were a GM looking at renting Gooch I’d want to know why that drop happened and I’d start by looking at the Jets.
At 5 vs 5 play Setoguchi’s most frequent forward line mates were Jokinen, Kane and Thorburn. In 2012-13 here is the points per 60 mins for those three players:
OJ- 1.09 EK- 2.01 CT- .90
This is what they are to date with Setoguchi as their most frequent line mate. OJ- 1.91 EK- 2.02 CT- 1.39
Whether you believe that Jokinen, Kane and Thorburn are better, equivalent or worse line mates than Setoguchi’s last three most frequent in Minny of Cullen, Granlund and Zucker is not important. What has happened is a guy who was producing at 2.34 points per 60 mins on the Wild dropped by .69 so that Jokinen could increase by almost 80% and Thorburn by almost 50% for a combined 1.31 points per 60 minutes of ice time at even strength.
I’m not so sure Setoguchi should be getting a bad rap for that, least of all because he’s been on three teams in 7 years as being a knock on him. While people rave about the turn around Jokinen has had it seems Setoguchi is taking the hit and that’s probably unfair to Gooch.
You know who played the second and third most minutes with Jokinen after Kane in 2012-13? Antti Miettinen and Blake Wheeler. Don’t try telling me Wheeler was the anchor of that group. Before you say Setoguchi is a bust in Winnipeg look at who he replaced, what he has helped do before you label him based on how many teams he has played for in a certain time span.
There’s a bigger data dig in here to look at but I don’t have those stats available right now. A smart GM would look a bit deeper into different player situations with Gooch on the ice, let alone with what Claude Noel was doing with him for 40+ games. Right now though it’s fair to say he’s getting a bit of a bum rap as we head into the trade deadline.