Mathieu Perreault, 3C or move him up?
It's not readily apparent to many because he's not scoring goals at some furious rate, (neither are the Jets) but Mathieu Perreault is one of, if not the early unsung hero of the Winnipeg Jets. Scoring however is not the only thing players have to do, they also have to play the game of hockey so that their team mates can score goals. This is where Perreault shines.
Perreault is a possession monster and a stats darling. You don't need this space to go into depth on why stats nerds like him, that's an entirely different column and topic. Perhaps understanding what he does that gives him such enviable stats is worth discussing and that's what you'll see here.
Perreault is smart and crafty. He can control the puck and play well, almost like Wellwood. He can skate and move along the boards with efficiency and precision and he can get the puck to where players want it- in front of the net. He is strong with his zone entries and he can retrieve the puck well when it's dumped in. In fact that's what he did very well against the Predators on Wednesday night- going in and gaining possession.
In some ways hockey is a bit like rugby. It's not when you have possession but where you have it. One key tenet of rugby is knowing when a good time is to give up possession so that you can battle and gain it in a better position. This idea is akin to dumping and chasing or shooting the puck from far out and getting the goalie to freeze it or send it up into the netting resulting in a face off. If you are a good face-off team then you probably want to take a lot of them in front of the other team's goalie.
In the first period alone vs the Preds, Perreault had 3 recoveries on the puck after possession was given away by the Jets. That's a good skill and ability to have, just like the other ones. Perreault was given first unit power play time at the start the game when he came out with Little and Ladd. It was an interesting move as to date has Paul Maurice put two centres out for a draw? More importantly Little and Perreault have no problems controlling the puck down low and getting it around the offensive zone. The result was that the Jets scored although Perreault did not earn a point he was trusted enough to be out there.
The bigger picture here is the player usage by Maurice. It was an O-zone face off and on the PP so the coach sent out his best options to control and retain possession. So when we look at player usage should we consider using Perreault in a different way?
The Kane, Scheifele Wheeler line is moving the puck but they are not capitalizing at all in terms of shots and goals. 7 goals in 31games played between them that would be 18.5 goals for the line in 82 games as an individual but just 55.5 goals over an entire 2nd line for the season is far from second line production. The funny thing here is they are shooting at a 9.7% success rate in all situations that's above league average.
If you believe in shot quality you may say the trio is not getting the best looks at the net. You may even say that the two supposed scorers, Kane and Wheeler need to have more effort from Scheifele to get them the puck. If you want better scoring chances perhaps adding Perreault to the centre position on that line is a move worth making.
Using the handy charts on Sporting Charts you can see that players who play with Perreault the most are getting their shots much more often from the centre of the 'scoring chance' area- the home plate. This is a small sample size, only 13 games and just an indication of something that may or may not be happening because of Perreault. That being said- there is not one player who gets statistically worse when away from Perreault. In fact Blake Wheelerwho has played 62:46 with Perreault takes a a 9% drop in his Corsi rating when away from him. Wheeler's line mate Scheifele drops 8%. What about the other line mate, Evander Kane, well they have only played :12 together at evens strength. Now that Kane is healthy it's probably time to change that as he is the highest paid player on the team and a guy who wants to and can score. There seems to be little risk and a lot of upside, and tonight, against the toughest competition the Jets have seen to date in the Penguins, may be the time to try.
Kane has come awfully close to scoring his first goal of the season a few times and any sustainable success for the Jets involves Evander Kane scoring. If that means giving Perreault some increased minutes on a better line, something he has earned, then the time is now.