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With absolutely nothing happening in the hockey world right now, and for the foreseeable future, I’ve decided to take the plunge and write player profiles for each member of the Calgary Flames.
As was the case when I did them last summer, we’ll be looking at the season they just put together and expectations moving forward.
I’ve written up 13 players thus far, with Travis Hamonic being the most recent.
Today we’re going with Johnny Gaudreau.
Counting stats: 70 games, 58 points (18 goals, 40 assists), 18:47 average time on ice
5v5 underlyings: 1.76 points/60, +0.19 CF% Rel, +1.57 GF% Rel, -1.91 xGF% Rel, 98.9 PDO
2019-20 review: There are a couple different ways to look at Gaudreau’s season. We’ll start with the glass half empty approach because, relative to usual standards, Gaudreau was definitely a disappointment.
He recorded 41 fewer points than a season ago and his goal output was sliced in half. He produced just 30 points at 5v5, which was a career low. Gaudreau wasn’t an all-star either. There were lots of boxes elite players routinely check off that Gaudreau didn’t manage to do this year.
All that said, his season was far from a disaster. The Flames controlled a larger share of the shots and goals with Gaudreau on the ice than without. He was on pace for 68 points in what was a ‘bad season’, and he did that without a lot of help.
Anybody who routinely tuned into Flames games knows Sean Monahan – Gaudreau’s primary center and running mate – was a ghost on many nights, particularly at 5v5. He didn’t produce much, nor threaten much, and Gaudreau had to do all of the heavy lifting; a lot of which went to waste.
There were plenty of nights Gaudreau looked like his usual, elite, self and created a flurry of chances, only to leave the ice with zeros across his stat card.
He’s not excused from all blame – especially when it came to his predictably awful five-hole attempts on breakaways – but I think his linemates were more responsible for the production dip than he was.
Fun fact(s): Even in his least productive 5v5 season, Gaudreau still managed to match Filip Forsberg, Taylor Hall, and Anze Kopitar in points. This while out-producing stars like John Tavares and Claude Giroux.
2020-21 outlook: I know there has been some speculation about Gaudreau being traded this off-season. I don’t see it. He’s a star in the prime of his career. Even on a team with several other all-star caliber players, Gaudreau is the lone guy with true game-breaking ability. He was still on pace for nearly 70 points in a down year. I just don’t see how you trade a guy like Gaudreau and get better; and the Flames have too many quality pieces in place to justify a rebuild.
Come October, I fully expect Gaudreau to be penciled in as LW1. I also fully expect him to return to norm and produce ~a point per game.
numbers via naturalstattrick.com and hockey-reference.com
Recent posts:
2020-21 player profile: Travis Hamonic
2020-21 player profile: David Rittich
2020-21 player profile: Cam Talbot
2020-21 player profile: Milan Lucic
2020-21 player profile: Mark Giordano
2020-21 player profile: Dillon Dube
2020-21 player profile: Andrew Mangiapane
2020-21 player profile: Derek Ryan
2020-21 player profile: Sam Bennett
2020-21 player profile: T.J. Brodie
2020-21 player profile: Mikael Backlund
2020-21 player profile: Noah Hanifin
2020-21 player profile: Elias Lindholm
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