Sean Couturier probably isn't going to win the Calder Trophy this season, and that actually seems kind of fitting.
He hasn't really played like a rookie, and he has hasn't been used like a rookie. On Friday we paid special attention to his breakout performance during the Flyers 8-5 Game 2 win in Pittsburgh, and looked not only at his hat trick, but also at his ability to go up against Evgeni Malkin and shut him down. That's a huge assignment for a 19-year-old.
What's even more impressive is the Flyers have been giving him those types of matchups all year. During the regular season he was given some of the toughest even strength assignments of any player on the Flyers roster, and played tougher minutes than just about any other top rookie in the league.
The scatterplot below shows the top-20 rookie scorers in the NHL this season and their even-strength assignments (we've used these many times throughout the year: the percentage of shift starts in the offensive zone is the horizontal, quality of competition is the vertical. The closer to the top left, the harder the assignment. Closer to the bottom right, the easier the assignment. We took a similar look at rookie assignments in January, and Couturier's role has actually increased rather significantly since then).
I didn't go through and assign a name to every mark because Couturier is the focal point and the rest are simply for comparision. But the only two rookies that are in Couturier's area are Minnesota's Nick Johnson and Chicago's Andrew Shaw.
The main difference between the three: Johnson is a 26-year-old rookie that played for one of the worst teams in the league and didn't perform as well in that role as Couturier did. Shaw is 20 and only appeared in 37 games for the Blackhawks.
Couturier is 19, more than held his own in that role all season, and is doing it for a team that looks like it can be a Stanley Cup contender. And that is pretty impressive.
Data via BehindTheNet.ca
For more hockey news, rumors and analysis, follow @EyeOnHockey and @agretz on Twitter and like us on Facebook
He hasn't really played like a rookie, and he has hasn't been used like a rookie. On Friday we paid special attention to his breakout performance during the Flyers 8-5 Game 2 win in Pittsburgh, and looked not only at his hat trick, but also at his ability to go up against Evgeni Malkin and shut him down. That's a huge assignment for a 19-year-old.
What's even more impressive is the Flyers have been giving him those types of matchups all year. During the regular season he was given some of the toughest even strength assignments of any player on the Flyers roster, and played tougher minutes than just about any other top rookie in the league.
The scatterplot below shows the top-20 rookie scorers in the NHL this season and their even-strength assignments (we've used these many times throughout the year: the percentage of shift starts in the offensive zone is the horizontal, quality of competition is the vertical. The closer to the top left, the harder the assignment. Closer to the bottom right, the easier the assignment. We took a similar look at rookie assignments in January, and Couturier's role has actually increased rather significantly since then).
I didn't go through and assign a name to every mark because Couturier is the focal point and the rest are simply for comparision. But the only two rookies that are in Couturier's area are Minnesota's Nick Johnson and Chicago's Andrew Shaw.
The main difference between the three: Johnson is a 26-year-old rookie that played for one of the worst teams in the league and didn't perform as well in that role as Couturier did. Shaw is 20 and only appeared in 37 games for the Blackhawks.
Couturier is 19, more than held his own in that role all season, and is doing it for a team that looks like it can be a Stanley Cup contender. And that is pretty impressive.
Data via BehindTheNet.ca
For more hockey news, rumors and analysis, follow @EyeOnHockey and @agretz on Twitter and like us on Facebook
