Troy Brouwer not meeting expectations and his contract just yet …
The Calgary Flames were a terrible team in 2015-16 for a number of reasons, one of which was a lack of production from their wingers.
Outside of Johnny Gaudreau (78), and Michael Frolik (32), no winger on their roster had more than 20 points.
In effort to address that issue, and upgrade the team as a whole, the Flames signed Troy Brouwer to a lucrative four-year, $19 million contract ($4.5M per) in the off-season.
The problem for the Flames is Brouwer hasn’t really improved the Flames’ wing play, nor come close to earning the contract he was given.
Despite playing 17 minutes per game, Brouwer is producing ~15 goals and ~34 points on a per 82-game basis. Those numbers don’t exactly scream $4.5 million per year, especially when you consider Kris Versteeg. Versteeg almost spent the year overseas because he couldn’t land an NHL contract, is producing at a 45-point pace with less ice.
What makes matters worse: when Brouwer is on the ice the Flames aren’t driving play, but rather chasing it. His underlying numbers are horrible and his teammates fare much worse with him on the ice than they do without him.
Above are the seven players Brouwer has spent at least 100 minutes with at 5v5 this season (sorted from most minutes together to least). As you can see, all seven have been much better when they don’t have to share the ice with Brouwer.
I don’t think that is a coincidence given Brouwer has posted negative possession numbers relative to his team every year since 2010-11 in Chicago. At 31, that’s even more unlikely to change moving forward.
Unfortunately, Flames players must get used to being anchored by Brouwer because he still has 3.5 years remaining on his deal.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have some promising young players on entry-level deals …
To have success in today’s NHL, it is imperative teams have young players making meaningful contributions while on their entry-level deals.
The Pittsburgh Penguins already had a few players who fit that description in Conor Sheary (34 points in 40 games), Bryan Rust (24 points in 44 games) and, to a lesser extent, Scott Wilson (13 points in 46 games). Now it appears they have more help on the way in Jake Guentzel.
Guentzel, a 3rd round pick in 2013, has torn up the AHL this season tallying 23 goals and 42 points in just 33 games.
As a result of his strong play, and an injury to Matt Cullen, the 22-year-old was recently recalled and has tallied three points in five games since. Dating back to the start of the year, where he also was given a taste of NHL hockey, he has four goals and seven points in 10 games.
The sample size is small, obviously, but Guentzel has impressive underlying numbers to go with his point production.
In 113 minutes of 5v5 ice, the Penguins have controlled 54.6% of the shot attempts, 52.7% of the scoring chances and outscored opposing teams 11-6 (64.7%).
Playing with the likes of Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist certainly helps his cause — it doesn’t get much better than that — but so far he has not looked at all out of place at the NHL-level.
If he can continue to hold a roster spot and play well, an already loaded Penguins team will have another weapon in their arsenal. That’s a scary thought considering how good they already are.
Numbers via stats.hockeyanalysis.com and naturalstattrick.com.
Written by Todd Cordell (@ToddCordell)