Written by Todd Cordell, who can be found on twitter @ToddCordell.
Over the last couple years there have been few better goal scorers than Mike Hoffman.
As such, his play has left many wondering just how much it’ll cost the Ottawa Senators to retain him long-term. The twist here is that, despite his goal scoring prowess, Hoffman doesn’t appear to fit in the Senators’ long-term plans.
Via Elliotte Friedman’s 30 Thoughts: “9. Are we looking at the final 15 games of Mike Hoffman’s tenure in Ottawa? Sure looks like it. The winger was benched Saturday in Toronto, then played 13:46 the next night against Dallas. I talked about it with one agent (not Hoffman’s), who points out the contract power pendulum will switch from the club, which did very well in his arbitration case last summer, to the player. He is one year from unrestricted free agency, and can go to arbitration once again. This time, his resume is deeper, as he’s become one of the best even-strength scorers in the league. Unless the Senators believe in him enough to offer a lengthy extension, and their usage certainly indicates doubt, you can’t let him walk for nothing.”
While I’m sure the Sens could fetch a nice haul should they trade Hoffman, I’m equally as sure that trading him is not a good idea.
The objective in hockey is to score goals and few players have done a better job at filling the net than Hoffman.
Since the beginning of the 2014-15 season Hoffman ranks 9th in the NHL in 5 v 5 goals with 36. The only players with more 5 v 5 goals in that span? Tyler Seguin, Vladimir Tarasenko, Alex Ovechkin, Patrick Kane, Filip Forsberg, Steven Stamos, John Tavares and Matt Duchene.
Yes, Hoffman has outscored the likes of Jamie Benn, Corey Perry, Sidney Crosby, Joe Pavelski and many, many more.
What is most impressive about Hoffman is that the only eight players who have scored more goals have also logged at least 150 more minutes at 5 v 5. In terms of goals scored per 60 minutes, only Rick Nash, Seguin and Tarasenko rank ahead of Hoffman.
Factor in Hoffman is just 26 years old and he seems like the perfect guy to, in part, build a team around.
As it stands the Senators appear to disagree.
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Every year it seems at least one team nobody expected much from slides into the playoffs and, at the very least, gives one of the top seeded teams all they can handle.
There are a couple wild card candidates I could see doing damage this year – Pittsburgh, for example – but one under the radar team I wouldn’t want to meet in the playoffs (if they find their way in) is the Philadelphia Flyers.
There are a few reasons for this:
1) Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek, who should soon return from injury, haven’t had their best seasons but they didn’t lose their talent over night. Both players are capable of dominating hockey games and if they get hot…look out.
2) Shayne Gostisbehere. Save Erik Karlsson, I don’t think there has been a more prolific offensive player on the back end this season. And Gostisbehere is going to keep getting better.
3) Lastly – and most importantly – the Flyers have elite goaltending. Yes, elite goaltending. Steve Mason and Michal Neuvirth may not be the biggest of names, but this season they have combined to stop .936% of the shots they face at 5 v 5, which is good enough to rank the Flyers 2nd in that regard.
They say goaltending is the great equalizer and, in a seven game series, a string of quality starts can win a series even if the team doesn’t play overly well.
Based on the performances of Mason and Neuvirth this year, they are almost as likely as anyone to do just that.
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Leading up to the trade deadline there were no shortage of big names on the move.
Eric Staal was traded to the Rangers. Andrew Ladd was traded to the Blackhawks. Mikkel Boedker was traded to the Avalanche. Jiri Hudler was traded to the Panthers.
And yet, the player who has made the biggest impact on his team since the deadline is Lee Stempniak.
It’s still very early, obviously, but in seven games Stempniak has tallied six points – none of the other players have more than three – and posted a plus-2 penalty differential, which also ranks him 1st among that group.
He’s getting a chance to play alongside Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron on the top line and the early returns have certainly been encouraging.
There’s a long way to go, obviously, but when you compare what Stempniak fetched in a trade (a 2nd and a 4th) to some of the other returns (Marko Dano and a 1st for Ladd, Aleksi Saarela and two 2nds for Staal, etc.) he certainly seems like the best bang for your buck addition at the deadline.
Time will tell if that’s the case.