He's the best defensive player on that line and a good puck distributor. The Kings 2nd goal came when he wasn't on the ice and you saw a total breakdown in defensive zone coverage.
I wonder what the analytics really look like with Ehlers and Perfetti. Like stuff we don't see. How often do those two make plays that lead to each other's scoring chances? Namestnikov is kind of the wheel in that line in terms of making plays. And he's probably the only one who will go to the net regularly.
He brings stuff to the table but if you are looking to upgrade he's the obvious spot. Every other line has a person with size for board work and net front. So if you want to know why that line looks different then the template it's due to that.
One of the reasons I wanted to see Cole at center is because you could move a Nino to that line to do that role and then move Barron to Lowry's line to take Nino's role.
As per Garrett, his tracking data has Namestnikov far below his linemates in scoring chance and scoring chance creation data. Actually he ranks dead last among forwards whereas Cole ranks 4th behind Ehlers, KC, amd Scheifele.
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