This is INSANE!!! With his performance this year Lafreniere just proved that you don’t need PP1 to develop. This successful PP1 has been in place essentially for the last 4 seasons and only improved further two years ago when Trocheck took over from Strome. IT WORKS plain and simple. So what is the reason at this point to argue for changing it (other than on a personal level you don’t like Zibanejad and like Alexi more)????
My personal feelings for Zibanejad are irrelevant, and are not part of wanting to try something else. Other than a two week stretch, he's produced very little this year and is not driving play. He's a potential goal 40 goal scorer currently pacing for 25, and that's with 6 of the 14 on the PP. That is largely a goal scoring spot on the PP and I want to put our best goal scorer in it, where he has been successful before.
Because everyone who is treating PP1 like some sacred cow is assuming Laf can sub in if "someone" gets hurt. And where's the logic he doesn't need PP1 to develop? PP is a different style of play that he has little experience with it, unless you consider that 90% of his PP experience before this year was either pretending to be Kreider, which isn't the best use of his skillset, or playing on a semblance of the kid line that was largely an afterthought with vaunted puck distributor Jacob Trouba at the point blasting and dumping away like late career Kevin Hatcher at the point. Is it not unreasonable to expect that aspect of his game to get better with better linemates and more usage, just as his even strength play has?
Panarin is not better at hitting the net from that spot than Mika is. I already showed those numbers.
Panarin played almost exclusively on the left side in 19-20, 20-21, He hit the net with 86/184 5v4 shots (46.7%).
Mika has played on the left side almost exclusively in 22-23 and 23-24. He has hit the net with 132/239 5v4 shots (55.2%).
In their careers across a variety of roles Panarin has hit the net with 48.4% of his 5v4 shots and Mika 53.9%. There is zero evidence to say that Panarin is better at hitting the net.
If your hope is that Lafreniere is going to be put Kucherov levels of production you are almost surely going to be disappointed.
Yes, all of the PP1 sacred cow apologists always make sure to get the 22-23 numbers in there where Mika started the year on fire in that spot until the league adapted. Panarin has also adapted his playstyle this year and has been better at getting pucks through traffic on the PP - it stands to reason that would continue on either side of the ice.
Panarin also scored 7 of his 9 PPG's there in a month and a half last year, after the Kane trade pushed him back onto the left side. The mistake there wasn't the setup, but handing the RW half wall spot to Patrick Kane on a bad hip when he clearly couldn't punch turn or stop and change direction effectively which is key in that spot for anyone on their offwing. The handful of times Tarasenko was used in that spot, the powerplay looked awesome (>30%, small sample size, generally). Past results don't always predict future outcomes. Half our roster is testament to that.
