I thought Kyrou played really well to close out the year.
Really good 2nd half of the season overall.
January: Tied for 1st on the team in goals and tied for 2nd in points (5g and 6a in 13 games).
February: 2nd on the team in goals and tied for 2nd in points (5g and 5a in 11 games).
March: 3rd on the team in goals and tied for 2nd in points (6g and 5a in 15 games).
April: 1st on the team in goals and 2nd in points (6g and 3a in 7 games).
All in all, since January 1st he has 22 goals (1st on the team) and 41 points (2nd on the team) in 45 games, which is a 40 goal and 74 point pace. Looking at his full sample under Bannister, he played at a 39 goal and 77 point pace.
If he can do that over a full season (in combination with the level of defensive play he provided this season), then he is
absolutely worth the contract. But he can't have 30 game slumps like the one he had to start this season. I think he played better than the numbers suggested in that stretch, but the final step he needs to take to be a true $8M player is finding a way to get himself out of cold shooting stretches quicker. If he can do that, then any other improvement to his game will start putting the contract into bargain territory.
Barring a 4+ goal night from someone else tonight, he's going to be the team's leading goal scorer for the 2nd season in a row. Barring a 3+ goal from anyone else tonight, he is also going to be the only Blue to hit 30 goals for the 2nd straight year.
Barring a disaster tonight where he gets caved in for a -20 (or more) differential in these categories, he's going to end the season with positive corsi, fenwick, shot, and scoring chance differential at 5 on 5. Unless he gets outscored by 8 goals tonight, he's going to positive in goal differential at 5 on 5 as well. His xGF% at 5 on 5 is slightly negative (49.58%) but still up over 6 percentage points from last year. All these numbers come with him getting sheltered a bit less than last year as well.
There was a ton of positive progress from Kyrou this year despite the dip in production that he cost himself with his first 30 games of the season.