tarheelhockey
Offside Review Specialist
Nino’s best season as a Hurricane was a 24 goal 44 point campaign.
Svech had 30 goals and 67 points that season.
Has he plateaued, maybe? But he’s plateaued at pacing for 29 goals and 72 points per 82 games over the last 3 years with an ACL tear in the middle.
Nino’s first year as a Cane, granted only half a season, he scored at a 32 goal pace. In 2021 he played ~two thirds of a season at a 29 goal pace. Svech’s career high is 30. The usual disclaimers about pace apply, but when healthy and on top of his game, he brought the same scoring and arguably more physicality than Svech does. Neither of them are doing anything to move the needle in other categories.
Point being, it’s not like Nino was some hot-shit player. He helped us a lot but he was not a part of the core. We are still treating Svech as not just core, but cornerstone. That’s based mainly on a subjective feeling that it looks like he should break out any time now, that he has a good attitude and top-tier skill so that should add up to more than Nino Niederreiter impact. But he isn’t getting better, whether it’s due to injury or something else, and we’re about to exit the developmental phase where big strides are common.
To be clear, I like Svech a lot. But we did not draft him #2 and pay him near $8M to give us 29 goals and a nice personality. In the context of a team with one centerman and very little forward depth, he’s going to have to start carrying his shifts a lot more consistently than he has to this point.