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What you're getting in Athanasiou

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MBH

MBH

Players Play
Jul 20, 2019
13,497
7,304
SE Michigan
So maybe you're getting a one-season place holder. Could even be gone by the trade deadline.
But since there are no threads here, I thought I'd share with you my thoughts on AA - as probably one of his biggest fans on HFboards.
He is kind of an enigma

Last Year
I want to say throw out last year's stats. Athanasiou had emerged as a 30-goal man the previous year and even played exceedingly well as the Red Wings 2C (Andreas Athanasiou 2018-19 Game Log | Hockey-Reference.com) to end the season.
In his only preseason game, AA smashed into the boards on a highlight-reel goal and hurt his back.
He missed the start of the season.
When he did return in game 3, he was clearly rusty. He centered a line with Glendening and Hirose (a 4th liner and a minor leaguer). It was a line that worked the previous year when AA was skating at full speed. But it didn't work.
AA's icetime was cut. A couple games later, Coach Blashill (Not a big fan of AA) AA was removed from center. Through nine games he was 0-2-2 -11. The rest of the way in Detroit he went 37 games 10-12-22.
Also he was -34.
But make no mistake, though 10-12-22 over 37 games is a decent pace (22-27-49 in 16 minutes a night), AA wasn't the same guy as the year before.

His goals/60 were down. His shots/60 were down. His penalties drawn/60 were down. Over the previous 3 years, AA was a top NHL performer in each of these metrics.
AA continued to struggle in Edmonton.
But when the NHL resumed for the playoffs, AA's explosiveness returned. Unfortunately for AA and the Oilers, it didn't result in goals. But if you look at the other stats - you can see the proof in the pudding.

So the question is why did AA decline?
And there are 2 main reasons. Maybe a bit of both.
1) The lower-back injury hurt his skating. Even when his production returned, you didn't see AA getting crazy amounts of scoring chances like he'd done the previous 3-4 years.
2) He checked out. AA felt like he'd earned that 2C job. Coach Blashill showed zero faith him, took the job away and cut his icetime almost immediately. I'd like to rule this out, but I can't. Because AA kind of did the same thing in in 2017-18. When Blashill cut his icetime, he'd sag.
So I think there's a bit of both to blame for last year.

Goals/60.
To me, AA's best value is his five-on-five goal scoring. He has insane speed and hands.
2015-16 - 1.39. 1st in the NHL, 250 minutes or more. (rookie callup)
2016-17 - 1.27. 14th in the NHL
2017-18 - .87. 88th in the NHL (Contract hold out, missed camp, first 10 games)
2018-19 - 1.22. 17th in the NHL

In 18-19, he was also top 10 in penalties drawn per 60 and 31st in shots/60.
These numbers fell off drastically last year.
But if AA is skating well, even with lesser minutes, I think it's fair to expect 1 to 1.2 goals/60
Last year, Jeff Carter led the Kings with 1.02 goals/60. Toffoli was second at .98.

As good as the offense can be, the best of it comes on the rush. AA isn't great on the cycle.

Defense
Much has been made about Athanasiou finishing with the worst +/- in the league.
Athanasiou is not a good defensive player - which always bothered me with his speed/size.
But last year's +/- issues were caused by two things.
1) Less scoring. The Red Wings scored 2.3 to 2.7 goals/60 with AA on the ice in his first four years. That dropped to 1.58 last year. That's a massive drop - caused by AA's drastic reduction in offense.
2) His goals against rose to 4.63/60. Which is just brutal. But there was a lot of bad luck involved.
If you look at his defensive numbers, AA's shots against/60 actually dropped last year. His CA/60 also dropped last year. But between bad luck (being on the ice when Howard let in a turd, or a defenseman coughed it up, or stepping on the ice just as a goal goes in), AA had terribly bad luck. And these numbers are reflected in AA's awful PDO (second worst to Glendening in the league)
The truth is, AA isn't lazy. You'll see him bust his ass on the backcheck and make great plays.
But he doesn't engage, physically. He could make life rough on the outlet defenseman by skating into him and making physical contact, instead, he just sort of turns away from the play. He doesn't win many board battles. And in the defensive zone, he can get caught napping. He also has a tendency to blow to the zone looking for a breakaway pass when maybe he should just hang on the wall, await the chip up the boards and chip it out.
Click to read more...
 
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Great writeup. He's never going to turn into Guy Carbonneau in the defensive zone, but if the Kings and he can make some headway on the issues you raise in the last paragraph, it would go a long way to making him an everyday player in the league, regardless of where he ends up next year.
 
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MBH said:
So maybe you're getting a one-season place holder. Could even be gone by the trade deadline.
But since there are no threads here, I thought I'd share with you my thoughts on AA - as probably one of his biggest fans on HFboards.
He is kind of an enigma

Last Year
I want to say throw out last year's stats. Athanasiou had emerged as a 30-goal man the previous year and even played exceedingly well as the Red Wings 2C (Andreas Athanasiou 2018-19 Game Log | Hockey-Reference.com) to end the season.
In his only preseason game, AA smashed into the boards on a highlight-reel goal and hurt his back.
He missed the start of the season.
When he did return in game 3, he was clearly rusty. He centered a line with Glendening and Hirose (a 4th liner and a minor leaguer). It was a line that worked the previous year when AA was skating at full speed. But it didn't work.
AA's icetime was cut. A couple games later, Coach Blashill (Not a big fan of AA) AA was removed from center. Through nine games he was 0-2-2 -11. The rest of the way in Detroit he went 37 games 10-12-22.
Also he was -34.
But make no mistake, though 10-12-22 over 37 games is a decent pace (22-27-49 in 16 minutes a night), AA wasn't the same guy as the year before.

His goals/60 were down. His shots/60 were down. His penalties drawn/60 were down. Over the previous 3 years, AA was a top NHL performer in each of these metrics.
AA continued to struggle in Edmonton.
But when the NHL resumed for the playoffs, AA's explosiveness returned. Unfortunately for AA and the Oilers, it didn't result in goals. But if you look at the other stats - you can see the proof in the pudding.

So the question is why did AA decline?
And there are 2 main reasons. Maybe a bit of both.
1) The lower-back injury hurt his skating. Even when his production returned, you didn't see AA getting crazy amounts of scoring chances like he'd done the previous 3-4 years.
2) He checked out. AA felt like he'd earned that 2C job. Coach Blashill showed zero faith him, took the job away and cut his icetime almost immediately. I'd like to rule this out, but I can't. Because AA kind of did the same thing in in 2017-18. When Blashill cut his icetime, he'd sag.
So I think there's a bit of both to blame for last year.

Goals/60.
To me, AA's best value is his five-on-five goal scoring. He has insane speed and hands.
2015-16 - 1.39. 1st in the NHL, 250 minutes or more. (rookie callup)
2016-17 - 1.27. 14th in the NHL
2017-18 - .87. 88th in the NHL (Contract hold out, missed camp, first 10 games)
2018-19 - 1.22. 17th in the NHL

In 18-19, he was also top 10 in penalties drawn per 60 and 31st in shots/60.
These numbers fell off drastically last year.
But if AA is skating well, even with lesser minutes, I think it's fair to expect 1 to 1.2 goals/60
Last year, Jeff Carter led the Kings with 1.02 goals/60. Toffoli was second at .98.

As good as the offense can be, the best of it comes on the rush. AA isn't great on the cycle.

Defense
Much has been made about Athanasiou finishing with the worst +/- in the league.
Athanasiou is not a good defensive player - which always bothered me with his speed/size.
But last year's +/- issues were caused by two things.
1) Less scoring. The Red Wings scored 2.3 to 2.7 goals/60 with AA on the ice in his first four years. That dropped to 1.58 last year. That's a massive drop - caused by AA's drastic reduction in offense.
2) His goals against rose to 4.63/60. Which is just brutal. But there was a lot of bad luck involved.
If you look at his defensive numbers, AA's shots against/60 actually dropped last year. His CA/60 also dropped last year. But between bad luck (being on the ice when Howard let in a turd, or a defenseman coughed it up, or stepping on the ice just as a goal goes in), AA had terribly bad luck. And these numbers are reflected in AA's awful PDO (second worst to Glendening in the league)
The truth is, AA isn't lazy. You'll see him bust his ass on the backcheck and make great plays.
But he doesn't engage, physically. He could make life rough on the outlet defenseman by skating into him and making physical contact, instead, he just sort of turns away from the play. He doesn't win many board battles. And in the defensive zone, he can get caught napping. He also has a tendency to blow to the zone looking for a breakaway pass when maybe he should just hang on the wall, await the chip up the boards and chip it out.
Click to expand...
we have ways of fixing his play

 
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Was surprised the Kings signed Athanasiou. Like his speed for sure! Wonder where he'll play though? He's got top 6 Offensive abilities but I doubt LA will play him in that role unless he blows their socks off and forces the issue. Good Luck to Andreas!
andreas.jpg
 
Martin Frk was his teammate in AHL Grand Rapids for parts of two seasons 2014-15 and 2015-16, and at Detroit for all of 2017-2018. Hopefully this bodes well for locker-room integration. I could see an AA Vilardi Frk second line, interesting combination of skillsets. I don't know if it would be defensively sound, but could be exciting.
 
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Great write-up, thanks for taking the time. I'd be pretty happy if either AA or Andersson turned into full-timers for the Kings. It'd be cool to see both or either have success like Frk has (admittedly in few games).

I hope they let Kempe center Wagner and AA just for the hell of it. It'd be the fastest line in the league.
 
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Nickster said:
Martin Frk was his teammate in AHL Grand Rapids for parts of two seasons 2014-15 and 2015-16, and at Detroit for all of 2017-2018. Hopefully this bodes well for locker-room integration. I could see an AA Vilardi Frk second line, interesting combination of skillsets. I don't know if it would be defensively sound, but could be exciting.
Click to expand...

In Detroit, Frk/AA didn't look good together at all. Both guys had a worse CF together than apart.
But that was a couple years ago and they didn't have a real center.
 
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Kings are going to be booty next season. There's no reason to speculate how he's gonna do on the Kings. Let's just see what lottery looks like.
 
Extremely low risk move, he was projected to get more than the 1.2 million contract he received from the Kings.

Nice contract and bridge player. What I don’t understand though, and it’s a common theme with this FO, is that there is no identity with this team other than being fast and terrible on defense. In that sense, AA fits in perfectly in LA and again is just a bridge player.
 
BringTheReign said:
Great write-up, thanks for taking the time. I'd be pretty happy if either AA or Andersson turned into full-timers for the Kings. It'd be cool to see both or either have success like Frk has (admittedly in few games).

I hope they let Kempe center Wagner and AA just for the hell of it. It'd be the fastest line in the league.
Click to expand...
They would indeed being very fast maybe the fastest in the league
 
Meh, I’ll I need to know is he is wasting a roster spot that should be going to the next generation.
 
KingLB said:
Meh, I’ll I need to know is he is wasting a roster spot that should be going to the next generation.
Click to expand...
He will have to prove himself, just like any of the fringe guys. I truly believe this staff will play whoever is performing the best, in camp, and throughout the season. I also don't believe the Kings are planning on doing any major call ups this year. Solely for the reason of this season being all kinds of weird. The taxi squad is the wild card in all this.
 
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