Who has been your team's pleasant surprise thus far in season?

[57special]

Rossi -

Faber - I expected him to be decent, but not be a top pairing guy.

 

[AuraSphere]

Don't think you'll find one Leaf fan commenting - team has been a mess regardless of where they are in the standings. Only bright spot I guess would be Joseph Woll

 

[TropicOfNoReturn]

Nils Hoglander

Honourable mention: Sam Lafferty


Boeser is just back to where he was meant to be.

 

[Chelios]

As mentioned in the OP, I cannot get over how good Vlasic has been. He has been our best defenseman and looks like he could be one of the best shutdown defenseman in the league.

 

[Tatanka]

Ryan Johnson has been a pleasant surprise on the Sabres. He is forcing management’s hands to keep him on the big club.

 

[Mrb1p]

As a Hab fan, no one lol

 

[RRhoads]

Veleno has been the most pleasant surprise on the Wings. A lot of Wingsfans didn't even want to resign him in the off season, but now he is playing on the PK and in the top six.

 

[Howboutthempanthers]

It's been a couple of guys that have fit in nicely. But for me OEL has been excellent. He scores, he doesn't make many mistakes, he's been solid all the way around.

 

[Matias Maccete]

Michael Carcone has 12 goals and 15 points in 24 games so yeah him. Kesselring has been awesome too but that seemed like a matter of him just getting a shot this year.

 

[stevo61]

Merzlikins has been better than 97% of the fanbase expected.

Boqvist went from disappointment to one of our best defenseman in a few weeks. Sucks he got hurt because he was playing fantastic hockey.

Probably the top pick though is Voronkov. Many of us even wondered if he would be in the NHL yet. Hes there and excelling in his rookie season

 

[Koivu11]

Justin Barron

 

[JianYang]

Pearson and Gallagher started strong but have both cooled off since.
Newhook would probably be the best answer but he is now injured.

I haven't watched a ton this year, but I can't really come up with a pleasant surprise. Last year, maybe the answer was guhle, and montembeault, but surprises turn into expectations pretty quickly.

It's been kind of a bland year so far.

Edit: someone mentioned barron above. I stand corrected. That's not a bad choice. I think Habs lead the league in goals by dmen so if there is an answer, it probably comes from the back end.

 

[newfy]

Veleno has been the most pleasant surprise on the Wings. A lot of Wingsfans didn't even want to resign him in the off season, but now he is playing on the PK and in the top six.

Hes been solid for sure. I would say Compher has been even more of a pleasant surprise to a lot of fans

 

[RRhoads]

Hes been solid for sure. I would say Compher has been even more of a pleasant surprise to a lot of fans

Yeah, he has been pleasant surprise too. I was expecting a slightly lesser version of Copp.

 

[VanillaCoke]

Lafferty easy