Who quietly had a very good season

[Voight]

This years rookie group was solid, so Will Butchers 44 points went unnoticed. Not bad for a guy who was playing college puck 11 months ago.

Clayton Keller is another rookie who was never talked about, 65 points on an absolute garbage team as a 19 year old.

 

[Lame Lambert]

Ryan Pulock was on a tear after the all star break. Huge year for him.

 

[tony d]

Eric Staal for me. Guy got over 40 goals this past yr.

 

[WhatWhat]

Esa Lindell for Dallas.

The offensive numbers wont blow you away but he went from someone who looked like should be a 3rd pair LD to someone who looked more than comfortable playing 22 a night as a top pair LD. The perfect complement to Klingberg, he really upped his transition ability and how quickly he gets a pass to a player instead of just up the ice to anyone. Very solid 1v1 and bailed us our countless times thanks to the inevitable turnovers that come with a Klingberg style of play

 

[57special]

Yanni Gourde has 25 goals and 64 points.

Yikes! I keep mixing him up with the singer.

Nate Schmidt.
Erik Haula
Panarin
Keller

 

[57special]

As a Jets fan, I HATE Zucker because he always scores against us and only does great things for the Wild. Honestly the player I'm most scared about for the series.

He and Ehlers cancel each other out. Ehlers is the guy who gives me nightmares...I can see him blowing by every single one of the Wild D with except Brodin.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Ryan O'Reilly just scored 61 points, set the single season record for faceoff wins, took literally a single penalty all year (it was a coincidental minor too, so the Sabres didn't even go shorthanded as a result), and ended up with a -2 goal differential on a team that had -80 on the season.

Nobody outside of HFSabres knows any of this.

Avs fans know.


We may not know all the little details of his seasons in Buffalo(Like setting season record for faceoff wins), but we know who he is.


We spent years trying to tell the rest of the hockey world just how good and how under appreciated he was in the league. One of the leagues best two-way Centers in the league, a guy who does so much heavy lifting night in and night out going up against the oppositions best lines and not only doing a good job at shutting them down, but producing at a 1st line level himself, and all without taking any penalties.


He's about as good of a #2C as you could ask for in the league.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

I'm sure he's been mentioned in this thread already, but a lot of people seem to be shocked that Giroux hit triple-digits this year. He had an incredibly impressive under-the-radar season. And this is coming from a Penguins fan.

 

[hagelin1381]

Ghost

Giroux and co. overshadow the fact that he finished top-5 in defenseman scoring [65 points].

 

[Langdon Alger]

Mikko Rantanen put up 84 points as 21 year old... He was overshadowed by MacKinnon's absurd season, but it's still an amazing season.

This is what I came to say. I honestly did not hear one word about him all year on any broadcast. I was shocked when I saw his stats on the TSN website.

Quietest 80 plus point season I’ve ever seen.

 

[Critical13]

This years rookie group was solid, so Will Butchers 44 points went unnoticed. Not bad for a guy who was playing college puck 11 months ago.

Clayton Keller is another rookie who was never talked about, 65 points on an absolute garbage team as a 19 year old.

Keller is a great example.

 

[Voight]

Mikko Rantanen put up 84 points as 21 year old... He was overshadowed by MacKinnon's absurd season, but it's still an amazing season.

That's because its attributed to MackInnons offensive explosion, not to discount Mikko's skill, but as is the norm when one player has a monster year, their team mate wont get credit.

This was also a pretty crazy year for offence, much like in the 80s when some guys had huge seasons but you didn't hear about it because there were another 10-15 guys with similar stats.

 

[FinnishCoyote]

Keller 65 points as a 19 years old and went unnoticed after his hot start. He is 6th most productive rookie in the last 10 years in pretty bad team

 

[Emerz]

Pastrnak hit 80 points, pretty solid year.

 

[Uncle]

matt dumba put up 50 points and was +15, I dont have cable but I havent heard much about him online.

 

[Voight]

John Carlson is another great example. Scored 31 more points than last season, finishing with 68 (13 more than his previous career high). Did not hear one word about him all season, unlike last season where Burns & Karlsson were in the news cycle all year long. Midn you he's long been one of the most underrated players in the NHL so its not too shocking.

While were on the subject of John's, the one who goes by Klingberg had a great season. I remember hearing some Norris hype in the first 1/4 of the season but nothing after that. FWIW his point totals in his first 4 seasons - 40, 58, 49, 67.

 

[Yoshidas Island]

That's because its attributed to MackInnons offensive explosion, not to discount Mikko's skill, but as is the norm when one player has a monster year, their team mate wont get credit.

This was also a pretty crazy year for offence, much like in the 80s when some guys had huge seasons but you didn't hear about it because there were another 10-15 guys with similar stats.

Thing about Rantanen is that he's expected to produce well. It wasn't out of the realm of possibility that he could go PPG in the NHL.
So when a young player explodes like that, it's usually a big talking point.

John Carlson is another great example. Scored 31 more points than last season, finishing with 68 (13 more than his previous career high). Did not hear one word about him all season, unlike last season where Burns & Karlsson were in the news cycle all year long. Midn you he's long been one of the most underrated players in the NHL so its not too shocking.

While were on the subject of John's, the one who goes by Klingberg had a great season. I remember hearing some Norris hype in the first 1/4 of the season but nothing after that. FWIW his point totals in his first 4 seasons - 40, 58, 49, 67.

Personally I heard more about Carlson's season than any of the other 3 defensemen you mentioned in your post. I've seen a lot of tweets/articles about Carlson because he's a highly regarded UFA.
Might just be who I follow that led to that

 

[Freaky Styley]

A bit of a homer vote I guess, but Tyson Barrie finished 2nd among D in P/GP. He missed some time due to injury but only trailed Karlsson in that category. EJ's injury helped him as his TOI skyrocketed.

 

[Sansbacon]

PPG +, best ES goal scorer, all while being snake bitten on the PP2. And with low minutes. And improving more on his D game. Considering people are trying to say he's not elite, I'd say his season was underrated

Yeah but all players get snake bitten at some point in the season, so you can’t really use that to suggest that he should have had more points.

 

[MR4]

Yeah but all players get snake bitten at some point in the season, so you can’t really use that to suggest that he should have had more points.

He had like 29 ES goals to 2 PP goals before the last game. I'm pretty confident his PP #s will shoot up next year.

 

[LAINEC]

Haula and Raantaa.

 

[MartyOwns]

keith motherf***ing kinkaid

 

[Jimmy Hoots]

Auston Matthews.

 

[Jtown]

John Carlson. IM surprised he is not mentioned more often.

 

[Terry Yake]

ondrej kase