Odds and Ends: Leftover Stats from Week 11

Some food for thought after anther week of fantasy hockey …

208

That's how many points Taylor Hall ended up with in his three-and-half seasons with the Devils. Injuries and inconsistent play have dogged him, but he remains just one-and-half seasons removed from winning the Hart Trophy, the only Devil to ever win the award. He's shooting a career-low 5.5 percent this season, and according to hockey-reference, his 48.5 CF% is the lowest since the 2013-14 season. Hall is slumping — seven coaches in 10 seasons doesn't help — but make no mistake, Arizona, which acquired him Monday,  is getting a good player. His stint with the Devils (0.99 P/GP) was arguably more successful than his stint with the Oilers (0.86 P/GP and one water bottle incident), but the problem for the Devils was getting fair value for him as an impending UFA.  This is a buy-low opportunity for a 28-year-old winger who can still score. Meanwhile, the Devils' already mediocre offense will suffer even more without Hall, their leading scorer.

28.57 Percent

That's the percentage of offensive zone starts Logan Couture has logged in two games under Bob Boughner after starting in the offensive zone 62.83 percent of the time under Peter DeBoer. This huge drop also extends to frequent linemate Evander Kane, and while the sample size is small it's worth noting that Boughner seems to deploy Couture's line far more in the defensive zone than DeBoer. The change has not diminished Couture's offensive production; if anything, it's been jumpstarted after going three games without a point prior to the coaching change. Speaking of deployment, it's also worth noting that Tomas Hertl has moved to the wing with Joe Thornton at center, though Hertl continues to take a lot of faceoffs. The hope is that Thornton's playmaking ability can help Hertl get going. He's still on pace for 30 goals but hasn't looked nearly as good as he did last season and has a minus-16 rating, third lowest on the team.

6

That's how many points Tyler Toffoli scored last week, representing nearly one-third of his total this season and after he notched just one assist in the nine games prior. He's always been a bit of a streaky scorer, but it's still a little perplexing how he seems to have peaked despite being just 27. It's not like his defensive game has improved to offset his offensive decline, and after scoring 54 goals from 2014-2016 (13.1 S%) he's scored just 61 from 2016-2019 (8.4 S%). There is no immediate help coming to the Kings, and after hiring Todd McLellan this summer there won't be a coaching change, either. Ilya Kovalchuk is expected to leave the team (soon-ish?) after his bonus was paid out Dec. 15, which means there will be one less winger on a team already bereft of scoring, perhaps putting even more pressure on Toffoli. However, we continue to hold Toffoli for now in the hopes of a trade to greener pastures for the impending UFA.

2:29

That's how much more ice time Brent Burns is getting at even strength through two games under Boughner, going from 18:50 under DeBoer to 21:19. It's a massive jump, and it's believed that Burns' usage is one reason why the Sharks have underperformed and DeBoer was fired. The results have been mixed; they allowed four third-period goals in a loss to the Rangers but knocked out the Canucks despite being outshot 35-27 and getting dominated in faceoffs. I'm not convinced the changes will help; in last week's column, I highlighted how Burns' offensive decline has followed the age curve, and it's his defense that's been the big problem, not his offense. Still, the increased ice time is good for Burns owners, and hopefully he can snap his 11-game point drought to recoup some value, making the hulking Sharks defender a more appetizing trade bait.

1

That's how many goals the vaunted Canucks power play has scored in its last 12 opportunities. The good news is that Vancouver still leads the league in power-play opportunities with 126 and remains firmly in the top-5 in efficiency. However, if the opportunities dry up and the efficiency starts to tank, this could be trouble for a team that lacks quality depth on defense, especially with top defenseman Alexander Edler still out of the lineup and Chris Tanev guaranteed to get hurt blocking a shot at some point. The biggest tell? J.T. Miller, arguably the team's MVP, has not recorded a point in four games, and after starting the season at a point-per-game pace seems to have fallen back down to earth, regressing back to his 60-point form. Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser remain elite young players who continue to improve, but the 26-year-old Miller is already in his prime. It might be worthwhile for fantasy owners to send out feelers to see what they can get for Miller, because a second-half drop in production seems to be looming.

0

That's how many shot attempts Casey Mittelstadt generated, versus nine shot attempts against, in a little more than 10 minutes in a 5-2 win against the Blues. He was just one of two players, the other being Vancouver rookie Zack MacEwen, who failed to generate any offense at all last week. Mittelstadt has since been assigned to AHL Rochester, where he should've started after leaving the University of Minnesota after one season, and you can't help but think the Sabres bungled his development. They still have a chance to develop him into a top-six playmaker, but it could be a long road ahead, and plans for Jack Eichel and Mittelstadt to form a 1-2 punch down the middle will have to wait a little longer. Evan Rodrigues, who has zero goals in 18 games, has since taken over as the second-line center due to a lack of options, which again forces Ralph Krueger to use Marcus Johansson (38.8 FO%) at center and dress rookie Rasmus Asplund for some needed depth.