NHL Barometer: Development Is Non-Linear

ROTOWIRE BAROMETER
Jan Levine, RotoWire Hockey Writer

This week's article includes a new #1 center for the blue, blanc et rouge, Gabby and Nash on fire, Bobby Lu playing well in Florida and a young d-man in Nashville showing again that defensemen growth is not linear.

The World Junior's Championships started again Friday the 26th. Jon Litterine has a phenomenal preview while Janet Eagleson gave her views as well. I am looking forward to seeing Jack Eichel, Connor McDavid and Kasperi Kapanen. As a Rangers' fan, I will be watching Pavel Buchnevich and Anthony Duclair while waiting to see if Brandon Halveson starts in goal for Team USA.

First Liners (Risers)

Alex Galchenyuk, C, MTL - Normally, Galchenyuk is a left wing, but earlier this month coach Michel Therrien moved his young winger to center. The same night Montreal honored Jean Beliveau It took Galchenyuk a few games to adjust to the switch, but he seems right at home at pivot lately. Galchenyuk extended his point-streak to four games - during which he has seven points - Tuesday and look for him to remain in that spot for the foreseeable future.

Patrice Beregeron, C, BOS - Bergeron's overall numbers are down from his usual pace but recently he has been making up for lost time. For the year, Bergeron has six goals and 20 assists in 35 games, but he has one goal and nine assists in his last nine contests. Bergeron's goal production is way down this year thanks to his lowest shooting percentage since 2008-09, which is the second time in three games his SHG% has had a massive decline. One would expect some progression to the norm, but since he had similar struggles two years ago, it's possible that number will only rise slightly, though he still has good value.

Mathieu Perreault, LW, WPG - Perrault had a breakout season with Anaheim last year, scoring 18 goals with 25 assists in 69 games. He parlayed that season into what I thought was a steal of a contract by Winnipeg, who locked Perrault up for three years at $3 mil per. Earlier this season, that didn't look to be the case, as he had just six points his first 24 games. Lately, Perrault has been validating his deal, scoring goals in three straight - including Tuesday - which extended his point streak to seven and gave him 11 points his last 10 games. Perreault has been playing on a line with Mark Scheifele; a combination that should remain together for at least as long as both remain hot.

Marian Gaborik, RW, LA - Gaborik missed almost half of last season due to a knee injury and a broken collarbone. When he did suit up for Columbus, the production was not there. However, upon landing in LA in a deadline deal, he immediately meshed with Anze Kopitar, recording 16 points in 19 regular season games while also having a strong playoff to help the Kings win the Stanley Cup. That performance landed Gaborik to a seven-year worth $4.9 million a season. This season started off poorly as well, partially impacted by injuries again, but he is making up for lost time with seven goals and two assists his last five games.

Rick Nash, LW, NYR - I profiled Nash two months ago when he got off to a hot start to the season. In that intervening period, he has shown no signs of slowing, capping his pre-Xmas break schedule with his first hat trick of the season and as a Ranger on Tuesday against Washington. The ice time and power play time are very similar to last year when he scored 26 goals along with 13 assists in 65 games, but through 32 games, he already has 23 markers and 13 assists. The big difference, beyond the increase in shooting percentage from 10.1 to 19.8 percent, has been Nash's willingness to go to the dirty areas now that he is fully over mentally and physically from the concussion he had last season.

Mark Streit, D, PHI - In Streit's last three full seasons, he has tallied 49, 47 and 44 points. If you take the 27 points he tallied in 48 games in the strike-shortened season and project it over 82 games, you get 45 points. This year, despite the struggles in Philly, Streit has been up to his usual tricks and then some, scoring 22 points in 34 games along with a very solid plus-nine rating. He is more than living up to his end of the bargain of the four-year, $22 million deal he signed in July 2013.

Roman Josi, D, NAS - One of my debates in my home league this offseason was whether or not to keep Josi as a last round retention. Part of the question with keeping him was whether Seth Jones (more on him later) would take a step up and cut into Josi's time and value. I am glad I kept Josi, as his value is right where it was last year, unimpeded by Jones' presence. Josi has four goals and 14 assists in 32 games, to go with a plus-12 rating. He logs heavy minutes in Nashville, playing alongside Shea Weber on the top defensive pairing and first power-play unit.

Henrik Lundqvist, G, NYR - Three weeks ago, Lundqvist was on the Fallers side of the column. Since then, he has been on the top of his game with the Rangers winning seven straight. Hank played in six of those contests, allowing just 10 goals on 164 shots. He has been much more aggressive, coming out higher in the crease, challenging shooters and cutting down angles. When he is doing that, he usually is on the top of his game, which clearly looks to be the case.

Roberto Luongo, G, FLA - Luongo is on a roll lately, winning four of his last five starts. That streak has upped his record to 13-7-6 with a 2.30 goals-against average along with a .924 save percentage. That goals-against average is Bobby Lu's best since 2010-11 while the save percentage matches his mark from two years ago, which also was his best since that 2010-11 campaign. Florida has a true #1 netminder in Luongo, who is comfortable back in the Sunshine State.

Others include Ryan Getzlaf, Claude Giroux, Anze Kopitar, Anders Lee, Kyle Turris, Ryan Kesler, Nazem Kadri, Tyler Johnson, Sean Couturier, Evgeni Malkin, Jeff Carter, Derick Brassard, Scheifele, Johnny Gaudreau, Jakub Voracek, Phil Kessel, Chris Kelly, Mats Zuccarello, Henrik Zetterberg, Zach Parise, Loui Eriksson, Bobby Ryan, Andrew Ladd, Blake Wheeler, Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat, Carl Soderberg, James van Riemsdyk, Thomas Vanek, Jarome Iginla, Vladimir Tarasenko, Michael Raffl, Joffrey Lupul, Ryan McDonagh, Brent Burns, Dustin Byfuglien, John Carlson, Erik Johnson, Andrei Markov, Mike Green, Zdeno Chara, Ron Hainsey, Kevin Shattenkirk, Cody Franson, Dougie Hamilton, Kevin Klein, Mark Giordano, Carey Price, Braden Holtby, Pekka Rinne, Antti Niemi, Michael Hutchinson, Frederik Andersen, Marc-Andre Fleury and Ray Emery.

Training Room (Injuries)

Jordan Staal, C, CAR - Staal broke his right fibula in a pre-season game on September 23 requiring surgery that was expected to sideline him three-to-four months. He started skating a little more than two weeks ago and could make his season debut Monday against the Canadiens. It's been a lost season for Carolina in the standings, largely due to their offensive woes, which is next-to-last in the league in scoring, so maybe Staal can provide a boost when he returns.

Blake Comeau, LW, PIT - The Penguins, like the Blue Jackets, have been beset by injuries all season. For Pittsburgh, it's showing no signs of abating, as now Comeau will miss several weeks with a wrist injury. Comeau is the 10th injury, and sixth to a forward, for Pittsburgh, who also has two defensemen out as well. His absence robs Evgeni Malkin of his wingman while Comeau, who had been on track for his best season since 2010-11, sees his fine season go by the wayside.

Brian Elliot, G, STL - Elliot, out since late-November with a sprained knee is inching closer to returning. He has been practicing with the Blues for the last couple weeks and could return soon after New Year's Day. Jake Allen and Martin Brodeur have held the fort at varying degrees of success between the pipes for St. Louis while Elliott has been sidelined. Once Elliott is ready to go, look for him to regain his role as the team's starting goalie.

Others include Brandon Sutter (another possible case of the mumps), Corey Perry (knee, should be back very shortly), Christian Ehrhoff/ Paul Martin (each placed on IR on Dec 20, no specific timeframe given for either), Niklas Kronwall (UBI, DTD), Tyler Myers (LBI, WTW), Jacob Trouba (UBI, out till February), Ben Bishop (groin, could play Friday), Steve Mason (back, could play Monday), Corey Crawford (left foot, back in action), Jimmy Howard (groin, on STIR, could play Saturday) and Semyon Varlamov (groin, returned to action Tuesday with a shutout win).

Fourth Liners/Press Boxers (Fallers)

Riley Nash, C, CAR - Nash failed to register a point Tuesday against the Devils, the 13th time in the last 14 games he has been held pointless. To give you a sense just how hot Nash was earlier in the season, he still has 16 points in 34 games, meaning that before this cold streak started, Nash had 15 points in 20 games. Nash scored 24 points last season, so it's not shocking that he fell back to earth.

Charlie Coyle, RW, MIN - Many prognosticators predicted a breakthrough campaign for Coyle this year. While that still may be the case, to date, that has yet to happen. Coyle snapped a seven-game scoring drought Saturday; picking up two assists and added a goal Monday. Those three points gave Coyle 14 points in 32 games, putting on 36-point pace for the season. Last season, Coyle had 30 points in 70 games, so that "breakthrough" campaign has yet to occur, plus Coyle is now on the third line, which is not a recipe for future success.

Seth Jones, D, NAS -Two years ago, Jones was viewed by many as the player who should have been the first overall pick in the draft. When he fell to Nashville at four, he was thought of as a steal for the Predators. Jones had a solid rookie campaign, scoring 25 points while playing 19:37 nightly in 77 games, albeit with an unsightly minus-23 rating. It was expected that Jones would take the next step forward this year, but he is showing why the adage that "defensemen growth is not linear" is so true. Jones has regressed a bit this year, tallying just seven points in 33 games and seeing two minutes of less ice time daily.

Ben Scrivens, G, EDM - Scrivens came over to Edmonton from LA last season, missing out on a possible ring but getting a chance to earn a full-time job.  That job battle was between Scrivens and Viktor Fasth, neither of who have been particularly good, though Scrivens may be worse lately. Scrivens has allowed 11 goals on just 78 shots his last three games, lowering his already horrible save percentage to .890 while raising his goals-against average to 3.23. If he is one of your starting fantasy goalies, can we recommend you take up a different hobby?

Others include Steven Stamkos (recently, based on expectations), John Tavares, Brian Boyle, Leon Draisaitl, Martin St. Louis, Jason Chimera, Mason Raymond, Nikolai Kulemin, Jake Gardiner, Anton Stralman, Dan Boyle, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Fasth, and Cory Schneider (solely due to his win-loss record).