This article is part of our NHL Barometer series.
This week's article includes three red-hot rookies, on the Paul in Montreal, Buddha Budaj rolling, P.K. down and a rough campaign for a former sniper.
First Liners (Risers)
Auston Matthews, C, TOR – Toronto had their five-game win streak end with a 6-5 loss in overtime to Washington on Tuesday but Matthews continues to roll on. He now sits at 14 assists on the season to go with 20 goals, one of which was his game-winner in the Centennial Classic against the Red Wings. Matthews' strong performance the last few games earned him NHL First Star of the Week honors. The first overall pick in last summer's draft keeps on contributing, carrying the Maple Leafs to the fringes of playoff contention.
Bo Horvat, C, VAN – Horvat quietly continues to produce, with his goal Monday extending his point streak to four games. The ninth pick in 2013 notched 16 goals and 40 points in 82 games last season. Horvat is currently the Canucks' third-line center, but his production is like a second liner, with 11 goals and 15 assists in 39 games. Get on the bandwagon now before it's too late.
Paul Byron, LW, MTL – Byron had a solid November, including a seven-game stretch in which he scored five goals. The 27-year-old followed that up with a six-game drought that resulted in him sliding down the depth chart. That drop is now but a memory, as the 2007 sixth-rounder has six points (two goals, four assists) in his last seven games and Saturday's two points established a new career high of 23 points (12 goals and 11 assists) for the second-line winger.
Anthony Mantha, RW, DET – Mantha, the 2013 first-round draftee, has steadily moved up the ladder, producing at each level. The hulking sniper tallied a league-best 50 goals with Val d'Or of the QMJHL in 2012-13, leading GM Ken Holland to select him. While his progress may not have been quick enough for some, he is making up for lost time this season. Mantha scored a pair of goals and added an assist in Detroit's 5-4 defeat to the Maple Leafs on Sunday, giving him five goals in his last five games. On the year, Mantha is up to nine goals and seven assists in 22 games and looks to be the building block for the future in Hockeytown along with Dylan Larkin.
Patrik Laine, RW, WPG – All Laine, the Robin to Matthews' Batman or yin to his yang, does is produce. Tuesday, the young Finn added another goal and two assists, giving him 20 goals and 14 helpers in 40 games. Laine, the No. 2 pick in 2016, is a bonafide, top-line sniper who should score 50 goals in the near future and has drawn comparisons to Alex Ovechkin for where he lines up on the power play – just outside the faceoff circle to blast home one-timers.
David Savard, D, CLM – Zach Werenski and Seth Jones rightly grab much of the blueline attention in Columbus but the rest of the D is having a pretty darn good season. One such player is Savard. After tallying 11 goals and 25 assists in 2014-15, his production took a hit last season as he battled foot and oblique injuries, limiting him to 65 games. Now fully healthy, Savard is enjoying a rebound campaign with a stellar plus-24 rating, 60 hits and 64 blocked shots in just 36 games.
T.J. Brodie, D, CGY – After a horrific start to the season, Brodie seems to finally be rounding into form. He has seven points in his last eight games but his shot production, which took a turn for the worse last year, continues to lag. Brodie put 133 shots on net in 2014-15 but fired just 79 in 70 games last year and has hit the net with only 37 in 39 contests this year. Until that number moves up a bit, don't expect much goal scoring from the Calgary defenseman.
Marc-Andre Fleury, G, PIT – Injury has created opportunity for The Flower, who has stepped in to ably fill the breach. Matt Murray is week-to-week with an upper-body injury. In his absence, Fleury has won four straight, improving to 6-0-1 in his last seven decisions while running his home record to 10-2-1. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. The Pens are in the midst of their bye week and return on Jan. 8, allowing Murray time to heal and allow the rookie netminder a chance to once again muddle the goaltending situation.
Peter Budaj, G, LA – We keep waiting for the slipper not to fit, for the clock to strike 12 and for the dream to end. Yet each time we think it's over, Budaj strings together another stretch of solid performances. Heading into Tuesday's game, he has not allowed more than two goals in seven starts. On the season, Budaj is at 16-10-3 with a 2.03 GAA and .919 save percentage. Los Angeles is clinging to the eighth playoff spot in the West thanks to their current #1 goalie, who has stood in admirably for the injured Jonathan Quick (groin).
Others include Sean Monahan, Robby Fabbri, Jack Eichel, Mikael Granlund, Mitch Marner, Kyle Turris, Sidney Crosby, Alexander Wennberg, Ryan Kesler, Sam Reinhart, Vincent Trocheck, Connor McDavid, Jonathan Drouin, Jaromir Jagr, Phil Kessel, Cam Atkinson, Nikita Kucherov, Alexander Radulov, Sven Baertschi, Blake Wheeler, Viktor Arvidsson, Vladimir Tarasenko, Wayne Simmonds, Kevin Labanc, Loui Eriksson, Filip Forsberg, Nikolaj Ehlers, Nick Holden, Zach Werenski, Victor Hedman, Justin Schultz, Ryan Suter, Jake Gardiner, Shea Weber, Rasmus Ristolainen, Brent Burns, Sergei Bobrovsky, Brian Elliott, Frederik Andersen, Martin Jones, Jake Allen and Devan Dubnyk.
Training Room (Injuries)
P.K. Subban, D, NAS – Subban, sidelined since Dec. 15 due to an upper-body issue, landed on injured reserve on New Year's Day. The talented blueliner will miss 2-3 more weeks with the injury, which forced to miss the rematch against his former team, the Canadiens, on Tuesday. Prior to being out, Subban had seven goals and 10 assists in 29 games, albeit with an unsightly minus-11 rating.
Others include Aleksander Barkov (undisclosed, on IR), Ryan Getzlaf (lower-body injury, day-to-day), Steven Stamkos (knee, recently ditched his crutches, no change to four-month timetable estimate), Jamie Benn (foot, day-to-day), Rick Nash (groin, may play Saturday), Michael Raffl (lower-body, returned to action), David Backes (concussion, indefinite), Pavel Buchnevich (back/core, could return mid-January), Marian Hossa (upper-body, still on injured reserve), Tyler Toffoli (lower-body, could resume skating later this week), Mike Green (upper-body, out for California road trip), Matt Murray (lower-body, week-to-week) and Craig Anderson (wife's illness, indefinite).
Fourth Liners/Press Boxers (Fallers)
Matt Duchene, C, COL – Colorado is considering a major shakeup and Duchene is rumored to be on the block. He failed to find the scoresheet for the sixth time in his past seven games on Monday. In addition, despite 26 shots, the talented pivotman has just one goal in his last nine outings. Even so, Duchene still has 13 goals and 11 assists on the season. With 2.5 years left on the five-year extension signed in July 2013, he could bring a decent haul on the open market.
Marian Gaborik, RW, LA – Remember when Gaborik was a sniper of great renown? Yeah, me too. Gabby had 42 goals in 2009-10 with the Wild and 41 goals in 2011-12 with the Rangers. Since then, the production has been spotty, but he did tally 27 goals in 2014-15. Last year, Gaborik had just 12 goals in 54 games. This season began with Gaborik sidelined due to an injury, but he has only one marker in 15 games since returning.
Aaron Ekblad, D, FLA – It's been a season to forget for the former Calder Trophy winner. After notching 39 and 36 points the past two years respectively, Ekblad has just seven points and three assists along with an embarrassing minus-17 rating in 38 games this season. The top pick of 2014 signed an eight-year, $60 million contract extension with the Panthers in July of 2016. Eventually, he will make good on that deal; it just may not be this season.
Andrei Vasilevskiy, G, TB – Vasilevskiy is getting a chance to stake a permanent claim to the Tampa net with Ben Bishop out another 2-3 weeks. Not all has been peaches and cream, as the young Russian has allowed three or more goals in four of his last five starts, including five versus Winnipeg on Tuesday. In that span, Vasilevskiy is just 2-2-1 and needs to do more if the Bolts are going to get back into playoff contention. He is likely the team's future #1 goalie, but he would quell any concerns about that projected scenario by picking up his play now.
Others include Jonathan Toews, Anze Kopitar, Chris Kunitz, Jarome Iginla, Viktor Stalberg, Niklas Kronwall, Ryan Ellis, Damon Severson, Anton Stralman, Morgan Rielly, Pekka Rinne, Petr Mrazek and Mike Smith.
