2 weeks Ago By Adam Gretz
The first few weeks of the NHL season can produce some strange results. Teams you expect to struggle might win a few games, Stanley Cup contenders might get off to a slow start, and individual players might have some unexpected stat lines that raise expectations a little too much and a little too quickly. We are going to focus on the latter group here and take a look at five players who are off to surprisingly strong starts that might be resulting in them getting a little too much hype to open the season.
That doesn't mean these players are bad, not useful or they won't have strong seasons, though. It's just that they might not continue to produce at the level they are for the rest of the season. Ivan Barbashev has been an outstanding player for the Vegas Golden Knights since he arrived in February 2023, and he played a key role on their Stanley Cup-winning team.
The 28-year-old is clearly a good player, but he probably isn't as good or productive as he has looked through the first nine games of the 2023-24 season. Barbashev is already up to seven goals, five assists and 12 total points in nine games and is scoring at a rate that we have not really seen him perform at throughout his career. The biggest driving force behind the Russian's early production is that he is scoring on more than 36 percent of his shots on goal.
That is not only unsustainable, it's also an unrealistic number, especially for a player who has consistently scored on 17 percent of his shots throughout his career. The thing about scoring and production in the NHL is that players tend to go through peaks and valleys. Sometimes, they go on a run where everything goes in the net; sometimes, they go through a stretch where no matter they cannot buy a goal.
When those hot and cold streaks happen in the middle of January or February when there are already 30 or 40 games of hockey around them, we tend to not notice them as much. When they occur at the start of the season, it stands out, especially for a player who does not typically score or produce like this. Barbashev is good, but not this good.
Jonathan Huberdeau's first two years in Calgary did not go as planned. After being one of the top offensive players in the league during his last five years in Florida, he arrived in Calgary in July 2022 with big expectations and a big new contract, but his offense has completely gone away. He went from being a 100-point scorer in Florida all the way down to a 50-point scorer in Calgary.
It is a problem, and it is a contract that might now be the worst in the NHL. If you are a Flames fan looking for some sign of hope, you might see Huberdeau with seven points in his first eight games and start thinking maybe this is a bounce-back year. But I am not ready to go that far.
For one, the 31-year-old has had one big game where he had four points (two goals, two assists) against the Philadelphia Flyers. He has just three points in the other six games. Even worse, he has just five shots on goal in his past six games entering the week.
If Huberdeau's contract was about half of what it currently is, he would still be a fine player to have on your roster. But that salary-cap hit and second-line production is a significant problem for the Flames. A couple of good games at the start of the season is not likely to change that.
Tom Wilson is one of the most chaotic players in the NHL. There are 31 fanbases across the league that loathe him, and teams hate playing against him. But he is also one of those players your general manager and head coach would probably crawl over broken glass to acquire.
He can play. The 30-year-old has a lot of value to an NHL team, even if his contract is a little pricey for his age. He is also off to a strong start with five goals in his first seven games.
That's not a pace he is likely to continue on. but the overhyped part comes from the fact that he is expected to be a serious candidate to make the Team Canada roster for the Four Nations tournament . That is a little much.
Wilson is good, and he is good for an NHL roster. But international, best-on-best tournaments do not need to be built with NHL salary-cap constraints or with the idea of "grinding teams down." You can, and should, simply pick the best players.
Wilson is not one of the best Canadian players. It will likely not matter as Canada will probably win most international tournaments with a couple of empty roster spots, but it's still a little wild to see him being talked about as a Team Canada player. The San Jose Sharks look like they are well on their way to another brutal season in which they are not even remotely competitive.
Mikael Granlund has been one of the few bright spots on the team with 10 points in his first nine games, following up what was a productive 2023-24 campaign that saw him record 60 points in 69 games. Overall, that is solid production for a player who was mostly considered a salary-dump throw-in on the Erik Karlsson trade. Granlund is in the final year of his contract with a $5 million salary-cap hit, and given his offensive production and status as a pending unrestricted free agent, he is almost certainly going to be a trade chip for the Sharks before this year's trade deadline.
Buyers should beware of that. The 32-year-old has had a long, productive career in the NHL, but you should always be wary of non-star players who rack up a lot of points on bad teams. That same production does not always translate over to a new spot and when they are put into more meaningful roles in big spots.
The harsh reality is that even bad teams score goals, and even bad teams need somebody who is going to lead them in points. Somebody has to score the goals and collect the points. If the Sharks are smart, they are going to put Granlund into as many offensive situations as they can and hope he can pile up points to entice another team looking for offense to trade for him.
It might not go well for the trading team when it happens. With starting goalie Thatcher Demko sidelined, the Vancouver Canucks have had to rely on their backup netminders, including veteran Kevin Lankinen. So far, the 29-year-old has been outstanding with a 4-0-1 record and a .
930 save percentage to help the Canucks earn the second-highest points percentage (.714) in the Pacific Division going into the week. While goalies can sometimes be a little unpredictable and have a tendency to emerge out of nowhere late in their careers and put together big seasons, Lankinen might be the case of a veteran goalie just having a strong run behind a good team to open the season.
Entering this season, the Finn had only managed a .906 save percentage in over 100 starts, which is probably a more accurate representation of the goalie he is. Lankinen deserves significant credit for the way he has played this season.
It just might not continue over the course of the year or for as long as the Canucks need him to play..
