Confirmed with Link: Avs acquire Casey Mittelstadt for Bo Byram

[henchman21]

Sans a couple games, elite defensive play with good offense while playing with Lehky and Duhaime. Expectations sound like they are out of whack if you expected a lot more.

 

[dahrougem2]

Sans a couple games, elite defensive play with good offense while playing with Lehky and Duhaime. Expectations sound like they are out of whack if you expected a lot more.

Well he has played with worse and produced more in Buffalo, so I am expecting a bit more offense.

 

[Pokecheque]

I’m probably in the minority, but I was hoping for more from Mitts. He’s all around fine, but he seldom drives play imo. Hopefully that’s in part to adjusting to linemates and in fairness to him, we haven’t exactly placed him with ideal linemates. I just was hoping for a more of a noticeable impact offensively or defensively, rather than a flash here or there. He seems like a player who can play 2C, but you’ll always want to upgrade on him. Hopefully I’m wrong and he turns out to be an elite 2C that has a steady, but great impact. However I hope his next contract falls in the $6m range (+/-500k) rather than the $7.5-8.5m range we’ve seen centers sign at lately.

He’s actually driven play at a tremendous rate since coming to Colorado. I don’t have the game-by-game breakdown but his possession stats have been really good.

I’d argue one reason why he isn’t producing at the rate people might want, well, look at his linemates. Duhaime and Mittelstadt have actually clicked really well, but him and Lehkonen as wingers aren’t going to inflate scoring numbers for anyone.

Well he has played with worse and produced more in Buffalo, so I am expecting a bit more offense.

Worse than Duhaime and Lehkonen?

 

[henchman21]

Well he has played with worse and produced more in Buffalo, so I am expecting a bit more offense.

It’ll come around. We’re basically taking a 1 point difference so far.

 

[the_fan]

Complaining about Mittelstadt already just 11 games in with the new team?

He’s scoring at pretty much the same rate as Kadri did for the 1st two season as the Avs 2C before Naz had his career year with 80 points

 

[GeoRox89]

Sans a couple games, elite defensive play with good offense while playing with Lehky and Duhaime. Expectations sound like they are out of whack if you expected a lot more.

You mean he’s not going to be prime Kopitar? Just shut it all down then. Window is closed

Seriously though, we’ve given him Nuke and Mikko on the wing for maybe 2 games. The most common line combo has been him with Lehky and Drouin which is two pass first guys and a 3rd wheel to do the dirty work but no finishers. Other than that he’s spent a bunch of time with one of Lehky or Drouin and then Duhaime and/or Trenin. Not sure what people are expecting.

I suspect his offense will improve to at least where he was in Buffalo but it would sure help if we gave him a finisher to best make use of his play making abilities. Or at least realize he and Drouin are not a good match stylistically and that for whatever reason Nuke and Lehky doesn’t seem to work well together unless the goal is to frustrate the opposition but make sure no one scores

Edit: Actually if you can use him with some combo of Nuke/Lehky/Duhaime to do what that line (with Trenin) did to Petey that’s a hell of a weapon at least in home games in the playoffs where you get to dictate your matchups even if they don’t score much. Be like Danault driving everyone crazy in 2021

 

[dahrougem2]

He’s actually driven play at a tremendous rate since coming to Colorado. I don’t have the game-by-game breakdown but his possession stats have been really good.

I’d argue one reason why he isn’t producing at the rate people might want, well, look at his linemates. Duhaime and Mittelstadt have actually clicked really well, but him and Lehkonen as wingers aren’t going to inflate scoring numbers for anyone.


Worse than Duhaime and Lehkonen?

Worse than Lehkonen absolutely. Not all of them, but his most common linemates the last three seasons were

Olofsson
Tuch
Skinner
Greenway
Cozens
Jost

Producing with the likes of Olofsson, Greenway, and Jost is a miracle unto itself.

 

[Foppa2118]

So far Mitts has been about what I expected personally.

Was scoring at around a 60 point pace at first, but has dipped to a 52 point pace. Very good playmaking and vision which has been a nice addition. Good defensively for the most part, though a few mistakes, and lost his man on a couple goals. Not too big a deal though, others have done the same.

His shot is a little better than I expected as we heard question marks about this. Velocity looks fine, but the accuracy could be improved. A few too many missed nets on good opportunities. Drouin improved both his accuracy and velocity this year though, staying out late in practices with Nate, maybe Casey can do that as well.

I don't think he's having any trouble adjusting the system. In fact, I think he adjusted to system perfectly in game 1. He hounds pucks on the forecheck, and backchecks perhaps harder than anyone else on the team. Everything else is just small details.

But that leads me to what I was talking with @littletonhockeycoach about the other day. He's basically been skating at 100% every shift on both the forecheck and backcheck. Even Nate and Val don't do that. I've been wondering if that's sustainable for him, and it might not be, because his play has tailed off a bit. He might need to pace himself a bit more, but then you wonder if that will have an impact on his production.

I think his intentions are good, that he probably wants to impress the coaching staff, and his teammates, but I've seen a few Sabres fans mention that he's skating much faster than they've ever seen him do before. Playoffs will be an even bigger test, as the increased physicality will sap his energy even more.

Trade aside, he's filling a need, and doing fairly well at it. Not Kadri level, but that wasn't the expectation, and his contribution is more multi dimensional than Kadri.

 

[lionsDen]

I don’t think at the point in time he’s a great north south player. He’ll get more time. Now feel free to tell me I’m wring

 

[Avsfan1921]

Complaining about Mittelstadt already just 11 games in with the new team?

He’s scoring at pretty much the same rate as Kadri did for the 1st two season as the Avs 2C before Naz had his career year with 80 points

I don’t think anyone is complaining. Just making observations compared to hopes/expectations. I think we are almost unanimous in saying that this team is more well rounded and personally I’m happy with the trade. I’m just hoping they are able to squeeze a bit more out of him yet. For me, it’s not the point totals, I’m just hoping for a bit more impact on the game moving forward.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

I actually think Walker has been my most disappointing deadline acquisition so far. He had a really strong game against Edmonton obviously but otherwise he's been kind of meh so far to me. Particularly defensively where I know he's capable of being more consistent then he's shown(But I would definitely guess this is simply adjusting to a new system).


Duhaime is the guy who has had an absolutely seamless transition to the Avs IMO. He's built for out bottom 6. I really hope we find a bit of money to resign him(Should only cost like 1.25-1.5M IMO on a 2-3 year deal).


Mittelstadt has been fine. His line is dominating possession and you can already see the vision he has, and his ability to slow the play down and find the right pass. I think he looks even better if he ever gets some extended time with Mikko as well. In the future I think the lines I'd like to see would be:


Drouin/Lehky - Mack - Landy
Nuke - Mitts - Mikko

 

[The Abusement Park]

Worse than Lehkonen absolutely. Not all of them, but his most common linemates the last three seasons were

Olofsson
Tuch
Skinner
Greenway
Cozens
Jost

Producing with the likes of Olofsson, Greenway, and Jost is a miracle unto itself.

I mean his most common line mates this season have been Skinner and Tuch. Then Greenway and Benson. Lehks isn't really an upgrade on Skinner or Tuch really. Greenway and Benson yes.

 

[The Abusement Park]

I actually think Walker has been my most disappointing deadline acquisition so far. He had a really strong game against Edmonton obviously but otherwise he's been kind of meh so far to me. Particularly defensively where I know he's capable of being more consistent then he's shown(But I would definitely guess this is simply adjusting to a new system).


Duhaime is the guy who has had an absolutely seamless transition to the Avs IMO. He's built for out bottom 6. I really hope we find a bit of money to resign him(Should only cost like 1.25-1.5M IMO on a 2-3 year deal).


Mittelstadt has been fine. His line is dominating possession and you can already see the vision he has, and his ability to slow the play down and find the right pass. I think he looks even better if he ever gets some extended time with Mikko as well. In the future I think the lines I'd like to see would be:


Drouin/Lehky - Mack - Landy
Nuke - Mitts - Mikko

Finding a shooter for Mitts will be really important for Mitts. Obviously that could/should be Mikko, but that line could be a little slow. But adding Nuke would add a lot of speed and forechecking/defensive ability that line would need.

Not sure where they'd go next couple years with that as the cap will be kind of tight. Honestly a shame we don't have Bura anymore. He and Bura would be an unreal combo.

 

[Foppa2118]

Finding a shooter for Mitts will be really important for Mitts. Obviously that could/should be Mikko, but that line could be a little slow. But adding Nuke would add a lot of speed and forechecking/defensive ability that line would need.

Not sure where they'd go next couple years with that as the cap will be kind of tight. Honestly a shame we don't have Bura anymore. He and Bura would be an unreal combo.

We've seen flashes of Nuke becoming a pure sniper. His shot has become pretty high level. He gets better every year too. He's on a 44 goal pace this year and a fair amount of those are snipes.

If Val can try to work on finding the soft spots in the circle and the slot area more often, in addition to his forecheck, and develop some chemistry with Mitts, he may be able to find him with some nice passes, but we'll have to see if he can do both consistently.

 

[The Abusement Park]

We've seen flashes of Nuke becoming a pure sniper. His shot has become pretty high level. He gets better every year too. He's on a 44 goal pace this year and a fair amount of those are snipes.

If Val can try to work on finding the soft spots in the circle and the slot area more often, in addition to his forecheck, and develop some chemistry with Mitts, he may be able to find him with some nice passes, but we'll have to see if he can do both consistently.

He's a good finisher for sure, but he's not a pure shooter. I think Nuke-Mitts-Mikko could be a real dominant line. But I'm guessing that isn't who Mitts linemates will be hence the finding a shooter for Mitts to pair up with. But I would really like to see this come playoff time:

Drouin-Mack-Lehk
Nuke-Mitts-Mikko

 

[Foppa2118]

He's a good finisher for sure, but he's not a pure shooter. I think Nuke-Mitts-Mikko could be a real dominant line. But I'm guessing that isn't who Mitts linemates will be hence the finding a shooter for Mitts to pair up with. But I would really like to see this come playoff time:

Drouin-Mack-Lehk
Nuke-Mitts-Mikko

I don't know. Every year Val gets closer and closer to Marian Hossa.

I do agree Mikko is the best guy for Mitt's line, but I also think Bedsy, Nate, and Mikko all like him to play on Nate's line.

I thought Drouin showed some good chemistry with Mitts too. Two smart players, even if they're both passers, can play well together. They've both been shooting more too.

They should give these combos a try before the playoffs, to see how it works.

Lehky - MacK - Mikko
Drouin - Mitts - Nuke

 

[Pokecheque]

Worse than Lehkonen absolutely. Not all of them, but his most common linemates the last three seasons were

Olofsson
Tuch
Skinner
Greenway
Cozens
Jost

Producing with the likes of Olofsson, Greenway, and Jost is a miracle unto itself.

That’s a misnomer though. Lehks is a tremendous player but without a finisher on his line his scoring is almost nonexistent. Olofsson is a much worse player overall, but he is an elite shooter. Every single one of those players except for Jost (and maybe Greenway) is much better offensively than Lehkonen on his own.

This is the reason why I really, really don’t like it when Bednar puts 13 and 62 on the same line. Neither is a natural scorer, so unless they’re put with someone like MacKinnon they don’t usually produce a ton.

 

[Foppa2118]

That’s a misnomer though. Lehks is a tremendous player but without a finisher on his line his scoring is almost nonexistent. Olofsson is a much worse player overall, but he is an elite shooter. Every single one of those players except for Jost (and maybe Greenway) is much better offensively than Lehkonen on his own.

This is the reason why I really, really don’t like it when Bednar puts 13 and 62 on the same line. Neither is a natural scorer, so unless they’re put with someone like MacKinnon they don’t usually produce a ton.

I don't think Lehky has fully rounded back to form after his neck injury. When he's in top form, he can finish a lot of chances with an underrated shot.

I've also seen him wincing quite a bit skating back to the bench between whistles. Not sure if that's related to his neck or not, but I haven't noticed him do that much in the past.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

I don't think Lehky has fully rounded back to form after his neck injury. When he's in top form, he can finish a lot of chances with an underrated shot.

I've also seen him wincing quite a bit skating back to the bench between whistles. Not sure if that's related to his neck or not, but I haven't noticed him do that much in the past.

Yeah, I noticed him grimacing quite a few times vs Columbus. At the time I was thinking he was sucking wind and he just hadn't gotten his game conditioning back yet, but he could be nursing something as well. At this point in the season, I would imagine more players are nursing things than not. That goes doubly for Ryan Johanson. He's nursing that bruised ego for everything it is worth.

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

Calma calma. He is keeping his point totals reasonable so we can actually afford him long-term.

 

[a mangy Meowth]

Duhaime is the guy who has had an absolutely seamless transition to the Avs IMO. He's built for out bottom 6. I really hope we find a bit of money to resign him(Should only cost like 1.25-1.5M IMO on a 2-3 year deal).

He really has been a revelation. I never thought much of him at all in minnesota (as with most of their players), but like you said he's just a perfect fit in a lot of ways - some I think we probably didn't see coming.

The physicality is key ofc. His skating is obviously really good which is the base of a player we like. I think his puck handling and decision making have been eye opening though, in this short sample. He's not a top 6 guy but he's impressed me with some of his plays with the puck, a couple great examples being his passes to Mittelstadt (touch pass at the line vs. flames, protect/drop pass a couple games ago vs rangers). Seems like a great teammate too.

Biggest thing for him is that Bednar seems to already trust him to play above his slot. I doubt any of us want him on the 2nd line as we get healthy, but I suspect there's a chance he's got some smidgen of untapped potential to be a bit more than the 4RW warm body we paid for.

 

[a mangy Meowth]

Was scoring at around a 60 point pace at first, but has dipped to a 52 point pace.

Hardly wanting to antagonize you because the post was otherwise well written and positive, but I have to nitpick this because it just bothers me reading it.

I find it bizarre to extrapolate his "paces" within little arbitrary ranges of time like this. As you of course know, 52 is his pace in the 11 total games he's played with us.

This season, he has already scored 54 points in 73 total games played. To say he's pacing for a 52 point season when he already has 54, well that just strikes me as suspiciously pessimistic.

For the record that's a pace of 61 pts over a full season, which you weren't even generous enough to extend his range to lol.

 

[henchman21]

Ignore is not a bad thing.

Mitts' offense will come around here. Last season he produced 59 points, this season he's at 54. With the Avs, his anomaly is that he's scoring goals rather than assists. Which should be looked at as a positive sign. We know the assists will come. He sets up 2-3 really good chances a game, and while they all won't be buried... 1 in 5 or 6 should be. Which will translate into the range for 40-45 assists, which I know is a shocker here, but roughly what he's produced last season and his pace of this season. An expectation of him stepping in and being a PPG guy is unreasonable. I don't think it is impossible, just not what should be expected. Now if next season he gets PP1 time consistently and increase to 20-25 PP points wouldn't be unreasonable (Lehky produces over that rate on PP1 and nobody on the Avs who spends significant time there trends less than 20). You could see his numbers push up. If you simply take his 9 from this year and put in the 11 PP points, you're at 65 with no other points scored. If you take his ~45-50 point ES numbers and push to the top PP1 level, we're near PPG territory where a small heater could push it up in a career year.

In other words in all of this... it'll even out. If this is where he caps, this is where he caps. He's still scoring at a 2C level and matching up incredibly well defensively.

 

[BobRossColton]

It would be pretty nice if he just clicks with kovalenko.

 

[Foppa2118]

Hardly wanting to antagonize you because the post was otherwise well written and positive, but I have to nitpick this because it just bothers me reading it.

I find it bizarre to extrapolate his "paces" within little arbitrary ranges of time like this. As you of course know, 52 is his pace in the 11 total games he's played with us.

This season, he has already scored 54 points in 73 total games played. To say he's pacing for a 52 point season when he already has 54, well that just strikes me as suspiciously pessimistic.

For the record that's a pace of 61 pts over a full season, which you weren't even generous enough to extend his range to lol.

Well I appreciate the first part here, but I think nitpick was a fair characterization as well.

Obviously I’m not trying to extrapolate anything out of an 11 game sample size. Especially when I noted many ways he can improve. He can go on a run tomorrow and increase that pace pretty quickly.

The topic being discussed was specifically about how he has played for Colorado vs our expectations and his 11 games are the only thing to go off.

I had said I was expecting around a 60 point pace so I noted that's about what he was on until recently.