Wiercioch has been the analytics vs eye test poster child for a while now. The interesting thing to me is that in the last stretch of games last season he was harder on the puck and added a physical element to his game, and it seemed to me as though a lot of the eye test detractors started talking about how well he was playing.
To me, BM was correct in calling him out last season on his foot speed, physicality, and how he seems to get pinned on the boards too easily due to not moving the puck quickly enough. He seemed to listen, and his game improved in ways that do not always directly show up in numbers. Whether you want to question that or not, there can be no real argument that he ended up getting more ice time as a result.
