No and he wasn't skating to get open very often either.
If we are after honesty here, I see a lot of people (his so called haters) that were throwing a lot of accolades AA's way when he has played the game hard and competed every shift. Still not seeing his biggest fans acknowledging the dude was flat absent for half of the games he played this year. Sure he was dealt tough linemates, hey just imagine if Datsyuk quit when he got broken down Cleary... What a star player would never do that.... I know.
Comparing Cleary to Scott Wilson?
Comparing Athanasiou to Datsyuk?
You play Athanasiou a lot and he responds. You play him with skill and he responds.
5-0-1 when he's play 18 minutes or more. 6 goals and 2 assists those games.
Just go through his game log and you see it.
But don't expect that the guy who was reportedly promised you a top 9 role during contract negotiations is suddenly not happy on your 2/3rds of a fourth line.
Guys like Athanasiou need someone with the requisite skill needed to get them the puck.
While I wasn't all that impressed with Athanasiou's play during his slump, it was also frustrating to watch him break out skating 100 mph up the ice and then watch the Red Wings defense chip it up the boards or make the pass across to the other D, forcing Athanasiou to wheel back.
Way too many shifts where he didn't touch the puck. Blame that on him if you want.
But if you find a way to get him the puck, he makes things happen.
Even with that awful slump and lots of time with low skill players, he's third on the team (behind Z and Nyquist) in primary points/60.
Even though he's played far less minutes than many of his teammates, he's drawn a team leading 12 penalties and has a penalty differential of +9 (compared to 0 for Larkin and -7 for Mantha).
He leads the team in individual Corsi for/60 (Athanasiou, Larkin, Mantha are 1-2-3).
He also leads the team in idividual fenwich for/60.
He's second to Nyquist in goals/60.
And this is even though he had an awful drought after getting sent to the fourth line.
Now, you want to see the difference?
From Nov 24 to Dec. 27, AA mostly played on on L4, plus he cycled through the lineup a little bit.
14 games, 0-4-4 -9 playing 13:33 a game
In the five games before that (playing more minutes, often with Larkin or Mantha and Tatar) and the three games since....
8 games 6 goals 2 assists +1 playing 19 minutes and change.
Here's the real big difference
In those 14 games 3 wins 7 losses 4 OT/SOL (3-11)
In those 8 games 5 wins 1 loss 2 OT/SOL (5-3)