Who was it who said that you know you have a star player on your hands when he is contributing during a slump?
Meier has what seems like one goal in the last twenty games, but he's definitely driving possession, playing on special teams, and getting a bunch of assists. The way things are going, you hope he gets hot right around the playoff stretch.
What was impressive is that by my observation, you could see Meier getting very frustrated and reverting to some bad habits. But, he corrected himself. Even though the goals didn't come, he returned to making smart plays and being a great contributor everywhere else.
Me.
I didn’t say exactly that, though. I said that during the start of the season, he looked (and produced) like a borderline star going through a hot streak. And that now, he looks (and is producing) like a bonafide star, maybe superstar, going through a cold streak.
I mean, goodness gracious, the guy went through a cold streak of poor shooting luck, so he decided to focus on improving his playmaking. The result is that he now leads Sharks forwards in assists per game. (1 behind Couture in 3 fewer games) He did it that quickly! Reminds me of how Brent Burns went through a stretch of poor shooting luck and turned into one of the best playmakers in the NHL. And he’s doing pretty much all of it at 5-on-5 while facing top competition and getting fewer 5V5 minutes than other forwards on the roster.
His even strength P/60 is 14th in the NHL. Right in between Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby. That’s absolutely ridiculous when you consider the cold stretch that he is going through. He’s also one of the very best possession forwards/play drivers in the NHL when you adjust for other factors like teammates, quality of competition, zone starts, etc. This season, looking at pretty much all statistics, his even strength performance is pretty much undeniably between 10th-20th best for all forwards.
He could peak as a 40 goal, 50 assist elite two-way forward in his prime. He could actually be near that this season if he received more ice time and specifically more PP time.
I actually wasn’t sold on him during his early hot streak, but now I 100% am. I would go so far as to say that the door isn’t even closed on the comparisons to Barzal or Rantanen.
