Confirmed with Link: Avs sign Darren Helm, 1 year × $1M

[Foppa2118]

Can all you guys give a dollar every time you say "injury proned" or "if he can stay healthy" regarding any of our players. I'm not greedy...just our players is fine.
Thank you.

Only if you give 2:1 on the return value, if they do get injured.

 

[Pokecheque]

Nuke has a decent extra gear, just ask Keith.

Not enough of one where he regularly generates scoring chances on the PK. Not really meant as a diss on Nuke either. It’s not like it never happens either, it’s just not a huge part of his game. It is for Helm…or at least it was in his prime.

Whatever the case, if this means less Compher when shorthanded, that’s a plus right there.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

One of the things that gives me hope of this being a great signing is that he's been playing a level or two above his ability in Detroit, and still done pretty well. In a more appropriate 4th line role he could be a really nice addition for us.

I recall when people were against the Calvert signing, mostly due to the $2.85m x 3 contract, but that turned out pretty well for us - injuries aside. Hopefully Helm can have a similar impact as Calvert had in his first season with us.

Yeah it looks like he was 7th among Wings regular forwards in ice time/game 5v5 last year. That equates to being their #1 third liner from a usage standpoint. For some perspective he averaged more 5v5 TOI per game than Brandon Saad, Joonas Donskoi and Val Nichushkin. He won’t be relied on nearly as heavily in Colorado. In fact I don’t even think he’ll be one of those 4th liner who moves up when injury strikes types. He’ll be a full time 4th liner who kills penalties which is great.

 

[Richard88]

Look at the chart above. Helm put up 82% in 5v5 defense while playing with awful teammates (17% QoT/quality of teammates) against solid middle 6 opposition (46% QoC/quality of competition). That's shown even more clearly in the chart below, where you can see that he mostly played with Detroit's lower end forwards against better competition.

In Colorado he'll get to play in a lesser role in the lineup and likely with much better teammates - particularly the Dmen behind him should be a massive step up, which should put him in a good position to succeed.

He's clearly very good at the defensive side of the game and that's why he's been brought in. As shown below his denials, recoveries, and PK are all really good - particularly when you consider that he had a 74% role difficulty (which again reiterates what is shown in the graphics above).



The possession heat maps below further illustrate the sort of player he is (these are from 2019/20).

His offense isn't great, though still on the same level as the rest of the Detroit team (-17% vs -15%). He's not helping them score much but he's also not dragging the team down.

His defense is awesome. He posted a -8% xGA/60 (which is really solid) when the rest of the Detroit team posted a +13% which is bad. So he's 21% better defensively than the rest of the Detroit team - despite often playing a bigger role than he ideally should as shown above.

On the PK its a similar story. He posted a +8% xGA/60 on the PK, which isn't great in isolation, but when you compare it to Detroit without Helm on the PK they are at +25% which is teeeerrrible. Helm may have posted a +8%, but that outperformed the rest of his team by 17% which is pretty good.

All in all I'm happy with this signing. It fills a needed role, and based on the stats above Helm should be able to have a good impact on the ice in a more defined role on a much stronger team in Colorado.

 

[Richard88]

Yeah it looks like he was 7th among Wings regular forwards in ice time/game 5v5 last year. That equates to being their #1 third liner from a usage standpoint. For some perspective he averaged more 5v5 TOI per game than Brandon Saad, Joonas Donskoi and Val Nichushkin. He won’t be relied on nearly as heavily in Colorado. In fact I don’t even think he’ll be one of those 4th liner who moves up when injury strikes types. He’ll be a full time 4th liner who kills penalties which is great.

To your point about him possibly moving up, looking at the defensive metrics in my post above I wonder if he wouldn't be a good fit with Nichuskin and Jost, to really build a solid defensive checking line, leaving Compher-Maltsev-O'Connor as the 4th line.

Stylistically at least Compher might be a better fit playing with a north-south guy in O'Connor than he would be playing next to Jost and Nichuskin, and we know the Jost/Compher pair doesn't work so well. That way you're also putting a good faceoff guy next to Jost instead of Compher, so the 3rd line might stand a chance to win a draw for once (yes I know Helm hasn't taken draws in a while but perhaps he'd do so again if asked).

Helm -- Jost -- Nichuskin
LOC - Maltsev - Compher

 

[Richard88]

 

[Richard88]

 

[RoyIsALegend]

Well, he sounds like the life of the party.

 

[The Abusement Park]

Well, he sounds like the life of the party.

Mackinnon- “Did you say party????”

 

[RoyIsALegend]

Mackinnon- “Did you say party????”

 

[SirLoinOfCloth]

The real story behind this gif, is he was stamping on a packet of Twinkies he found behind the bench. Nieto looks a little guilty to me.

 

[Foppberg]

Honestly this whole "MacKinnon is a grade A psycho" just makes me laugh so much. It's a meme goldmine

 

[Richard88]

 

[expatriatedtexan]

At the very end...an honest to god question about hockey with Peter Baugh asking what makes him a good pk'er. He emphasized speed, pressure and willingness to block shots. Those are things I like to hear, does he still bring enough of that for 3rd line minutes or is he basically going to be a 4th line/PK specialist?

 

[Mac2Rants]

At the very end...an honest to god question about hockey with Peter Baugh asking what makes him a good pk'er. He emphasized speed, pressure and willingness to block shots. Those are things I like to hear, does he still bring enough of that for 3rd line minutes or is he basically going to be a 4th line/PK specialist?

4th line/PK

 

[expatriatedtexan]

Lit one up after work today and was re-watching the interview but thinking it was a new one, when they asked him who he knew on the team and he said, "Not a single one." I was thinking, DAMN??!!!, our boys are straight up f*** Detroit, f*** Tanguay, f*** the new guy too. And weren't even texting him welcome and shit like that. Thought damn near a week has elapsed and nobody contacted him.

 

[Polite HKYDiscussion]

This guys steps it up a notch in the playoffs. Check out this forechecking highlight:

 

[Richard88]

This guys steps it up a notch in the playoffs. Check out this forechecking highlight:

That highlight is like a video of what we all wish Compher would do more of

 

[expatriatedtexan]

That highlight is like a video of what we all wish Compher would do more of

To be fair, Compher was tracking to be this kind of player back in 2011 when this clip was taken from. It's been a disappointing decade for Compher and I as an early fan of his.

 

[Grigowski]

The more i hear or see, the more i feel Helm is an upgrade to Bellemare. Just stay healthy Darren.

 

[the_fan]

Does anyone know if Helm likes pasta?