LW/C/RW Nikolai Antropov: The other half of the odd-couple

[garret9]

YEAR | GP | ESTOI/60 | ESP/60 | ESG | ESA | PPTOI/60 | PPP/60 | PPG | PPA | SHTOI/60 | SHP/60 | SHG | SHA | SOG | SH%
2007| 72|13.58| 2.33| 14|24 | 3.39| 3.69| 12|04 | 2.36| 0.35|0|1 |165| 15.8
2008| 81|12.71| 2.10| 20|23 | 2.79| 4.24| 08|09 | 0.89| 0.83|0|1 |224| 12.5
2009| 76|14.05| 2.59| 16|30 | 3.50| 4.06| 08|13 | 0.10| 0.00|0|0 |126| 19.0
2010| 76|12.94| 1.53| 11|14 | 2.45| 3.54| 05|11 | 0.02| 0.00|0|0 |105| 15.2
2011| 69|12.42| 1.75| 12|13 | 1.95| 4.02| 04|06 | 1.78| 0.00|0|0 |095| 15.8

Antropov, like Jokinen, is a consistently a strong power-play weapon; his ES has scoring (sans-secondary assists) has consistently been on a down trend with a bump up last season.

Even Strength Advance Stats

YEAR | RelQoC | OZS | RelCorsi | Corsi | G/60 | A1/60 | P/60
2007| 0.823| 53.1| -3.8| 2.03| 0.80| 0.98| 2.33
2008| 0.344| 56.1| 6.4| 7.34| 0.99| 0.82| 2.10
2009| -0.029| 48.3| 1.6|-1.63| 0.90| 0.73| 2.59
2010| 0.053| 49.8| -6.1|-6.16| 0.67| 0.61| 1.53
2011| -0.457| 56.7| 1.5| 1.96| 0.77| 0.70| 1.75

2007: Antropov starts off facing pretty tough competition (analogous to Slater) and actually posts pretty well rounded and decent point rates. His possession (Corsi) is positive but not by much, and below the team average.
2008: Next year Antropov faces little bit lower levels of competition (analogous to Wheeler), his scoring lowers but he has improved possession stats on a less possession positive team.
2009: First year in Atlanta, even lower competition levels (analogous to Kane) for Antropov, but for the first time being pushed into the D-zone. His scoring stats go down but his secondary assists more than made up for it and his possession stats drop into the negative, but he is still above the team's average. <EDIT> also a bit of a jump in sh% here</EDIT>
2010: Second year in Atlanta, Antropov faces "similar" competition and OZS. Further drop in scoring and possession stats, and this time below team average.
2011: Move to Winnipeg and Antropov has a bit of a re-surgance. His offensive numbers and possession numbers both jump up above team average.

Summary
I believe that Antropov's time as a legitimate top6 player may be over, but his ability to play well on the power play, penalty kill and support secondary scoring still make him a great support piece that is able to plug in top6 with injuries. Hopefully Ponikarovsky will bring further re-surgance to Antropov... and maybe if we're lucky positive possession numbers in a shutdown role...
To be honest, even just a decrease in bleeding than GST is a positive while maintaining an offensive threat is a large improvement.


1-2 Years in the Future
I'm not going to predict who, but I think only one (if any) of Wellwood and Antropov will be re-signed. My guess is the one that will take a 1-2 less than 2 mill contract. I think this year will be an extended evaluation of that. Of course, the other possibility is another FA, or Scheifele plugging in the bottom6, both of which are entirely possible... but we won't count our chickens before they hatch.

1: Kane-Jokinen/x-Wheeler
2: Ladd-x-Little
3: Ponikarovsky-Burmistrov-Wellwood/Antropov

or

1: Kane-Jokinen/x-Wheeler
2: Ladd-Burmistrov-Little
3: Ponikarovsky-Scheifele-Wellwood/Antropov

or

1: Kane-Jokinen/x-Wheeler
2: Ladd-x-Little
3: Ponikarovsky-Scheifele-Burmistrov

This concludes the top9 forwards. As you can see there are two holes: Jokinen's replacement after his contract is up and the centre for the second line. If I was to be a betting man, I think we will sign 1 FA (Zajac has been brought up multiple times on these boards) to fill 1/3 of the top9 C spots and hopefully Scheifele and Burmistrov will be ready to take the other two for 2014-15 season...

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[Avocado Coolranch]

I honestly think Jets will try to resign antro over wellwood since he has the size. Jets want a bigger team and antro offers just that along with decent offensive and defensive attributes. Last year wasn't too bad for antro and I believe he will offer similar numbers if not better. Could just be wishful thinking on my part for him to resign with the Jets for a year or two but I really like how well rounded a player Antropov is.

Anyway, apparently antro might make it for the opener? Any injury update on him?

 

[truck]

I honestly think Jets will try to resign antro over wellwood since he has the size. Jets want a bigger team and antro offers just that along with decent offensive and defensive attributes. Last year wasn't too bad for antro and I believe he will offer similar numbers if not better. Could just be wishful thinking on my part for him to resign with the Jets for a year or two but I really like how well rounded a player Antropov is.

Anyway, apparently antro might make it for the opener? Any injury update on him?

That may well happen. It will probably depend on how Burmi and Scheifele develop and what kind of role Chevy projects for them. Antropov is better suited for a bottom 6 role than somebody like Welly.

Is Scheifele and / or Burmi firmly entrenched in the top 6? Will Cormier be ready? Will Machacek earn another year? Will Telegin be pushing for a roster spot? Could Adam Lowry be ready? These questions will have to be answered before Chevy knows what direction he is going.