He was used as a 3rd liner in San Jose with ~14 minutes of ice time per game. His PPG with them was only 0.41 (34 pts per 82 games), which is quite good for 3rd line minutes. In Phoenix/Arizona, he was used as a Top-6 forward in his last 4 years there with ~18 minutes of ice time per game and as a result, his PPG was 0.61 (50 pts per 82 games). He's a very capable 2nd liner. Maybe he even tops that production if he's on a line with Duchene and Stone all year.
But personally, I'd still go like this :
Boedker-Duchene-Dzingel
Ryan-Pageau-Stone
Smith-Chlapik-White
Paajarvi-Paul-Pyatt
McCormick
- I'm assuming Gaborik goes on LTIR
- Smith is there until traded, thought he would have been traded this summer to save money as he could be replaced by a younger/cheaper player, which coincides with all the other moves that have been made
- I'm only assuming that White and Chlapik make the team, as they are the safer bets but that forward group could really be different depending on what happens with Brown, Tkachuk, Batherson, Formenton, etc.
- I insist to have Ryan and Pageau with Stone because of past chemistry and Stone could really help those 2 produce, which would be huge
- They need a few young guys to "arrive" and have an impact.
He has never scored 20 nevermind 30.
He's scored 25 goals in his last 2 seasons combined.
He had 14 goals in 45 games in 2014-15 though... but anyway he's not a goal scorer, which is unfortunately the case for everyone. It will have to be an offense by committee. Here's the goal totals I would expect based on the line-up I posted and assuming they all stay healthy all year (and of course, assuming they all play 82 games). In parenthesis, I added their goal paces from last year :
Stone ~25-30 goals (28)
Duchene ~25-30 goals (27)
Dzingel ~20-25 goals (24)
Boedker ~20 goals (17) (with 3rd line minutes)
Ryan ~20 goals (15)
Pageau ~15-20 goals (16)
Smith ~10-15 goals (6)
Chlapik ~10-15 goals (AHL)
White ~10-15 goals (AHL)
Paajarvi ~5 goals (8)
Paul ~5 goals (AHL)
Pyatt ~5 goals (7)
McCormick ~ 5 goals (8)