Calgary Flames: Sean Monahan At The Halfway Mark
By Ramina Shlah
Calgary Flames forward Sean Monahan had a bit of a slow start to his season. However, he definitely picked up his game late November-early December. Let’s take a look at him now, halfway through the season.
When the Calgary Flames first drafted Sean Monahan at the 2013 draft, nobody anticipated he would develop into the leadership type role he has now. The way he plays feels like he has many years of experience. So much so that he now has a permanent “A” on his jersey.
Monahan had quite the slow start to his season. It wasn’t only him, though. Practically everybody on the team, including the team’s stats in general, started off poorly. However, he definitely picked up his pace in November.
Let’s take a look at his last few seasons and see how he’s comparing this season.
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2013-2014
Sean Monahan’s NHL career started in the 2013-2014 season after he was drafted that same year. He did get unfortunately injured and missed a few games, but still managed to play 75 games. He was fifth on the team that season in points with 34 points in 75 games and with a points per game of 0.45.
Something a little more disappointing by the rookie at that time was his +/-. He had a +/- of -20 which was the third worst on the team. That season, the Calgary Flames finished fourth last in the league. They were, of course, still in a rebuild.
Monahan finished 8th in rookies for scoring that season.
2014-2015
This season was much better for the Calgary Flames and for Sean Monahan. Because of him and the two other players on his line, Johnny Gaudreau and Jiri Hudler, the Flames unexpectedly made playoffs for the first time in six years.
Sean Monahan finished third in points on the Flames that season, right behind Hudler and Gaudreau. He finished with 62 points in 81 games, which gives a 0.77 p/gp. His +/- also increased 28 points from the season before and finished the regular season with a +/- of 8.
He also finished with eight game-winning goals that season which was the highest on the team and third highest in the league. He also had 19 PPP.
Like I said, that season was the first time the Flames made the playoffs in six years. They made it to the second round which was the first time in 11 years, since their cup run in 2004. In their 11 games, Monahan had six points in his first playoffs.
2015-2016
This season was a bit of a disappointment. After their unexpected and action-filled playoff run in the 2014-2015 season, everyone had high hopes for the 2015-2016 season. And their hopes were quickly shut down with the Calgary Flames starting the season off poorly and remained that way for most of the season. They ended up finishing fifth last with 77 points.
Even though their season wasn’t great, Monahan still kept up his points. He finished with 63 points in 81 games. This was second highest on the team after line-mate Johnny Gaudreau, who finished with 78 points in 79 games.
Then during the offseason after this season ended, Sean Monahan signed a big seven-year $44.625 million contract with an average salary of $6.375 million. This is the longest current contract on the Flames and he has the second highest average salary, right after Gaudreau and captain Mark Giordano who have the same average salary of $6.75 million.
This season
Sean Monahan started this season off quite poorly, especially coming into it with a new hefty contract. In the month of October, he went all ten games with only four points and tied for the worst +/- on the team with -5. He also only had 20 shots in those 10 games, averaging just two shots a game. Not something you want from your top center-man.
In the month of October, the Calgary Flames also went 4-5-1.
Now going into November, Monahan didn’t start it off that great either. He had just four points in 14 games from the start of November until the 27th. In the last nine games of those 14 games, he was pointless in eight of them. At this point, the Flames were 10-13-1 and were 25th in the league.
But now we get into the fun stuff.
I don’t know what happened to Monahan but something clicked for him on the 28th. And he kept getting points in every game. From the 28th of November until the 19th of December, he was on a ten-game point streak, a career-high for him. He had 12 points in 10 games, with seven of them being power play points. The Flames struggled practically all season until late November on the PP. They went from 29th overall on the PP at the start of December and now they’re 12th overall.
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In that time span in December as well, the Flames were 7-2-1. They also had a six-game win streak and were on an eight-game power play goal streak, where they had at least one ppg in each game. Also in that span, the Flames at one point made it to first overall in the Pacific Division.
He has gone down a little bit since that point-streak though, with just three points in the last eight games.
However, right now, the Flames currently hold the first wild card spot in the Western conference. And they’ve been in a playoff spot for about a month now.
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Monahan does only have 23 points in 42 games this season so he isn’t quite on pace for his last few seasons. But the Flames know that this second half of the season is extremely crucial. And if Sean Monahan wants to prove that he rightfully deserved this A on his jersey, he’ll step up to the plate.