Calgary Flames’ Johnny Gaudreau is already miles better than last season

Calgary Flames superstar, Johnny Gaudreau, had somewhat of an “offseason” last year. This October, he’s already miles better than October of last year.

Last season, everyone claimed that the Calgary Flames leading scorer, Johnny Gaudreau, had an offseason. He still had 61 points in 72 games which I still think is quite good for an “offseason”. But of course, you still want your leading scorer to hopefully have somewhere around a point/game. He wasn’t that far off, but he still didn’t make that cut.

Something people attributed that to was him missing training camp and pre-season games. There were some contract negotiations still happening, and since he missed a crucial part before the season started, he had somewhat of a slow start. Last season in his first five games, he had just one goal and two assists. Last year in the month of October, he had 2 goals and five assists in ten games. Not horrible, but not what people were expecting after signing that hefty contract at $6.75 million.

So far this season, he’s already miles better than this point last season.

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(He has one more assist since that Tweet).

Given that the Flames have played in two more games this October than last October, in his first ten games this season, he still had two goals and 10 assists.

His teammates have also been marvelling at his production so far this year.

Via Calgary Flames:

"“I mean, that’s … Johnny,” reasoned Sean Monahan, as if the out-of-the-ordinary were the most normal, natural thing in the world. “We see it day-in and day-out.“He reads the game better than anybody I know. He sees the ice better than anybody I know.“That’s his hockey sense. Quick feet, quick hands. If you can get open in a quality spot, a quiet area, you’re going to get the puck.”“I know you guys are gonna wanna talk about the beautiful plays he made,” said Gulutzan, “but I want to talk about the play Johnny made with about a minute left on the wall in our zone, under pressure, to get the puck out.“That was a heckuva play. They had a tough assignment tonight, that crew, and they came up big.”"

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So far this season, Johnny Gaudreau has 15 points in 12 games. That’s tied for fourth in the NHL and this 12 assists is tied for third in the NHL. Not a lot of people are talking about his point production, though. When you hear about offensive stats, you’re hearing about players like Alexander Ovechkin or Nikita Kucherov or Evgeny Kuznetsov. We’re not hearing a whole lot of chatter surrounding Johnny Hockey.

And even when he’s not racking up the points, he’s still making a difference on the ice. He currently has a 55.62 CF%, meaning that the team generates more shot attempts when he’s on the ice than they allow. That number is fourth on the team (min. 50 minutes TOI) and it’s second among forwards (all stats courtesy of Natural Stat Trick).

So far, that number is higher than he’s ever had in his career. His CF% rel. is at 5.82, and his highest he’s had was 3.71 in his rookie year. That number is again, fourth (min. 8 games) on the team and second among forwards. That means that the team does better, even though it’s only slightly, when he’s on the ice than when he’s not on the ice.

In his last six games, he has points in seven of them. In the 12 games that the Calgary Flames have played, Johnny has points in nine of them.

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He’s not being talked about a whole lot so far this season, but if he continues the way he plays, that will definitely changed.