Widely regarded as Jason Botterill’s top acquisition of the summer, Henri Jokiharju got off to an excellent start with the Buffalo Sabres. In his first full season of NHL action, the 20-year-old found immediate chemistry alongside veteran, Marco Scandella. A strong argument could be made that before Scandella was traded to the Montreal Canadiens, he and Jokiharju were the top-performing defensive pairing in Buffalo.

There is an existing notion that Scandella’s departure directly lead to Jokharju’s mid-season slump. There is a correlation there, but perhaps not to the extent that many believe. Let’s take a look at the Finnish youngster’s usage and pairing mates throughout the season, and see if we can find any trends.

It’s no secret that these two were the Sabres’ most consistently deployed defensive pairing prior to January 2 (the day of the aforementioned trade). As a duo, their metrics were largely outstanding. Their relative xGF rate of 6.83 was the best mark among Buffalo defensive tandems who spent more than 100 minutes together on the year.

While they only spent roughly 132 minutes away from one another, their respective metrics were both better together (though it’s important to note that Scandella’s impact on Jokiharju was more significant than vice-versa). This level of success came in an offensively-tilted deployment, which was somewhat surprising given Scandella’s past struggles in the offensive zone.

When reviewing Jokiharju’s trends over time, it’s clear to see that the downturn in underlying production started near the middle of December. In fact, his xGF rate actually reached its lowest point just before the trade took place (indicating that perhaps they were already starting to lose their early-season magic).

The situation stayed that way through the month of January. That’s where things get interesting.

For the first month after losing his veteran counterpart, Jokiharju did not spend two consecutive games with the same defensive partner. During the team’s 10 games in January, he had five different primary in-game partners. Unfortunately, he was seldom placed alongside the players with whom he performed the best in Colin Miller, and Jake McCabe.

That is until February rolled around. For the final 18 games prior to the suspension of the 2019-20 season, Jokiharju and McCabe were seldom separated, and the on-ice results were positive. While his metrics with Miller were even more impressive, the sample size was considerably smaller, and their partnership didn’t come over a continuous stretch of time (perhaps an option to explore in 2020-21).

Their relative xGF percentage as a pairing wasn’t as impressive as the Jokiharju-Scandella tandem, but they did post a positive xGF of 1.60-percent. It’s also important to note that their OZS rate of 43.12-percent was a full 16 points lower.

What’s encouraging here is that, once he received consistent playing time with a new primary partner, Jokiharju was able to regain form to an extent. Even more promising is the fact that he was able to translate his impacts in a significantly different deployment pattern. It certainly speaks toward his balanced skillset as a two-way defender.

On the year, no Sabres blueliner experienced more success as a zone-transition asset. His consistency in that area was that of a future elite puck-moving defenseman.

A similar trend existed with his shot-contributions. His primary shot-assists per-60 stood at 6.60, which ranked second on the blue line behind Rasmus Dahlin. While that is very impressive in a vacuum, his offensive impacts on the season were pretty uninspiring.

As a team, the Sabres averaged an offensive xG rate of 2.26, which was 10-percent lower than the league average. With Jokiharju on the ice, that number went unchanged. So, if Jokiharju posted outstanding shot-contribution metrics, how could his on-ice xGF metrics be so low?

In short, he didn’t generate a ton of offense, but the offense he did create had a higher-than-average propensity to result in a legitimate scoring chance. Perhaps he was playing a little more conservative than he’d have liked to in Ralph Krueger’s system, and a more open approach would be beneficial. Hopefully, he’s allowed to be a little more creative as he continues to develop because he certainly has the ability.

Moving forward, it will be interesting to see how Krueger deploys Jokiharju. He’s still a very young asset, but his versatility gives the coaching staff options. In 2019-20, most of his success came alongside defensively responsible partners, which makes some sense given his transitional skill set.

Having a disruptive partner in the defensive zone could help get the puck on his stick and optimize his ability to facilitate the offensive rush. While he did begin the season performing well in an offensive zone-heavy deployment, he might be even more effective in this scenario with more defensive zone starts down the road.

That said, once he becomes a more consistent disruptive presence in his own right, he could make an excellent partner for a fellow two-way asset like Dahlin. This, of course, operates under the assumption that Krueger would let them do some free-wheeling and join the offensive rush (which, as Chad outlined this week, seems to go against his current approach).

At the end of the day, fans shouldn’t be too discouraged by Jokiharju’s mid-season slump. Sure, the loss of Scandella had an effect, but he started to regain form toward the end of the year, and he did it in a very different usage approach. That’s a good sign, and his overall performance shouldn’t create any apprehension about his future prospects as a consistent top-four (or better) defenseman at the NHL level.

Chart Illustrations courtesy of Charting Hockey and Corey Sznajder

TOI and Deployment Metrics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick

Team Offensive Zone xG metrics courtesy of Hockeyviz