You are here
Home > Uncategorized >

Jack Eichel should be a key member of the penalty kill next season

by Chad DeDominicis - 0

As I’ve watched the first few games of the NHL’s play-in round, I’ve found myself paying attention to the penalty kill strategies of various clubs. One thing that has jumped out to me is how other teams are deploying some of their top offensive players on the penalty kill.

This got me thinking again about the idea of giving Jack Eichel a bigger responsibility on the penalty kill. The Sabres utilized him in a limited role this season on the kill. He only played 18 minutes shorthanded this year and that was the lowest time on ice per games played of any player on the team to play at least 15 minutes shorthanded.

Power Kill

I’ve written about the idea of a “power kill” previously, which is the approach of using more offensively talented players on the penalty kill to put pressure on the opponent and generate offense. The awesome Meghan Hall and Alison Lukan have done some work on the power kill.

They presented on the topic at the Columbus Hockey Analytics conference back in February. You can find the slides on Meghan’s site if you want to have a look for yourself.

One slide I want to make note of is how teams have evolved their penalty kill over time to utilize players with more offensive upside, as you’ll see below.

The Sabres, unsurprisingly, find themselves on the wrong side of the trend. They ranked 25th last season in players deployed on the penalty kill to play at least 30 minutes shorthanded in Evolving Hockey’s even-strength RAPM shot-quality for (xGF/60) combined impact. That’s the same measurement that Alison and Meghan used above.

Under Ralph Krueger, they continued to rely on players they feel are strong defensively like Michael Frolik, Zemgus Girgensons, Johan Larsson, and Curtis Lazar. Their two best offensive players on the penalty kill were Eichel and Jimmy Vesey, however, they played the least.

Following the Path

One of the concerns with giving Eichel a bigger role would be wearing him out in difficult minutes away from 5 on 5 and the power play. It’s a legitimate concern that I carried myself until I saw many other top players getting significant time shorthanded.

I wanted to get a look at the quantity and how some key offensive players that received over 50 minutes performed on the penalty kill. Below you can see all forwards plotted that received over the aforementioned ice time and their shot quality against shorthanded against their even-strength offensive impact.

While this gives a picture of many players, my main focus was on key top-line players, therefore, I narrowed the view below.

There are 28 players I specifically focused on that play major roles for their team in all situations. In the chart above, 16 of the 28 players graded out at least average or above average in suppressing shot quality against while shorthanded. This gives us some indication that utilizing these types of players on the kill is a good decision.

Sebastian Aho is the player that initially caught my attention when I was watching games. He’s the top center of the Carolina Hurricanes, plays on the top power play unit, and played over 100 minutes on the penalty kill this season.

Cam Atkinson, Sean Couturier, Nico Hischier, Anze Kopitar, Philip Danault, and Mark Stone are a few more examples of key players deployed in all situations. There’s no reason that Eichel can’t follow a similar path and remain an impact player at 5 on 5.

Eichel’s Impact

In limited minutes for the Sabres, Eichel was among the best on the team in reducing shot quality and shots against on the penalty kill. He also graded out as one of the better penalty killers in the league when you reduce the minutes of the pool of players.

It’s important to not get carried away because we are talking about small sample size, but promising results are there not only for Eichel himself but players of similar skillset. The upside of putting offensive players on the kill is that you put some more pressure on the opponent. By putting someone on the penalty kill that can control possession and can generate offense, it could get the opponent out of their offensive mindset.

Eichel has the hockey IQ and explosiveness to turn a seemingly harmless situation into a shorthanded scoring opportunity.

The 23-year-old scored one of his best goals of the season shorthanded against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Conclusion

The Sabres had one of the worst penalty kill units in the league this year, so nothing should be off the table for them. They should be open to trying new things and allowing their best player to be an impact in all situations of the game.

This doesn’t start and end with Eichel. Other players like Sam Reinhart should get an opportunity as well. He may not have the speed of Eichel, but he can read plays at an elite level.

Power kills are starting to become more prominent in the NHL and it’s time for the Sabres to go along with the trend.

Data via: Evolving Hockey
Photo Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Top