Jordan Eberle: In Elite Company

12 years ago

Since 2000-01 and including this season, just 10 21-year old forwards have managed a point per game or better in the NHL. Jordan Eberle is one of them.

The List

Player	Season	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	S	S%	TOI	G/GM	A /GM	PTS /GM
Sidney Crosby	2008-09	77	33	70	103	3	76	238	13.9	1690	0.43	0.91	1.34
Evgeni Malkin	2007-08	82	47	59	106	16	78	272	17.3	1748	0.57	0.72	1.29
Eric Staal	2005-06	82	45	55	100	-8	81	279	16.1	1611	0.55	0.67	1.22
Alex Ovechkin	2006-07	82	46	46	92	-19	52	392	11.7	1754	0.56	0.56	1.12
Steven Stamkos	2011-12	52	35	23	58	5	44	184	19	1112	0.67	0.44	1.12
Jordan Eberle	2011-12	50	24	30	54	4	8	117	20.5	839	0.48	0.60	1.08
Nicklas Backstrom	2008-09	82	22	66	88	16	46	174	12.6	1635	0.27	0.80	1.07
Patrick Kane	2009-10	82	30	58	88	16	20	261	11.5	1574	0.37	0.71	1.07
John Tavares	2011-12	52	22	31	53	4	14	192	11.5	1054	0.42	0.60	1.02
Rick Nash	2005-06	54	31	23	54	5	51	170	18.2	986	0.57	0.43	1.00
Joe Thornton	2000-01	72	37	34	71	-4	107	181	20.4	1566	0.51	0.47	0.99
Paul Stastny	2006-07	82	28	50	78	4	42	185	15.1	1490	0.34	0.61	0.95
Alex Tanguay	2000-01	82	27	50	77	35	37	135	20	1464	0.33	0.61	0.94
Patrice Bergeron	2006-07	77	22	48	70	-28	26	224	9.8	1603	0.29	0.62	0.91
Bobby Ryan	2008-09	64	31	26	57	13	33	174	17.8	988	0.48	0.41	0.89
Jonathan Toews	2009-10	76	25	43	68	22	47	202	12.4	1520	0.33	0.57	0.89
Martin Havlat	2002-03	67	24	35	59	20	30	179	13.4	1102	0.36	0.52	0.88
Phil Kessel	2008-09	70	36	24	60	23	16	232	15.5	1159	0.51	0.34	0.86
Simon Gagne	2001-02	79	33	33	66	31	32	199	16.6	1434	0.42	0.42	0.84
Scott Gomez	2000-01	76	14	49	63	-1	46	155	9	1198	0.18	0.64	0.83
Dany Heatley	2001-02	82	26	41	67	-19	56	202	12.9	1631	0.32	0.50	0.82
Jamie Benn	2010-11	69	22	34	56	-5	52	177	12.4	1243	0.32	0.49	0.81
Anze Kopitar	2008-09	82	27	39	66	-17	32	234	11.5	1677	0.33	0.48	0.80

That’s pretty good company to be keeping.

There are a few points worth noting:

1. Icetime. Eberle’s ice-time has been getting a lot of attention the last while, and it’s easy to understand why. It’s worth keeping in mind that Eberle’s TOI is only for a partial season, while most of the players listed here are full-season players, but even so his totals are pretty low in comparison to the rest of these guys.

2. Shooting percentage/shot totals. Very few players on this list have a shooting percentage as high as Eberle; Joe Thornton (20.4%) and Alex Tanguay (20.0%) are the only other guys at 20% or higher. Thornton set his career high in goals that year – he’d go on to win the Hart Trophy, but he has never scored 37 goals in a season again. Meanwhile, Alex Tanguay’s 27-goal total remains the second-best number in his career, despite the fact that he’s one of if not the highest efficiency shooter in the NHL. That brings us to shot totals: outside of the pass-first guys, Eberle’s one of the lowest volume shooters on this list.

3. As things stand, that’s kind of a great place to be.

Of course, there are some worries too. I pointed out earlier today that Eberle’s on-ice shooting percentage (note: on-ice, meaning it includes not just him but also his linemates as well) was insanely high, and Tyler Dellow went into some further detail on some of the other things that are going Eberle’s way right now.

What would be really nice right now would be if Tom Renney changed strategy with Eberle. Rather than limiting his ice-time and using him in specific situations, why not throw him out into the deep end?

It’s a strategy that would seem to help in a lot of ways. From a development angle, playing Eberle against top opposition will help ease him into a role that the Oilers want him playing eventually anyway. Giving him more minutes isn’t going to hurt that development any either. It will appease fans who want to see him play more. Perhaps most importantly, it will give the Oilers a better idea of whether or not he can keep things up.

(List above courtesy of hockey-reference.com)

Jordan Eberle: In Elite Company

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