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Montreal Canadiens 2021-22 Forward Ratings: Ryan Poehling

Ryan Peohling managed to edge Laurent Dauphin for 14th by only half a percentage point, scoring a total of 32.5%. I feel like a lot of what was written about Dauphin could honestly just be copied and pasted into this article, but not to worry … I’ll change the names at least.

Poehling did worse that Dauphin in Corsi (being fifth-worst on the team), goals-for percentage (second-worst) and points per 60 (sixth-worst). Where this gets interesting is in the fact that Poehling was 8/16 (weighted to 10/20 points) in expected-goals-for percentage. He also had a lot more starts per 60 in the defensive zone.

This points to him creating better scoring opportunities than Dauphin while starting more in the D-zone, but just not able to convert on them. It’s a very interesting juxtaposition for two players separated by such a small margin.

Poehling is entering the second year of a two year extension he signed after his entry-level deal. Considering the step that he was able to take from the previous year to last, I would have been excited to see where he was able to go this year before he was a toss in with Jeff Petry in the trade to Pittsburgh.

That said, he is currently 23, so this is the age where we start asking questions like: “Is this it?” Personally, I don’t think so. Development is such a difficult thing to predict. I see plenty of kids play AAA since they were 12 get supplanted in their OHL draft year by “late-bloomers” who played A only a year or two earlier. Perhaps Poehling will put everything together with the Penguins.

For more info on the model I used, check out the introduction to this series.

#14: Ryan Poehling
#15: Laurent Dauphin
#16: Paul Byron

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