Montreal Canadiens 2021-22 Forward Ratings: Ryan Poehling
A lack of offensive finish kept Poehling at the bottom of the list.
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