Digging deeper into Dawson Mercer's alarmingly slow start

The generally strong two-way forward has not found the scoresheet through eight games – and it's no coincidence. He is playing the worst hockey of his career.

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Dawson Mercer couldn’t have performed much better over the first couple years of his career.

He produced 22 goals and 50 points per 82 games while doing a lot of dirty work at both ends of the ice.

The bulk of Mercer’s production came in the way of primary points at 5v5. So much so that it became a joke he simply wouldn’t find the scoresheet unless he was the driving force in each goal he contributed to. Almost all of his points were goals or first assists.

Suffice to say, Mercer set the bar very high for himself entering a contract year. There was no reason to believe he couldn’t meet it.

Given his ability to contribute at both ends of the ice, and the overwhelming amount of high-end talent on this Devils team, it felt like Mercer could be in for a career season.

While there’s enough time for that to be the case, Mercer certainly has his work cut out for him. He has been as much of a non-factor as possible through the first few weeks of the season.

We are eight games into the year and Mercer has yet to find the scoresheet one (1) time. No goals. No secondary points. No empty-net points. Nothing.

Although luck has played a role – it’s impossible not to for someone averaging nearly 17 minutes per game on a team scoring goals in bunches – it’s not nearly as big of a factor as you’d think.