Michael McLeod is the New Jersey Devils' new Blake Coleman
Michael McLeod is the New Jersey Devils' new Blake Coleman
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Today’s post was written by C.J. TURTORO. You can find him on Twitter @CJTDevil.
When the New Jersey Devils traded Blake Coleman many fans, including me, thought it would be extremely difficult to replace what he provided.
Coleman could play anywhere in the lineup from the 1st line to the 4th line, he could impact play in all 200 feet, he was among the leading scorers on the team, one of the few that could be trusted to hold a lead, and was among the best penalty killers in the NHL.
Those types of players don’t just grow on trees. And even Coleman himself wasn’t a surefire NHLer -- he was a mid-round draft pick that didn’t play his first game until 25 and in that season he had just 2 points in 23 games with sub-replacement level impacts.
Which is what makes it so strange that, when I watch the Devils this year, the closest thing I’ve seen to Coleman is a former 1st rounder that had started to hear the faint “bust” horns blare. The heir apparent for Pickles’ role this season, in my opinion, has been Michael McLeod.
The “fourth” line this season has featured a rotating cast of characters including Janne Kuokkanen, Nathan Bastian, Jesper Boqvist, Mikhail Maltsev, and Miles Wood. But the mainstay on the “energy” line, playing all but four games as its center, has been McLeod.
And it’s been well-earned. He is probably the most aggressive forechecker on the team and he’s winning 52.4% of his faceoffs, and over 56% in the defensive zone, which explains why he has more defensive zone shifts per 60 than any other Devil.
Given the wolves he’s been thrown to, the fact that McLeod has managed to escape with a positive xG differential is pretty incredible given this is is first season as an NHL regular. It doesn’t stop at even-strength either.
Of the Devils top-8 penalty killers (top-2 units), McLeod is that ONLY ONE with a xGA impact below 0. In other words, he’s the only one preventing more dangerous opportunities than expected from occurring. Unsurprisingly, the drastic improvement in the Devils PK unit coincided with the promotion of McLeod to the killing unit.
An aggressive forechecker that guides an energy line to positive differentials despite difficult usage and is the best penalty killer on the team -- sound familiar?
If you’re not convinced in the similarity yet, take a look at the shot impact map for McLeod in this, his 3rd season vs Coleman’s 3rd NHL season.
I mean…come on. That looks almost copy and pasted.
As I said at the top, I was worried the Devils would take a long time to find a guy to replace Colemans unique production. As it turns out, that guy was already in the system. And, with 1st round pedigree and 6 goals already in his age-23 season, it is far from out of the question that he could become an even better version of Coleman.
At six years younger, he’s making Fitzy’s gamble to trade Pickles in exchange for, essentially, 2 first rounders, look really smart.
numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com, HockeyViz.com and Evolving-Hockey.com
So we you have Kuokkanen, Bastian, Sharangovich, Mcleod, Maltsev, Boqvist, Merkley, Thompson, Clarke. I'd throw Moynihan into the mix as well. I think that's a good list of the B tier prospects the Devils have (I'm sneaking Foote into A tier with Holtz and Mercer based on his AHL performance so far). It'll be interesting to see who sticks and continues to develop.