Florida Panthers: Aaron Ekblad’s Disastrous 2016-17 Season

Let’s be honest, Aaron Ekblad had a terrible season this year. The plays we saw from Aaron this season were very “un-Ekblad like”. Let’s analyze what went wrong.

To start, Aaron received a blow in the summer during the World Cup of Hockey tournament. It came off a play from Leo Komarov, who in my opinion is a dirty player. Say what you want, but the hit was clearly a dirty hit. Aaron was forced to miss the remainder of the tournament.

The hit came of scare to all us Panther fans as we knew the history Aaron had with concussions. This is not what you want happening to your young star defenseman. The blow was labeled as a “whiplash” according to Ekblad, and he’d proceed to start the season cleared.

But was it the right decision? Was Aaron jumping into play to early without enough rest?. Time would certainly tell and so would Aaron’s play. To keep this short, Aaron’s season turned out to be a disaster and he ended off the year with 10G, 11A, 21P and a career low of -23. Aaron would also receive another “blow to the head” in a play against Tampa Bay. He ended up returning to the lineup five days later being cleared by doctors and given the green light by Tom Rowe.

Aaron suddenly started to complain about his neck and would later be shutdown for the rest of the season. It was clear that Rowe rushed him back into the lineup too quickly, which in result, caused for his pains in his neck.

Part of the other reason Aaron struggled this year was due to the fact that he didn’t have Brian Campbell as his partner no longer. Aaron and Brian developed great chemistry in Ekblad’s first couple of seasons in the NHL. Both defenseman were highly productive in all three zones of the ice. Campbell was Ekblad’s “safety net” in case Aaron ran into trouble. Not having Brian by his side was also another consideration into Aaron’s terrible year.

Let’s look at Aaron’s WOWY (With or Without you) with Brian by his side. WOWY is a metric used to analyze a player with and without a certain player they played with. The metric is used to see  whether the player in which they played with made them a better player or not.

The results (as per Corsica) show that Aaron has a CF% of 57.97% with Brian by his side. On the other hand, Aaron has a CF% of 50.15% without Brian by his side. When we look at the two numbers, it’s obvious to note that Aaron is much better statistically in regards to Corsi, when paired with Brian.

Next: Florida Panthers 2016-17 Team Awards

Another metric I like to use in this case is xGA60 (Expected Goals Against Per 60min). This metric is more on the “defensive end” of the spectrum. Again, we will use WOWY but with xGA60 as the variable. With Brian, Aaron’s xGA60 is 2.10. Without Brian, Aaron’s expected goals against per sixty min (xGA60) rises to a 2.40. To analyze the numbers that we have here, Aaron’s “goal’s against” while on the ice is lower when he is with Brian. When he is not with Brian (as seen this year), his expected goals against rises.

In result of what we analyzed with the two metrics, it’s clear that Aaron is a much better player when having Brian by his side. If you look at all the other metrics, you will see that Aaron tends to struggle without Campbell as his partner. Going into next season, Aaron will have to develop immediate chemistry with another defensive partner. It could be Yandle, Matheson, or McCosen (if he makes the team). That will be up to the coach to decide, on what defenseman is best suited to partner up with Aaron on the blue line.

In closing, I wouldn’t worry too much about Aaron’s “terrible year”. Many defenseman have them and certainly have them when they first stepped into the league. Aaron has shown plenty of bright plays in his career thus far, and one bad season shouldn’t ruin the young kids image. Expect a bounce back from Aaron during next season.