2018-19 was another fine season for the Florida Panthers’ iron man defenseman, Keith Yandle.
At 32-years-old, Keith Yandle might have taken a few steps back defensively but made up for it with a career offensive year. Yandle had a career season with career highs in points (62), power-play goals (9), as well as power-play points (38).
Yandle started the season in red-hot form, putting together 14 points (3 goals, 11 assists) across the first 14 games. His most impressive bit of early form came across the stretch of three games in October, where he almost led two comebacks against Philadelphia and Detroit.
From the Philadelphia game, we saw a good example of what Keith Yandle can bring to the table when at his very best.
This game-tying goal from Aleksander Barkov should give Yandle full props on the play. In his own end, Yandle is well-positioned in the slot, preventing any kind of pass to Philadelphia’s Jakub Voracek.
Yandle blocks the effort by Shayne Gostisbehere, puts his head on a swivel, and finds Barkov breaking away from the Flyers. It was all Barkov from there, but the effort from Yandle has to be praised.
Another place where Yandle was heavily appreciated was the man advantage. With 38 power-play points, it’s clear to see why the Cats entrusted him to be the quarterback of the power play, directing traffic and a huge contributor in Florida’s revolutionized power play this season.
Despite the score and outcome of this game, the effort Yandle gives on this power play in the Panthers’ 7-3 loss to Tampa Bay shows just how much work he puts in on the man advantage.
Yandle feeds Mike Hoffman, who loses the puck. Yandle moves all the way across the ice to retrieve it, quickly passing the puck off to Evgenii Dadonov to create space for himself.
Dadonov draws the attention of Tampa Bay’s Cedric Paquette, which creates space for Hoffman on the far side. Yandle gets it back, feeds Hoffman, who blasts the puck into the net.
In my last couple of season reviews, I’ve talked a lot about consistency. It’s very important to have that aspect in the modern era of sports, whether it be hockey-basketball or soccer-baseball.
Having consistency can turn average role players into key pieces of a team, or can turn stars into superstars. Yandle, like the Panthers last season, really lacked consistency over the course of the year.
While the offense stayed consistent, the defense fell apart as the second half of the year hit. His month of January showed some serious defensive flaws, including a poor run on the Western Canadian road trip, including an ejection against Calgary, and a benching earlier that month after a -3 start against Pittsburgh at PPG Paints Arena.
At times, Yandle can be the architect of his own downfall. As mentioned, Yandle is a very key piece on the power play for his distribution and decision-making skills with the puck. This next play isn’t what Keith Yandle should bring to the table, but he is prone to do so.
On the power play, Yandle holds the puck deep in the neutral zone, trying to settle the game down after giving up a shorthanded goal a few minutes prior.
He doesn’t sense any oncoming pressure and tries to pass the puck back, but is pressured off of the puck.
Out of position, he presents a two-on-two for the Pens, converted by (would-be future Panther) Riley Sheahan to pot a second Pittsburgh shorty in the period.
As seen, Yandle has had his struggles on defense over the past year, with a -17 +/- well below the +7 he had the year prior. To put it bluntly, Yandle struggles to play with any of the other defensemen on the Panthers roster.
Yandle and Aaron Ekblad are undoubtedly the best two defensemen on the roster, but with both eager to get involved in the offense, neither really has accepted the role of playing defense at all times.
MacKenzie Weegar and Mark Pysyk also split time paired with Yandle this year, but neither pairing quite panned out.
At 32 years of age, Yandle may need a solid defensive-defenseman to play alongside him to allow him to continue pressing up the ice the way he does.
The Panthers simply don’t have that type of player right now but come free agency, that could all change.
Tampa Bay’s Anton Stralman, Winnipeg’s Tyler Myers, and Vancouver’s Alexander Edler will all be unrestricted free agents come July 1st if the Panthers were to be in a position to pay one of them.
Regardless, heading into next season, the Panthers need to ensure that defenseman Keith Yandle is given a new defensive partner so that he can worry about the one area of ice that he excels in: the offensive zone.