You probably will not believe us when we tell you this, but the deeper you dig, it is true: this season was the best of Cole Sillinger's young NHL career so far.
If you look solely at his production (counting stats), you will be quick to tell me I'm wrong here. I would expect no less, because the usual discourse around Cole is that he is a disappointment for a first round pick. After all, he doesn't score a ton of points.
That continued to be the case this year. He matched his career high with 33 points, though he scored only 8 goals-and played in a career high 81 games. From that perspective, his production was down this season. That's a fair criticism.
However, there is a lot more to hockey than just scoring points. And, if we look past the points part of the equation, Cole Sillinger just had an under the radar breakout season for the Blue Jackets.
A play driver in the making.
It feels like Cole has been around forever. After making the team out of training camp at just 18 years old, he has been a Blue Jacket for 5 full seasons now. He's already a veteran of 367 NHL games.
While I do think that Cole was rushed into the NHL too early, we cannot forget how good he was for this team as a rookie. He scored 16 goals (still a career high), and had 31 points in 79 games. On a lot of nights, his swagger made him look like an NHL veteran, as opposed to an 18 year old rookie.
Because he was thrust into the NHL with a rebuilding team, I do think his confidence, and thus his scoring potential, took a bit of a hit. He has not yet developed the touch that made him a #12 overall pick, but that's fine. And, with that said, he's still just 23 years old. He could still grow in that regard.
This season, he did improve across the board, but he was snake bitten. MoneyPuck had him at roughly 15 expected goals scored. Meanwhile, his advanced metrics were massively improved across the board. He posted an on-ice xGF% of 50.4%, the first time he's been a positive player in that column in his career. His line drove play pretty well at even strength.
Digging deeper, his net on-ice goal differential was even. Right at 0. His previous career-best was a -17, achieved last season. In his three years before that, he was -26, -22, and -25. Now, imagine how much better this would look if he had a little puck luck and scored 7 more goals.
All of this points to a guy that is starting to figure it out. He has found his niche with the Blue Jackets, as a middle-six player that can help shut down the top line of the opponent, and chip in some secondary offense when he gets his chance.
Best of all, he can play center, which only adds to the depth in this organization. With all of the things he does away from the puck, he's easy to slot in as a utility player for this team in the long-term. The only question becomes, how much does Don Waddell want to keep him around?
My guess: quite badly. I think he does everything he can to sign Cole Sillinger as part of his competitive core moving forward. This season points to a much brighter future for the young grinder, and his cost is not going to come down.
Our grade for Cole this season would be a strong B+. It would be an "A" if he had finished the campaign with a few more points, but that's really just nitpicking. I'm excited to see what the future brings with #4 in Columbus. He is a big piece of this team moving forward.
Add us as a preferred source on Google