Consistency can go a long way. Sometimes, when you keep everything the same, and do everything the same way; you get the same results. That may be the best way to describe Ivan Provorov as a hockey player. This year, he did not surprise us one bit.
Likewise, through all of the hype, ups and downs; this season's Columbus Blue Jackets were exactly what we expected them to be. They were in the fight right down to the last week of the regular season, ultimately finishing just ahead of last year's points total-but missing out on the playoffs for the sixth year in a row.
Instead of going out and finding an upgrade to the blue line last summer, GM Don Waddell pulled the band back together. The biggest piece he kept around was certainly Ivan Provorov, who signed a massive 7-year, $59.5 million dollar extension to remain in Columbus.
So, it should not come as a surprise that this team continued to have the same strengths and weaknesses on their back-end. Under the same coaching staff, and with the same players, the team struggled through most of the first half of the season.
A lot of that changed when they (finally) let go of assistant coach Steve McCarthy, who was directly involved with coaching the defense. Joining him on the unemployment line was head coach Dean Evason, who was unable to squeeze enough out of the team to make up for their shortcomings in the D-zone.
In was Rick Bowness, who vowed to help get this team's defensive game in line. While there was immediate improvement, it turned out to be too little, too late for this team to salvage their season.
Still, through all of that tumult, with two different coaching staffs: Ivan Provorov was steady old Ivan Provorov. He played in all 82 games for the Blue Jackets, and has not missed a single game since being acquired from the team three years ago.
This season, he scored 9 goals and 31 points, tying Denton Mateychuk for third on the team in scoring from the blue line. He averaged nearly 25 minutes per game, playing on the first penalty kill and the second power-play unit.
Digging deeper, Ivan posted a +14 rating, the second highest mark of his career. But, that's a bit of a paper dragon. He had just a 46% CORSI, which had him 6th amongst players who played any meaningful minutes this year; and a -12 goal differential in all situations.
Part of that is due to the team continuing to throw him out in a role that I would argue he's just not suited for. For some reason, both the Evason and Bowness coaching staffs see Ivan as a shutdown defenseman.
The fact of the matter is, he's serviceable enough to hold his own defensively. But, that's not the strong point of his game. This is a guy who likes to have the puck on his stick, and is very capable of skating it out of danger. Occasionally, he'll use that puck moving ability to chip in some offense.
Until this team figures that out, it's going to be tough sledding in their own end. I do think that having a consistent (competent) defensive zone scheme will help. But, lets face it: the issue with this team's defense corps is not Ivan Provorov. It's in how they try to use him.
Ideally, he's the start of a second defense pairing. One who is above average and will not hurt the team at either end of the ice. In the best case scenario, he's paired with a bigger, heavier partner who can keep pace offensively, but also help mask Ivan's shortcomings in his own end. Namely, physicality in front of the net.
With all of that in mind, my grade for Ivan Provorov will probably shock a lot of people. I give him a solid B+. He played in all 82 games, and did his very best playing in a role that he's just not built for. What more can you ask?
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