I'll give you three guesses to figure out where this guy makes his milk and honey... and two don't count. Need a hint? Two initials, one is a P and the other is a P.
Yet again, someone who was being proclaimed as regressing, when in actuality was pretty much plateauing but it was more ice-time (especially PP) that caused the major differences.
Even Strength Advance Stats
YEAR
RelQoC
OZS
RelCorsi
Corsi
G/60
A1/60
P/60
2007
0.349
49.9
1.1
-02.25
0.77
0.72
1.73
2008
0.442
55.8
1.1
-02.99
0.96
0.62
1.81
2009
0.586
51.8
5.9
04.91
0.51
0.61
1.69
2010
1.006
52.9
-6.9
-00.82
0.66
0.55
1.75
2011
2.056
47.9
-6.3
-10.25
0.65
0.75
1.80
I'm going to skip the normal formatting because I feel kind of lazy... Instead of going year by year, I'll show how he fits in with the Jets.
As you can see here, Jokinen has steadily faced tougher and tougher competition. In fact, last season Jokinen had the second highest RelQoC and the leagues highest CorsiQoC (both are measures of competition levels but one uses opponents RelCorsi and the other uses the opponents raw Corsi... if you need more information feel free to ask). For the most part he was placed into the offensive zone, except for in 2011 where Sutter placed Jokinen in a defensive role with OZS similar to Hainsey.
Looking at his possession stats, you can see it wasn't exactly pretty, as Jokinen was being fairly out-chanced by his competition (although by about half the degree as GST) which isn't unusual for Jokinen except in 2009. Jokinen is a solid ES scorer but his real scoring punch comes from the PP. Jokinen's 5v5 1.80 P/60 would have placed him 4th in scoring rates behind Kane, Wellwood and Wheeler, and right before Ladd. His goal scoring would have been 8th but his assists' rate is only less than Wheeler. Relative to our regular power players' production (ignoring Stapleton who was at the point), Jokinen would have led us in goals (just beating Little by 0.01), primary assists and points.
Dependent on usage, I could see similar competition as 2008, OZS of 2009 and hopefully better possession numbers being on the best FenwickClose team he's been on yet (will go over this on team analysis).
Summary
I don't expect Jokinen to become a great 2-way centre (Datsyuk, Kopitar, etc) like Sutter was trying to accomplish, but I expect someone who is not a defensive liability. I don't expect Jokinen to put up the crazy points like in Florida or attempt to carry the team on his back, but I expect him to be a huge upgrade on Burmistrov in our top6 and Stapleton on our power-play (for forwards who had 30+ games and 1.5mins+ of PP/game, Jokinen comes 15th in scoring).
1-2 Years in the Future
Well Jokinen is only signed for 1 more year, and to be honest I'm hoping he isn't extended due to us having better options... Whether that's Scheifele's and/or Burmistrov's development and/or a nice free agent signing like Zajac or higher/lesser (depending on development of the two previous players). So, this would be just year one. Year two you would shuffle some of the centre's and hopefully be adding one.
I wish I could remember who once described Olli Jokinen as looking like "the blank body that God uses when he takes human form," or words to that effect, but I want to buy that person a beer because it's perfect.
I can't find the audio (heard it on TSN radio today, so I'm sure it'll be available at some point), but here's an excerpt from his discussion:
Quote:
Jokinen was surprised at what he’s learned of Wellwood so quickly.
“I’m amazed how smart he is, the hockey sense he’s got,” Jokinen said, comparing Wellwood to former Florida linemate Josef Stumpl. “He can play with any player and make any player better. He’s such a great little player. I’m amazed how good he is in these two days I’ve seen him.”
truck: I agree - he's a super sneaky / shifty dude, with incredible hockey IQ. If he had more natural physical skills, he'd be downright deadly.
I can't find the audio (heard it on TSN radio today, so I'm sure it'll be available at some point), but here's an excerpt from his discussion:
truck: I agree - he's a super sneaky / shifty dude, with incredible hockey IQ. If he had more natural physical skills, he'd be downright deadly.
I've heard that Kyle focused on fitness this off season too. If he is a bit stronger/ quicker he could really fit into the top 6 and stick with Jokinen and Kane. Pretty exciting!
I can't find the audio (heard it on TSN radio today, so I'm sure it'll be available at some point), but here's an excerpt from his discussion:
truck: I agree - he's a superhero sneaky / shifty dude, with incredible hockey IQ. If he had more natural physical skills, he'd be downright deadly.
He gets by on pretty much just smarts and vision, he doesn't really have anything else. I love that about him. If he can go about 16-18 minutes a game and keep up his production from last year it will really help the team.
He gets by on pretty much just smarts and vision, he doesn't really have anything else. I love that about him. If he can go about 16-18 minutes a game and keep up his production from last year it will really help the team.
Well, he specifically mentioned that Noel wanted to use him more last year, but he just didn't have the gas in the tank to accomodate. From all accounts, he worked his butt off on conditioning in the off-season this year to rectify this problem - let's hope!
Well, he specifically mentioned that Noel wanted to use him more last year, but he just didn't have the gas in the tank to accomodate. From all accounts, he worked his butt off on conditioning in the off-season this year to rectify this problem - let's hope!
He will never be the type of player that can do it alone, but he can be a really nice complimentary piece. He can play centre or wing and he is solid in shootouts. Wouldn't mind him teaching Scheifele or Burmi or maybe even Kane a thing or two.
Don't want to be a Debbie Downer, but i think we need to temper our excitement about the Kane/Jokinen/Wellwood line a bit. Lets see how they do against opposition dmen in real game situations.
After 5-10 games, we should have an idea if this line will work and produce at the rate many of us hope.
According to Craig Button, Jokinen with Kane is unlikely to work because Jokinen couldn't find chemistry with one of the best players in the NHL (Iginla) so why would he have chemistry with Kane.
As much as I don't agree with Button too often, there may be some validity to his claim. Jokinen was suppose to be the answer in Phoenix where he was gawd awful and again failed to develop any chemistry with Doan who is a pretty darn good player himself.
That said, sometimes players just click with certain guys and not with others. Simply putting two very good hockey players together doesn't guarantee immediate chemistry. Here's hoping that OJ and EK can surprise and put some critics (myself included) to rest.
Friendly ManiBROba
