NHL's Most Surprising Players - Pacific Division

Every NHL season is full of surprises, some good and some bad. Sometimes a team like the Los Angeles Kings that everyone expected to be fighting for a draft lottery spot is instead firmly in the playoff race. Other times, a team that had success last year, like the Montréal Canadiens who made the Stanley Cup Final in 2021, fall off the map and end up last in the NHL. Today I will be going over each team in the NHL’s Pacific Division and outlining the most surprising player for every team at the half-way point of the NHL's 2021-22 season.

Vancouver Canucks:

Elias Pettersson was one of the players whose play early this year inspired me to start this series in the first place. His season last year was cut short by a wrist injury, but expectations for Pettersson were at an all-time high this offseason. Pettersson has since confirmed that the injury was still bothering him until well into the season as he started this year off with 16 points in his first 36 games. People were beginning to ask “Is Pettersson even good anymore?”

He seems to have answered that question with a resounding “Yes”. In his 17 games since, Pettersson has scored 21 points, more than doubling his point total in less than half of the games. After his first 36 games, Pettersson was on pace for 27 points this season (0.33 PPG) but is now on pace for 57 points.

I consider Elias Pettersson to be a “double surpriser” so far this season. He started off by competing at a level so far below expectations that he was a surprisingly poor player. Just as the less patient of Canucks fans began contemplating the prospect of trading him away, Pettersson came to life (or more likely had a fully healthy wrist finally) and has surprised everyone again with his elite puck handling and dynamic skill. Turns out excellent players don’t just forget how to play hockey overnight. Who knew?

(Honourable Mention: Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Expectations for OEL were at an all-time low coming into this season after a rough year in Arizona. However, he has managed to be a very solid defender so far for the Canucks with good defensive metrics to match some solid play driving ability as a defenceman.)

Anaheim Ducks:

Troy Terry has been one of the NHL’s breakout stars so far this season, with 45 points in 49 games this season, Terry leads the Ducks in points. Though he is no longer competing with the likes of Leon Draisaitl and Alex Ovechkin for the Rocket Richard trophy (like he was for the first 2 months of the season) Terry has had an excellent offensive season so far, that has come totally out of the blue.

Terry’s previous career-high for points in a season was in 2020-21 when he scored 20 points in 48 games, which he has already beaten by over double. He has earned a top-line position on the surprisingly good Ducks squad this season and looks like the real deal. With Terry, Zegras Drysdale and co. the future is looking pretty bright for the Ducks.

(Honourable Mention: The Whole Team [but in a good way]. Most people, myself included, expected the Ducks to be one of the league’s bottom-feeders this season, more likely to be fighting for draft lottery position rather than a playoff spot. The Ducks came out hot this season and every week I was forced to think “just wait till next week when they fall off the map”, but they have remained firmly in the Pacific division playoff race to this day. Super impressive for a young team that is clearly rebuilding the right way.)

Calgary Flames:

After being acquired in free agency before last season, goaltender Jakob Markstrom had a disappointing season last year, where he struggled to reproduce his performance from the previous season that even earned him a few votes for the Vezina trophy. That is all a distant memory for Flames fans at this point, as Markstrom has been incredible so far this season, and leads the league with 8 shutouts in only 43 games.

For context, the next closest goalie is Ilya Sorokin of the New York Islanders . . . who only has 5 shutouts. Markstrom has an amazing .925 save percentage to go with his 24 wins. Markstrom is approaching the Flames’ franchise record for most shutouts in a season, set by franchise legend Miikka Kiprusoff who had 10 shutouts in the 2005-06 season. He has been an underrated goalie for a few seasons now, but this performance is not going unnoticed.

(Honourable Mention: Johnny Gaudreau. Johnny went from scoring his two lowest season point totals in a row, to scoring at an incredible 104-point pace so far this season. Gaudreau has been a dominant two-way force this season, further cementing the fact that smaller hockey players can have a real impact at the NHL level.)

Vegas Golden Knights:

No one player stands out as surprising so far this season, but by far the most surprising aspect of the Golden Knights’ season until now is their trade for Jack Eichel. The relationship between Eichel and Buffalo soured to an irreparable extent over last summer and it was clear that he would be traded. However, nobody expected the star centerman to be traded to an already excellent Golden Knights team, considering how difficult it would be for them to accommodate his $10M/year cap hit.

The NHL salary cap exists for a reason, and for the last few years, that reason has been for teams like Vegas and Tampa Bay to manipulate it (without breaking any rules) and make every other NHL team look foolish for not following suit.

Regardless of any cap shenanigans that are going on in Vegas, this will be an interesting trade to revisit in a few years. The Knights gave up Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs, a 2nd round pick in the 2023 draft and a 1st round pick in the 2022 draft in exchange for a truly elite player in Jack Eichel. Tuch and Krebs have looked excellent in Buffalo since the trade and draft picks are always valuable, but Eichel will be a bit more interesting to evaluate. The Knights are counting on him being the piece that will put them over the top and help to win their first Stanley Cup. It will take time for Eichel to brush off all the rust after not playing an NHL game for nearly a year, but he is looking good, with 4 points in his first 5 games for the Golden Knights.

(Honourable Mention: Chandler Stephenson. To go from a relatively unknown young player to the first-line center for a team that is seriously contending for a cup is something remarkable. Stephenson even leads the Golden Knights in scoring at this point, with 41 points in 50 games so far this season.)

Los Angeles Kings:

Drew Doughty has been one of the best defencemen in the NHL ever since being drafted 2nd overall in 2008. Over the last few seasons, the Kings have gone into full rebuild mode, and Doughty’s game has suffered. Last year in particular, Doughty did not look all that good, with both his offensive and defensive results well below his career expectations.

That is a distant memory now as the sudden resurgence of the LA Kings this season has also given new life to Doughty. He is on pace for his highest scoring season in 4 years, even though he has already missed about 20 games. His defensive game is much closer to where it used to be, making him the clear #1 defender on his team who is trusted with a ton of ice time.

(Honourable Mention: Viktor Arvidsson. Arvidsson showed some great potential in his first few seasons for the Predators, but after a tough couple of seasons, he was traded last offseason to the Kings. He has rejuvenated his career so far in LA, scoring 35 points in 46 games, which puts him at 3rd in scoring on a team that is surprising everyone by being firmly in the playoff race.)

Seattle Kraken:

They’re not the Golden Knights. That is the biggest surprise of the Kraken’s inaugural season so far. The Golden Knights exceeded all expectations for an NHL expansion team when they went all the way to the Stanley Cup Final in their very first season. For the Kraken, that seems rather unlikely.

The Kraken have shocked the hockey world by being . . . about as bad as every expansion team ever. They are currently in 30th place in a 32-team league which is not great. Once they drafted their team, it was clear that defence and goaltending would be their strength and that goal scoring would be difficult for them. However, goalies Phillip Grubauer and Chris Dreidger have both been shockingly bad all season long.

Defence has been their strength as expected, but their lack of consistent goaltending has led them to be the bottom team in the Pacific division throughout the whole season. They appear to be preparing for their future, possibly trading away some of their better players for young prospects and draft picks to help bolster their future. That seems like the best option considering they are 25 points out of a playoff spot just over halfway through the season.

(Honourable Mention: Matty Beniers. The focus now for the Kraken is to build their future, and who better to build around than their first ever draft pick, the 2nd overall pick in the 2021 draft Matty Beniers. Beniers is currently leading the stacked University of Michigan team in points with 37 points in 30 NCAA games this season. Before the draft, Beniers was billed as a low-excitement, dependable two-way forward, but has shown much more offensive potential this season than expected. He has looked excellent this season and could make his way into the opening night lineup for the Kraken as soon as next season.)

Edmonton Oilers:

I wouldn’t say I’m surprised by the Oilers so far this season, but rather I am just disappointed. They haven’t made significant changes in years, which leads to them wasting the incredible offensive talents of McDavid and Draisaitl for yet another year. They are a top-heavy offensive team with poor forward depth, average defending, and bad goaltending. They have been the picture of inconsistency this season, with many long winning and losing streaks pushing and pulling them in and out of playoff position every few weeks.

Connor McDavid has scored an insane 75 points in 52 games this season and Leon Draisaitl has a nearly identical total of 74 points in 53 games. The Oilers have two of the most gifted offensive players in the world, but their next highest scoring player is Ryan Nugent-Hopkins who has 37 points, half of what Draisaitl has. This team is essentially just two guys and then whoever else decides to show up on a game-by-game basis.

Goaltending has been their biggest issue over the last few seasons as Mikko Koskinen and Mike Smith aren’t exactly an All-star level goalie tandem. Koskinen has been the better of the two this season, but that isn’t a very high bar to clear. He has a .901 save percentage to go with a 3.13 Goals Against Average . . . not great. The Oilers are 10th in the NHL in goals for, but 22nd in the league in goals against. They need a goalie if they want to avoid wasting all of the remaining years of their star players’ contracts.

(Honourable Mention: Evan Bouchard. The 10th overall pick in the 2018 draft, Bouchard has earned his first full-time NHL spot this season and has been really solid for the Oilers. He has 27 points in 53 games as a defenceman and has been as good defensively as you can ask of a young defender. His continued development could be a real positive sign in the right direction for this team.)

San Jose Sharks:

Since being drafted 9th overall by the Sharks in the stacked 2015 draft, Timo Meier has been one of the more underrated players in the NHL. Maybe this was to be expected, considering he was drafted alongside players like McDavid, Marner and Rantanen, but I don’t think it is fair. He has been an excellent player for an unpredictable Sharks team that has alternated between being really good and really bad over the last few seasons. However, this season Meier has shown himself to be a star player with a knack for scoring goals.

Timo Meier currently leads the Sharks in scoring with 53 points in 48 games and has had excellent results on both ends of the ice. Last season was his weakest since his rookie year so expectations for Meier had leveled off a bit, but he has provided Sharks fans with a glimmer of hope for their future. He has been extremely fun to watch and has shown he is capable of single-handedly taking over a game, like when he scored 5 goals in about 18 minutes of ice-time against the LA Kings.

(Honourable Mention: Alexander Barbanov. After several successful seasons in the KHL in Russia, Barbanov tried his hand in the NHL last season as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He only managed to play 13 games, scoring 1 point in those games before being traded to the Sharks. In 54 games since being traded last season, Barbanov has scored 36 points for the Sharks, earning him a serious role on the team.)

Check out the most surprising players from the Divisions I have already written about:

Atlantic Division

Metropolitan Division

Central Division

I have finally made it through all 4 divisions in the NHL despite all of the distractions posed by the All-Star weekend and the Olympics. Do you agree with my picks? If not, then who do you think have been the most surprising players? Let me know in the comment section below!