Matt Stajan Comparisons
March 20th, 2008 by Steve
Yesterday I put up comparisons of Alex Steen’s development to that of Henrik Sedin and Kristian Huselius. While Stajan’s numbers have compared favourably to Steen’s, I think in the long run he’s less likely to be designated as a top line player. Given his recent run of play, and the style to which he seems accustomed, he’s more of a 2nd line center that mucks it up along the boards who has decent hands but doesn’t shoot enough.
Some comparisons I’ve read try to think of him as the next Alyn McCauley or Mike Johnson… hate to break it to those of you who threw those ideas out there on sites like hfboards.com, but Stajan is a far sight better than either of those two players.
More likely comparisons would be Brendan Morrison, Craig Conroy, Jeff Halpern, or Steven Reinprecht. Lets examine career numbers similarly to how I did in the Steen posting:
| Brendan Morrison | GP | Goals | Assists | Points | +/- | PPG | GWG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yr 1 | 76 | 13 | 33 | 46 | -4 | 5 | 2 |
| Yr 2 | 56 | 7 | 28 | 35 | +12 | 2 | 1 |
| Yr 3 | 82 | 16 | 38 | 54 | +2 | 3 | 3 |
| Yr 4 | 82 | 23 | 44 | 67 | +18 | 6 | 4 |
| Yr 5 | 82 | 25 | 46 | 71 | +18 | 6 | 8 |
| Yr 6 | 82 | 22 | 38 | 60 | +16 | 5 | 4 |
| Craig Conroy | GP | Goals | Assists | Points | +/- | PPG | GWG |
| Yr 1 | 61 | 6 | 11 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Yr 2 | 81 | 14 | 29 | 43 | +20 | 0 | 1 |
| Yr 3 | 69 | 14 | 25 | 39 | +14 | 0 | 1 |
| Yr 4 | 79 | 12 | 15 | 27 | +5 | 1 | 3 |
| Yr 5 | 83 | 14 | 18 | 32 | +2 | 0 | 2 |
| Yr 6 | 81 | 27 | 48 | 75 | +24 | 7 | 4 |
| Jeff Halpern | GP | Goals | Assists | Points | +/- | PPG | GWG |
| Yr 1 | 79 | 18 | 11 | 29 | +21 | 4 | 1 |
| Yr 2 | 80 | 21 | 21 | 42 | +13 | 2 | 5 |
| Yr 3 | 48 | 5 | 14 | 19 | -9 | 0 | 4 |
| Yr 4 | 82 | 13 | 21 | 34 | +6 | 1 | 2 |
| Yr 5 | 79 | 19 | 27 | 46 | -21 | 7 | 2 |
| Yr 6 | 70 | 11 | 33 | 44 | -8 | 6 | 1 |
| Steven Reinprecht | GP | Goals | Assists | Points | +/- | PPG | GWG |
| Yr 1 | 80 | 15 | 21 | 36 | +10 | 3 | 3 |
| Yr 2 | 67 | 19 | 27 | 46 | +14 | 4 | 3 |
| Yr 3 | 77 | 18 | 33 | 51 | -6 | 2 | 1 |
| Yr 4 | 44 | 7 | 22 | 29 | +1 | 3 | 1 |
| Yr 5 | 52 | 10 | 19 | 29 | +10 | 5 | 1 |
| Yr 6 | 28 | 12 | 11 | 23 | +1 | 4 | 2 |
| Matt Stajan | GP | Goals | Assists | Points | +/- | PPG | GWG |
| Yr 1 | 69 | 14 | 13 | 27 | +7 | 0 | 0 |
| Yr 2 | 80 | 15 | 12 | 27 | +5 | 3 | 5 |
| Yr 3 | 82 | 10 | 29 | 39 | +3 | 1 | 1 |
| Yr 4 | 74 | 14 | 16 | 30 | -8 | 2 | 2 |
It should be noted that obviously Reinprecht and Halpern had bumps in the road due to injuries. Conroy’s early career seems to mirror that of Stajan, but he had to be traded to Calgary and play with Jarome Iginla to fully realize his potential. Morrison also saw a drastic improvement in play when he lined up with Bertuzzi and Naslund. The main issue Stajan seems to have is the number of shots he takes. Perhaps it relates to confidence, but he has yet to take more than 132 shots a season (his career high last year). I regularly notice he has the puck in prime shooting position but he fails to pull the trigger. We’re working on another Kaberle, Antropov, Ponikarovsky type situation here where the shooter looks to pass first shoot second… he needs to balance that a bit more.
His work along the boards is of high quality, but his wingers this season have been crap at putting the puck in the net. Jason Blake and Darcy Tucker have a combined 6.34% shooting percentage… Blake is the worst offender with 306 shots and only 13 goals to show for it. Speaking of Blake, did anyone else catch the Leafs TV crew CONGRATULATING him for a career high shot total?! I vomited a bit into my mouth at that point… he has a treatable form of cancer that doesn’t drastically alter his ability to live his day-to-day life, not the Ebola virus.
Stajan will only develop offensively if he shoots the puck more, and plays with wingers who know how to find the back of the net. I think signing a free agent like Ryan Malone or Niklas Hagman would greatly benefit Stajan’s career. HERE THAT FUTURE LEAF’S GM??? Or they could play Stajan with Tlusty or Williams, let Tucker ride shotgun, and try playing Blake with Antropov and Mats (if he comes back next season). Keep the Steen, Wellwood, Ponikarovsky line together… they’ve looked good. Just keep giving them MORE ice time.
I’ll grumble more about what’s going on with the ice time as the games come to us…
Posted in Prospects
5 Responses to “Matt Stajan Comparisons”
By Sean
on Mar 20, 2008
Based on nothing more than subjective observation, I’m not sure I’d agree that Stajan is “a far sight better” than McCauley. He may have comparable offensive skills, but McCauley had a stronger defensive game. I think Stajan is generally considered a solid defensive player more based on how he’s been used (typically third-line duty) than what he can actually do.
For whatever it’s worth.
By Steve
on Mar 20, 2008
Perhaps if McCauley had been healthy in his early going with the Leafs it would’ve been a different story. In his entire NHL career, McCauley had 1 season with over 26 points. He might have been solid defensively, but I see no reason to assume he was better defensively than Stajan.
If you look at the RTSS stats by season, in 2002-03 when McCauley was with the Sharks and Leafs, he played 80 games, and had 15 blocked shots, 9 giveaways, and 11 takeaways.
In 2005-06, the next season for which they kept the RTSS stats, In 76 games, he had 64 blocked shots, 15 giveaways and 26 takeaways.
This year in 74 games, Stajan has 41 blocked shots, 37 giveaways, and 46 takeaways.
It should be noted that it took 8 years for McCauley to get to the point where he was that defensively responsible. Stajan is only in his 4th year.
McCauley had 1 good offensive season in San Jose in the year before the lockout. He put up 47 points and was +23. He just couldn’t stay healthy, and couldn’t stick with a decent club. Stajan has far more offensive upside at this point in his career, and I’d say he’s shown more for the Leafs than McCauley did, in less time. McCauley had 1 good run with the Leafs in the playoffs, riding shotgun with Gary Roberts. Stajan has hardly seen the playoffs, but that isn’t really his fault… down the line I expect more from him than I ever did from McCauley.
By Steve
on Mar 20, 2008
Oh and Stajan has gotten almost 3 minutes of ice time on the PK both this season, and in 05-06. McCauley regularly saw over 2 minutes of PK ice time also. When McCauley last played for the Sharks in 05-06 he was seeing 2:42. That season San Jose and Toronto both had right around an 80% PK rate. So again… comparable… and that was in Stajan’s 2nd year in the NHL… McCauley was in his 8th year.