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With absolutely nothing happening in the hockey world right now, and for the foreseeable future, I’ve decided to take the plunge and write player profiles for each member of the Calgary Flames.
As was the case when I did them last summer, we’ll be looking at the season they just put together and expectations moving forward.
I’ve written up 15 players thus far, with Sean Monahan being the most recent.
Today we’re going with Mark Jankowski.
Counting stats: 56 games, seven points (five goals, two assists), 11:06 average time on ice
5v5 underlyings: 0.87 points/60, -2.35 CF% Rel, -20.98 GF% Rel, +1.04 xGF% Rel, 95.3 PDO
2019-20 review: Mark Jankowski has always reminded me of a poor man’s Sean Monahan. What I mean by that is he’s an above average goal scorer (relative to his role) but his on-ice impacts leave a lot to be desired. If he’s not scoring, he’s not bringing anything to the table on a shift-to-shift basis. That’s why it seems kind of fitting the year Monahan’s play goes down the drain the same thing happens to Jankowski, although to an absurd extent.
Jankowski scored nearly 17 goals per 82 games over the last two seasons. He was on pace for just seven goals this year. That’s a massive difference, especially for somebody playing bottom-6 minutes. Jankowski’s shooting percentage (13.2) was in line with his career average (14.1). The problem is he stopped generating shots.
He averaged 118 shots on goal per 82 from 2017-19. This season he was on pace for 56. That’s a cut of more than half the volume.
To his credit Jankowski is a solid penalty killer, however, all he’s good for at 5v5 is goals. They disappeared, and so did his value. His negative on-ice impact is much easier to stomach when, well, you produce more than 10 points per 82 games.
Jankowski went from a high-end bottom-6 goal scorer to a player GM Brad Treliving couldn’t trade for a pair of used dad shoes.
Fun fact(s): 14 forwards played at least 150 minutes for the Flames. None of them generated shot attempts at a lesser rate than Jankowski. Yes, even the likes of Milan Lucic and Zac Rinaldo bested Janko.
2020-21 outlook: I honestly think Jankowski has a real shot at returning for next season. His value reached such a low point that there’s no benefit to trading him. The Flames almost certainly wouldn’t get a player with the ceiling Jankowski has shown (15+ goals, 30+ points) so they’d be better off hoping for/betting on a rebound. He can still kill penalties; if the scoring touch returns at all he’d be a nice piece to have.
There’s also real potential for Sean Monahan to be traded. I think Elias Lindholm can play center but you probably don’t want to trade Monahan, sell low on Jankowski, and completely thin out your depth at arguably the most important position in hockey.
numbers via naturalstattrick.com and hockey-reference.com
Recent posts:
2020-21 player profile: Sean Monahan
2020-21 player profile: Johnny Gaudreau
2020-21 player profile: Travis Hamonic
2020-21 player profile: David Rittich
2020-21 player profile: Cam Talbot
2020-21 player profile: Milan Lucic
2020-21 player profile: Mark Giordano
2020-21 player profile: Andrew Mangiapane
2020-21 player profile: Derek Ryan
2020-21 player profile: Sam Bennett
2020-21 player profile: T.J. Brodie
2020-21 player profile: Mikael Backlund
2020-21 player profile: Noah Hanifin
2020-21 player profile: Elias Lindholm
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