As I’ve done with the other teams that I cover for HockeyBuzz, over the next few weeks, I’ll be writing player profiles, where I look at each player on the team and assess how they performed this season. This article will focus on Max Comtois.
Comtois split his first full professional season between Anaheim and the AHL’s San Diego Gulls. He played just 29 games with the Ducks this year, scoring five goals and 11 points in 29 games, a pace of 14 goals and 31 points per 82 games. Meanwhile, in 31 AHL games, he scored nine goals and 24 points, a pace of 24 goals and 63 points per 82– solid numbers for a 20-year-old.
Something to note, however, was that he had a shooting percentage of 15.6 per cent with the Ducks, which is unsustainably high and likely won’t be replicated next season. He also had a poor corsi for percentage of 43.6 per cent, but it’s important to factor in that he was getting less offensive zone starts than other young forwards like Max Jones, Sam Steel and Troy Terry. It does make sense to see that, as he’s likely to become the most defensively responsible player of the four.
Comtois will likely be with the Ducks full-time next season and that’s when we’ll be able to get a better read on his offensive ceiling. He’s a big player and with that comes better puck control, as well as ability to win battles and based on his AHL success, I’d imagine Comtois shouldn’t have too tough of a time transitioning into a permanent role in the NHL. I don’t think it’s much of a question that he can stick in the top-nine, it’ll be a matter of how much higher in the lineup he’ll be able to play.
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Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):