This article will be another in my series of player profiles, where I’ll look at each player on the Anaheim Ducks and assess how their season went. This piece will focus on Hampus Lindholm.
Lindholm was heavily relied upon once again, leading all Ducks skaters in ice time per game, averaging over 23 minutes per game for the second year in a row. This included nearly two minutes per game on the power play, as well as 2:39 per game on the penalty kill. He also faced the second-highest quality of competition of any defenseman on the team, behind only Josh Manson (according to Hockey Abstract).
He still managed 22 points in 55 games, a pace of 33 points per 82 games, along with a corsi for percentage of 50.7 per cent, which was higher than the team’s overall corsi for percentage of just 48 per cent. He posted these numbers despite having a low offensive zone start percentage as well, at just 47 per cent.
While his goals for percentage was extremely low, at just 39.7 per cent, his expected goals for percentage was quite a bit higher, at 47.7 per cent, which ranked third amongst Anaheim’s defensemen (minimum 15 games played with the Ducks), according to NaturalStatTrick.com.
Next season, I’d imagine not much will change for Lindholm. Anaheim will look to continue trying to phase in some young defensemen and he’ll still be counted on to log big minutes. He's still just 26 years old with two years remaining on his contract and while some pieces of the roster may be dealt in the next year or two during the retooling process, I think it’s safe to say Lindholm won’t be one of them. Between his reliability in his own end as well as his ability to produce a bit offensively, he’s arguably Anaheim’s best all-around defender.
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Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
Is Hampus Lindholm Anaheim's best all-around defenseman?
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