AlexSteen

The Contrarian reflects on some November Alex Steen articles, including Puck Daddy, Bleacher Report and others…

He was born in Winnipeg Manitoba on March 1^,1984 so he will be turning 30 years old in a few weeks. Any idea of who I'll be writing about? Here's another hint, his father played for the Winnipeg Jets.

By now you might have figured it out but if not the player is Alexander Steen and yes he is born Canadian. He will represent Sweden at the Sochi Olympics because he has dual citizenship and decided early on to represent Sweden when he was a junior.

There has been talk about Steen's surprising start and if he would continue or regress. He did suffer a concussion but has since returned and playing well again. With 46 points in 45 games played (58 team games) it is only five points shy of his career best.

Most of the early talk was about how Steen could not continue his pace. Puck Daddy, Greg Wyshysnki, said that the biggest reason why Steen is having a good season (or at least a good start) was that it was a contract year. A very simplistic answer to the question of why he is doing well. If it were that simple then every prognosticator would have predicted Steen's bump in production prior to the seasons start.

(Dobber's prediction for Steen at the start of the season was for 46 points. In the mid-season guide it was upgraded to 66. He was not the only one to predict Steen at or about his career average of 46 points)

The Sport Forecaster Fantasy Inbox answered a readers question about trading Steen in early November, "This would be an ideal time to trade Steen while his value is probably at its highest" and "Perhaps this is an opportunity to get a more prolific, name scorer who is off to a slower start (but who has a much better reputation for fantasy production) than Steen." Not a ringing endorsement to keep Steen.

Rob Vollman of the Bleacher Report, writes in an article dated November 16, 2013 that Steen would get 60 to 67 points. He also states, "But absent clear explanations as to why a player is suddenly scoring on three times as many of his shots as he normally does, it doesn't tend to last." From what is written in his column it looks to me that he would be happy to take whatever Steen would give him this season but to treat it as an anomaly.

It was not by accident that I brought up Steen's nationality. What I wanted to reflect on is that he was Swedish trained. I find that some talented players from that country have career years around the late 20's or early 30's. Yellow highlight indicates the season the player turned 30.

Daniel Sedin

	GP	G	A	PTS
2013-14	59	13	27	40
2012-13	47	12	28	40
2011-12	72	30	37	67
2010-11	82	41	63	104
2009-10	63	29	56	85
2008-09	82	31	51	82
2007-08	82	29	45	74
2006-07	81	36	48	84
2005-06	82	22	49	71
2003-04	82	18	36	54
2002-03	79	14	17	31
2001-02	79	9	23	32
2000-01	75	20	14	34

Henrik Sedin

	GP	G	A	PTS
2013-14	52	9	31	40
2012-13	48	11	34	45
2011-12	82	14	67	81
2010-11	82	19	75	94
2009-10	82	29	83	112
2008-09	82	22	60	82
2007-08	82	15	61	76
2006-07	82	10 📢 advertisement:	71	81
2005-06	82	18	57	75
2003-04	76	11	31	42
2002-03	78	8	31	39
2001-02	82	16	20	36
2000-01	82	9	20	29

Markus Naslund

	GP	G	A	PTS
2008-09	82	24	22	46
2007-08	82	25	30	55
2006-07	82	24	36	60
2005-06	81	32	47	79
2003-04	78	35	49	84
2002-03	82	48	56	104
2001-02	81	40	50	90
2000-01	72	41	34	75
1999-00	82	27	38	65
1998-99	80	36	30	66
1997-98	76	14	20	34
1996-97	78	21	20	41
1995-96	66	19	33	52
1995-96	10	3	0	3
1994-95	14	2	2	4
1993-94	71	4	7	11

You will say that these are only three players and that Steen is not at their level of skill or capability. People thought Naslund topped out when he earned 75 points too. These guys played on strong teams and had great line mates. Steen is playing on a strong team and has chemistry with T.J. Oshie and David Backes as his normal linemates.

On November 16, 2013 Steve Simmons, wrote an article reflecting on the trade that saw Steen going to St. Louis. Leafs acting GM Cliff Fletcher dealt Steen and Carlo Colaiacovo to the Blues for Lee Stempniak after approximately 20 games into the 2008-09 season. At the time Steen had four points. The attitude at the time was probably that he reached his peak the previous seasons and it was time to trade to get something better in return. Sound familiar? But the trade is not what I want to focus on.

The part of that article that drew my attention were the quotes from Pat Quinn and Alexander Mogilny. Quinn was impressed, "He has natural instincts" and "It just took some time for him like it does for a lot of kids." Mogilny was even more assured, when talking to Pat Quinn during Steen's rookie season, "You can put that kid on my line any time".

He can play on my team any time, too!

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