What does PK Subban’s amazing playoffs mean for his future?

As a devout Maple Leaf homer, its brings great reluctance to admit that Mr. Pernell-Karl Subban has grown leaps and bounds in his maturity level during the 2013-14 campaign. There's no doubt that defending Norris Trophy titlist has shown that his fortitude, mental toughness and leadership abilities are improving at a rapid rate, inching closer and closer to matching his immeasurable skill set.

While Subban still lacks defensive responsibility at times, going solo, pinching deep rather frequently, he's certainly proven that he's not all offense. He's played a large role in the Montreal Canadiens pulling off the impressive upset of the Eastern Conference Champion, Bruins and of course, coming within two victories of their first Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 21 years.

His tagline associated with his sparing use in the Sochi Olympics by Team Canada coach, Mike Babcock, was that he was too high-risk of a weapon, with a power play specialist role seeming his best suit. However, he's shown that he's grown into much more of a complete player than the prevailing theory had dictated, giving veteran Andrei Markov a run for his money with top defensive effort from the blueline down the stretch in the Boston series.

Unlike the face of the game, Sidney Crosby, Subban most definitely was elite when it mattered most, staving off elimination and helping lead the way to the Eastern Conference Finals. In fact, through the first five games of Eastern Semi-Finals, Subban's eight points were just one shy of Crosby's full output for his entire 13-game playoff run, netting three more points total (12) in two less games than Pittsburgh's captain.

Moreover, Subban led the Canadiens in scoring with 14 points in 17 games.

P.K. Subban's Most Common Linemate Generator by Frozen Pools

It's usually Josh Gorges and his knack for throwing his body on the line who does the heavy defensive lifting, blocking shots (sixth in NHL for 2013-14) and boxing out speedsters in the defensive zone. However, Subban only registered five less blocked shots to Gorges' 25 over the course of the rough and tumble Bruins series; much less disparity than we've seen between the traditionally off-setting pairing during the regular season.

To put this into more perspective, note that since the end of the 2011-12 season (lockout not-withstanding), Subban has racked up 174 regular season blocked shots, having lacing them up for a full 82 game slate this year.  This season alone, Gorges has trumped that total, racking up 177, despite missing a month and a half of action in the infirmary this year.

So as you can see, Subban has not only been willing to be a leader, but has proven it by example, making more sacrifices than ever before, to show us that he's far a one (or even two) trick pony.

When Subban has been on, and Price is shutting the door, this Canadiens teams has shown a surprisingly high resolve. Although youngster, Dustin Tokarski more than held his own after surprisingly being thrown to the wolves ahead of Peter Budaj, he naturally did not provide the same calming effect of Price.

Even Subban's already impressive regular season offensive levels have been significantly raised in Lord Stanley's playoffs. His regular season saw him break the 50-point barrier for the first time, with a career best, 10-goal, 53-point effort; good for a 0.65 PPG (Points-Per-Game pace). These playoffs, by comparison, have seen his output rise significantly, to a 0.82 PPG clip. That's over 17 games, or a fifth the length of the regular season, so hardly a tiny sample size to draw from, and against obviously much tougher opponents. (i.e. the defensive giant Bruins every night for two straight weeks).

Time will tell if this output rate is sustainable heading into next season. Conventional wisdom would suggest that we should definitely expect at least this level of production given the lockout shortened Norris trophy campaign performance (0.90 PPG).

Enjoy the Stanley Cup Final!

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