Lining Up: Tuch, Pacioretty, and Eakin – December 4

In this week’s instalment, we focus on one particularly hot line. Using Dobber’s Line Production Tool, we compared even-strength point production around the league over the past 10 games. I compiled a list of the highest scoring line for each team at even strength. Here’s the list…

#	Team	Line	Points
1	Colorado	Gabriel Landeskog – Nathan MacKinnon – Mikko Rantanen	27
2	Winnipeg	Kyle Connor – Bryan Little – Patrik Laine	26
3	Philadelphia	Claude Giroux – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny	24
4	Columbus	Artemi Panarin – Pierre-Luc Dubois – Cam Atkinson	24
5	Vegas	Max Pacioretty – Cody Eakin – Alex Tuch	22
6	Toronto	Zach Hyman – John Tavares – Mitchell Marner	21
7	Tampa Bay	Tyler Johnson – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov	20
8	Washington	Alex Ovechkin – Nicklas Backstrom – Tom WIlson	19
9	Montreal	Jonathan Drouin – Max Domi – Andrew Shaw	18
10	Dallas	Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Alexander Radulov	18
11	Minnesota	Jason Zucker – Eric Staal – Mikael Granlund	16
12	Calgary	Johnny Gaudreau – Sean Monahan – Elias Lindholm	16
13	Pittsburgh	Jake Guentzel – Sidney Crosby – Dominik Simon	13
14	Los Angeles	Alex Iafallo – Anze Kopitar – Dustin Brown	13
15	Carolina	Jordan Martinook – Lucas Wallmark – Andrei Svechnikov	11
16	Edmonton	Drake Caggiula – Connor McDavid – Leon Draisaitl	11
17	Islanders	Anthony Beauvillier – Valtteri Filppula – Leo Komarov	10
18	Nashville	Colton Sissons – Nick Bonino – Austin Watson	10
19	Ottawa	Brady Tkachuk – Colin White – Mark Stone	10
20	Rangers	Chris Kreider – Kevin Hayes – Filip Chytil	10
21	New Jersery	Marcus Johansson – Pavel Zacha – Jesper Bratt	9
22	Buffalo	Jeff Skinner – Jack Eichel – Jason Pominville	8
23	Detroit	Tyler Bertuzzi – Luke Glendening – Michael Rasmussen	8
24	Florida	Mike Hoffman – Aleksander Barkov – Evgenii Dadonov	7
25	Chicago	Brandon Saad – Jonathan Toews – Patrick Kane	7
26	San Jose	Timo Meier – Logan Couture – Joe Pavelski	5
27	St. Louis	Robby Fabbri – Brayden Schenn – Robert Thomas	5
28	Vancouver	Tyler Motte – Bo Horvat – Antoine Roussel	5
39	Anaheim	Pontus Aberg – Adam Henrique – Nick Ritchie	5
30	Arizona	Alex Galchenyuk – Nick Schmaltz – Clayton Keller	5
31	Boston	Sean Kuraly – David Backes – Chris Wagner	3

Max Pacioretty – Cody Eakin – Alex Tuch

It’s always nice when a trio of hockey players is able to outshoot and out-chance their opponents. It allows me to believe in their ability to play together as a unit, and remain together because of their strong possession play, even when they’re not scoring. Well folks, this isn’t one of those situations, because the advanced stats for the Pacioretty-Eakin-Tuch line are pretty underwhelming. They’ve controlled 47% of shot attempts, 47% of scoring chances, and just 45% of high-danger opportunities. Despite this, they’ve outscored their opponents 10-6. Don’t be too discouraged by this, I remember earlier in the season when Mikko Rantanen, Nathan Mackinnon and Gabriel Landeskog had poor underlying numbers, and they’re still the best line in the NHL (their advanced numbers have improved since then).

This offseason, when I heard Max Pacioretty would be playing with Paul Stastny, I began to imagine what Pacioretty could do beside an actual top-six center – a luxury he never had in Montreal. When word got out that Stastny would need months to recover from a knee injury, I began to worry for Pacioretty’s numbers. A worry that only grew when he registered just two points in his first 14 games. Some started to wonder whether his 37 points during the 2017-2018 season were to be considered the new normal. But then, Max Pacioretty showed us what Patrik Laine recently showed us – that goal scorers are streaky. In his last 10 games, Pacioretty has 13 points – eight of which were goals. With that being said, even after this recent hot stretch, he’s only on pace for 50 points this season, a far drop from the near-70-point seasons we’ve seen in the past. It’s also worth mentioning that he’s currently on pace for 225 shots, a number that was closer to 300 when he was tearing it up in Montreal. I think we see him finish in the high 50s/low 60s this season, but there’s definitely potential for more.

As of right now, Alex Tuch is owned in just 48% of Yahoo! Leagues. In a couple of years, as he continues to develop, I expect his ownership will range from 95-100%. The 22-year-old was selected 18^th overall in the 2014 draft, and already has 20 points in 20 games this season. I’ll admit, I don’t get to watch the Golden Knights too often, but poker Legend Daniel Negreanu does, and he thinks Tuch has been the team’s best player recently. Tuch is a really exciting player who is probably flying under the radar in your fantasy league, so why not pick him up and ride his hot streak (eight points in his last six games)? Sure, he probably won’t finish the season as point-per-game player, but there’s no harm in acquiring a 55-60-point player for free – especially when he’s playing on the top power-play unit.

Compared to his line mates, Cody Eakin has the least long-term value. No disrespect to him as a player, but he’s 27-years-old and his career-high in points is 40. I know we’ve seen careers take off in Vegas, but in most cases, that’s been a result of an increased role. Eakin’s role now is actually smaller than the one he filled in Dallas, alongside Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin, with 17 minutes of ice-time a night. He’s currently scoring on 26% of the shots he’s taking, which is not going to last as the season progresses, so don’t expect him to achieve the 56-point pace he’s on. 45 points? Much more realistic.

If you couldn’t stand to read the word vomit I spewed above, please take a second to watch the beautiful goal below…