After about a month of play, I'm going to go through each team in the West and choose an MVP and the most disappointing player to date. I'm going to look at factors like faceoffs, blocks, hits, Corsi, time on ice and of course production.

I'm sure there are other opinions out there, so let me know if you have others that you think should be considered for either distinction.

Anaheim

MVP: Ryan Getzlaf

Getzlaf has reversed the clock this season at the age of 36, as he has posted 11 points in his first 13 games this year (0.82 pts/game).

Anaheim's PP is at 26.2 percent and has 11 goals in 42 attempts, which has equalled their total from last season already where they went a paltry 11 for 123 good for 8.9 percent. Getzlaf has benefitted with four power-play points already, which also matches his totals from last season.

Getzlaf leads the team in shots on goal with 37, is second to teammate Nicolas Deslauriers (53) in hits with 24, leads the Duck forwards in blocked shots with 15 and is currently riding a career-high face-off percentage of 57.3. As good as Troy Terry and Adam Henrique have been, Getzlaf has truly been the leader of this team after 13 games.

Most Disappointing Player (MDP): Max Comtois

I had written last month that I was a little concerned about Comtois and his struggles in the pre-season and his slow start in the first few games of the year.

What concerned me more than the diminished shots on goal and ice time, were his peripherals like hitting and more importantly his offensive zone starts. At 22 years of age and over 100 games in the league, the coaches need him to progress this season after OZ starts of 56 percent and 61 percent the past two seasons. So far after 11 games, his OZ starts have been 43.7 because the team is forced to shelter the line with Trevor Zegras (58.4) and Comtois has struggled mightily.

After 11 games, Comtois is without a point, 15 shots on goal and a minus seven. The only good news is that his 5on5 shooting percentage is 1.7 and his PDO is 89.0. He should be able to rebound but to what level as players pass him on the depth charts, only he can control. His ice time is already down to 13:05 after last season seeing 15:28. As he missed two games with injury, perhaps he has been nursing an injury since training camp. His 0.6 pts/game from last year is probably not in reach this year.

Arizona

MVP: Lawson Crouse

Some people might have Karel Vejmelka or Shayne Gostisbehere as the MVP, and there is certainly an argument to be made for Vejmelka. Gostisbehere to me is still a relatively one-dimensional defenseman who averages around 19 minutes per game with about 2-3 minutes of that time on the power-play.

Crouse leads the Coyotes in goals with four and is tied for second in hits with 26 (I did not have Dmitri Jaskin on my scorecard to lead the team with 42 hits in 10 games). Crouse also leads the forwards in shots on goal with 29 and he has the trust of the coaching staff this year as evidenced by his 17:43 of ice time with time on the power play (49.7) and penalty kill (40.3). On most teams, this would put him as a solid third-line forward but on the Coyotes he has been arguably their best player.

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MDP: Jakob Chychrun

After a breakout season of 18 goals and 41 points in 56 games last year, Chychrun has struggled after 12 games in 2021-22 with one point and a minus 20. In terms of ice time, not much has changed other than he lost Alex Goligoski as his defensive partner from last year and has been paired with Anton Stralman (47.0) and Dysin Mayo (25.7). Neither pairing has worked as their combined CF% is 40.6.

Much like Max Comtois above, Chychrun's numbers will improve as his 5on5 shooting percentage is 1.1 and his PDO is 87.4, both numbers being extremely low. An additional number to monitor is his OZ starts as currently, they are 44.3 after being 55.9 last year. He is going to have to work for his opportunities this season as he is no longer a little sheltered or relied upon for offense from the back end with Gostisbehere on the team.

Calgary

MVP: Elias Lindholm

Lindholm leads the team in points with 14 after 11 games and shares the lead in goals with Andrew Mangiapane with seven. He is averaging 20:08 of ice time while putting up seven PP points and potting a short-handed goal. He is the best face-of man on the Flames and is on the first unit of the PP (59.9) and an important penalty killer (44.2). As good as Jacob Markstrom has been, Lindholm has been better.

MDP: Sean Monahan

The Flames have been very good this season, so most of their players have been quite good and there aren't many to choose from for this distinction. For a player recovering from the injury he had, Monahan is coming along fairly well. He has his season total of five points in his past six games after being held scoreless in his first six games. I think it will be a slow climb for him to get back to 17-18 minutes per night as he is currently averaging 15:09 with the Flames having players that can fill the void quite ably. I don't think he can physically get to where he was a few years ago in 2021-22.

Chicago

MVP: Patrick Kane

Kane missed four games due to Covid protocols, but in nine games leads the team in points with 12, shots on goal with 44. He is seeing 20:55 of ice time and is on the power play 79.1 percent of the time.

The Blackhawks have been deservedly horrible so far this season both on and off the ice, but at 33 years of age, Kane continues to produce.

MDP: Marc-Andre Fleury

Fleury was brought in to be the number one goalie on a bad team and his play so far has made the team worse than it already is. He has one win in eight starts, a 4.11 GAA, an 88.1 save percentage and the second-worst goals saved above average of minus 7.53 in the NHL. Even though Kevin Lankinen won 2-1 on Sunday night, Fleury should still see the majority of starts in goal this season.

Colorado

MVP: Gabriel Landeskog

With Nathan MacKinnon stuck on one goal and Cale Makar battling injury and struggles away from the puck, Landeskog has been the best player for the Avalanche so far this year. He leads the team in points with 10 along with MacKinnon and Nazem Kadri but adds value in hits, blocked shots and faceoffs that the others lack. The much-vaunted Colorado power play has yet to take flight with only four goals so far, but once it does MacKinnon will take back his rightful place as the team MVP.

MDP: Samuel Girard

I could list a few others like Makar or Mikko Rantanen, but all three have battled some injuries and Covid protocols. Girard to me, just seems the most removed from last season and doesn't appear to have put his struggles in the playoffs behind him. Another factor is that the coaching staff have him playing tougher matchups while Bowen Byram and Makar are being sheltered a little so far. Girard just hasn't been up to the task yet, but his three points in eight games haven't been as poor as his minus seven. A downward trend in ice time from 23:13 last season to 21:08 and a great start to the season by Byram might indicate that Girard might be expendable at some point.

Dallas

MVP: Miro Heiskanen

Braden Holtby could be in the mix here as well, but Heiskanen should have Stars fans excited again. Last year he appeared to take a bit of a step back from the great playoff he had in 2019-20, but this season he has 11 points in 11 games while averaging 24:58 of ice time. He blocks shots, is on the power play and kills penalties. He is the epitome of the word valuable.

MDP: Roope Hintz

Hintz has two assists in 11 games and no goals on 29 shots on goal. His PDO is low at 94.6 along with his 5on5 shooting percentage of 1.4. Both indicate there will be better days ahead for him, but a 1.05 pts/game pace as he had last season might be out of reach this year.

Edmonton:

MVP: Leon Draisaitl/Connor McDavid

These two are so close to each other in production this year that it was hard to give it to either one. Draisaitl has 23 points to McDavid's 22 along with 10 goals to McDavid's eight. They both take faceoffs and both do well, with Draisaitl at 57.1 percent and McDavid at 54.2. Both are above 24 minutes per night in ice time and both are on the power play more than 88.5 percent of the time. What McDavid has that Draisaitl doesn't is an ability to maintain this pace. Draisaitl has a shooting percentage of 30.3 compared to McDavid at 17.4 and a 5on5 shooting percentage of 15.8 compared to McDavid at 10.5. The last strike against Draisaitl is his PDO of 111.4 compared to McDavid at 101.6. McDavid should surge ahead if he stays healthy sooner than later.

MDP: Kailer Yamamoto

Even with two goals in his past three games, Yamamoto has to be the most disappointing Oiler in my mind as that gives him two points in his 10 games this year on only 14 shots on goal. He has been killing penalties more often this year than in the past so he is adding value to his contributions away from his point production. Unfortunately, that doesn't help us in the fantasy game.

Los Angeles

MVP: Anze Kopitar

If Drew Doughty hadn't been hurt, he might have been under consideration here as well with his fantastic start after four games, but the award goes to Kopitar. He is slowing down slightly with only a goal and five points in his past seven games, but he still has 14 points in 11 games. He leads the team in goals (seven), points, ice time for a forward (21:17), gets the most power play time on the team at 62.5 percent and still manages to kill penalties 36.9 percent of the time. At 34 years of age, he still does it all for the Kings and does it well. One thing to be wary of is his shot pace of 3.3/game as he has never been above 2.4/game in his career. All his other metrics look sustainable but his shots on goal will more than likely slow down and with his goal production.

MDP: Gabriel Vilardi

I had hopes that Vilardi would progress from last season and after seven games this year he hasn't shown signs he will this year. He has missed four games because of Covid protocols but should be back in the lineup soon. His CF% of 39.2, combined with his lack of production, might see him a healthy scratch a few times if he's not careful. I knew Vilardi was a big guy at 6'3 and 215 lbs, but I didn't realize that he wasn't physical at all. He has no hits in seven games this year and only 19 hits in 71 career NHL games.

Minnesota

MVP: Matt Dumba

One could say that the Wild have won eight of their 11 games in spite of their below-average goaltending. With that said, Matt Dumba is my MVP for the Wild so far. He has two goals and nine points in 11 games while contributing with the man advantage and on the penalty kill. He leads the Wild defensemen with 23 hits and leads the team with 21 blocked shots. Dumba looks to be back to his productive ways of 2017-18 and 2018-19, albeit playing a little better away from the puck.

MDP: Jordan Greenway

Greenway has missed the past four games with a lower-body injury, but in his seven games before that, his production had slipped a little from his prior season of 32 points in 56 games (0.57). I have hopes that the 24-year old Greenway will continue to progress from last season, but two assists on five shots in seven games don't necessarily translate to an improvement this year.

Nashville

MVP: Juuse Saros/Roman Josi

I think it is a safe way to go with either Saros or Josi so far as I don't think the Predators are even close to 6-5-1 in their first 12 games with either out of the lineup.

Saros has won five of his nine starts, but he has been very good with a 2.31 GAA, a 92.5 save percentage and a GSAA of 3.84.

Josi has been very good in his first 12 games with four goals and 12 points while leading the team with 39 shots on goal and 25:01 of ice time. It is unlikely that his OZ starts will remain at 67.7 percent and will more than likely come down to under 60 percent. The Predators have pushed him up the ice more often this year and last, after his first nine seasons between 43 and 52 percent of OZ starts.

MDP: Mattias Ekholm

Ekholm is not making the four-year $6.25 million AAV extension look like good value at this point. While he is still a workhorse, Ekholm might be showing signs of slowing down at 31 years of age. While never an overly physical defender at 6'4 215 lbs, he has averaged about 65-70 hits and 100-110 blocked shots per season over the six-year period between 2014-15 and 2019-20. More importantly, he averaged about 0.44 points/game as well. This season he has two assists in 12 games and five hits and 14 blocked shots, which would put him on pace for 0.17 pts/game, 30-35 hits and 80-85 blocked shots. His CF% is at 45.7 which if it continues would have him under 50 for the first time in his career.

San Jose

MVP: Timo Meier

Logan Couture deserves mention here along with Brent Burns, but for my money, Timo Meier has been the Sharks MVP to date. Although he has missed three games because of Covid protocols, he still leads the team with 11 points and shares the goal lead of five with Jonathan Dahlen and Tomas Hertl. He leads all forwards in shots on goal with 37 in eight games. Most of his metrics, don't indicate that he will be able to maintain his current pace, but Meier is shooting the puck and playing more than he has.

MDP: Nick Bonino

I had hoped that Bonino would come into San Jose and be able to produce 15-20 goals and 30-35 points. After 11 games, he has no points despite playing 48.7 percent of the time. He was brought in to win faceoffs and shore up the center-ice position. He's won 54.6 percent of his faceoffs, but he's played wing the past two games.

Seattle

MVP: Yanni Gourde

We should mention Brandon Tanev and Jordan Eberle here as well, but Gourde has proven in his eight games that his production (six points), face-off prowess (51.8 percent) are invaluable to the Kraken. Gourde is also a fixture on the first unit of the power play and kills penalties as well. He has averaged 20.56 of ice time while leading the Kraken with a CF% of 61.6. He is the real deal.

MDP: Calle Jarnkrok

Jarnkrok has only played seven of the 12 games for the Kraken due to Covid protocols, but in those seven games he has shown very little with no points, a minus three and only three hits and one blocked shot. The Kraken need him to be the 15 goals and 30-35 point player he has been for the past five or six years.

St. Louis

MVP: Vladimir Tarasenko

In the summer I thought that Tarasenko had played his last game with the Blues and might not recover fully from his shoulder woes. 10 games into this season, he leads the team in scoring with 11 points alongside David Perron while having the sole lead in shots on goal with 38. He appears to have his game back to 100%, which means that we might see a 65-75 point season from him once again.

MDP: Pavel Buchnevich

This is nit-picking by having Buchnevich here. The Blues don't have a player that I would say has disappointed much. Buchnevich has done everything right in his eight games with the Blues except for producing at a level he did last season with the Rangers. He has two goals and three points in eight games on 22 shots on goal. He might not get back up to 0.89 pts/game as he had last season, but he should be better than his current 0.38.

Vancouver

MVP: Thatcher Demko

I'm going to use the game on Sunday night against Dallas as an example of the importance of Thatcher Demko to the Canucks. The Canucks won 6-3, in a game that Demko made 25 saves on 28 shots on goal. On the surface, he came away from that game with an 89.3 save percentage, a negative GSAA of 0.54 and didn't get credit for a quality start. In reality, he faced 10-12 grade-A chances and single-handedly gave the Canucks a chance to win that game. No one will know that, who didn't watch the game. I have to remind myself of this when writing things about players that I don't watch. One just hopes that the stats even out over enough games to get the story right enough.

MDP: Elias Pettersson

Even with a goal and an assist on Sunday night, which gives Pettersson two goals and eight points in 12 games, he is still missing something from his game. Hopefully, this gives him some confidence back, because he's a pretty special player when his game is on. Give credit to him as he has been able to maintain his defensive game while struggling with the other aspects of his game.

I would also add Jason Dickinson to this on a personal level, even though he probably isn't on most people's fantasy radars. I think I was fooled with Dickinson's expected goals for at 5on5 last season of 25.62 compared to the expected goals against at 5on5 of 18.98. It painted a picture to me of someone who while with Dallas wasn't chasing the play but controlling it against some quality competition. I haven't seen that at all with his play with the Canucks in his first 10 games. Maybe there is some adjustment at play with different systems etc. but I'm not convinced he is the answer to killing penalties or capable of shutting down other teams' top lines. With one goal in 10 games on 14 shots, I now know why he hasn't cracked 10 goals before.

Vegas

MVP: Chandler Stephenson

I'm sure I'm not alone with the thought that when Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone were injured that Chandler Stephenson's points would dry up completely as he played 60.3 percent of the time with them last season on his way to a career-high of 35 points in 51 games. Instead, Stephenson has emerged as a vital piece of this team that can produce without those two, who takes key faceoffs, kills penalties and gets to play on the first unit of the power play. In 10 games without Stone and Pacioretty, Stephenson has three goals and nine points.

MDP: Mattias Janmark

Janmark should be good for 10-15 goals and 25-30 points for the Golden Knights, but so far he has managed just one assist in seven games while regressing to fourth-line minutes while averaging only 11:04 of ice time after 17:05 last season split between Chicago and Vegas.

Winnipeg

MVP: Kyle Connor

Connor has had a great start with eight goals and 16 points in the first 11 games. He leads the team in goals, points, shots on goal (46) while averaging 20:46 of ice time. He is currently on a 119-point pace, but the only metrics that point out reversion are shots/game of 4.2 (career-high of 3.4) and a PDO of 105.1 which is in the high range but is sustainable.

Andrew Copp and Pierre-Luc Dubois have had very good starts as well and Jet fans must be very happy with the Dubois of this season over the Dubois of last.

MDP: Blake Wheeler

With only two points in six games, Wheeler has had slow starts before, but at 35-years of age, it gets increasingly harder each season to make up for that later in the year. One year, he won't be able to. This year, his ice time and opportunities still seem to be there, so he will get on track at some point, but probably not to the level he is used to.

If we were to do this next month we might have some of these players switching spots, but that is the beauty of this game. You just never know.

Thanks for reading, and let me know if you want me to focus on any players or topics by messaging me below or following me on Twitter @gampbler15.