I am pinch-hitting in the Ramblings today for Brennan DeSouza who is on a well-deserved holiday break. It is a busy time of year, but the NHL will be taking a break with no games from December 24th through December 26th.

Sunday Review

Clayton Keller led all skaters on Sunday with four points in Utah's 5-4 shootout loss to the Anaheim Ducks. Keller is now up to 33-13-22-35 with nine points in his past four games. Mikhail Sergachev had two assists, played a game high 31:03 and is now on pace for 65 points.

Robby Fabbri had two goals for Anaheim and has four points in his past four games. Jackson LaCombe played a team-high 25:53 and has five points in his past five games where he has averaged 22 minutes per game.

The Rangers continue to struggle and are 16-16-1 on the season and 3-7-0 in their last 10 games. Igor Shesterkin made 28 saves on 30 SOG but was still tagged with the loss and his record dropped to 11-13-1.

Pyotr Kochetkov made 22 saves on 23 SOG and picked up the win while adding two assists. His record is 14-6-0 and he now has three assists on the year.

Sam Reinhart scored two goals and is now tied for third in the NHL with 22. Matthew Tkachuk played just 13:40, which was his second lowest icetime total this year.

Nikita Kucherov was held without a point for only the fourth time in his 29 games so far.

Aliaksei Protas had two goals and his excellent campaign continued with 14 goals and 15 assists in 33 games. He has matched his career high in points in just 33 games. In the 15 games Alex Ovechkin has missed, Protas has produced seven goals and four assists.

Logan Thompson made 25 saves on 26 SOG and improved his record to 13-2-2.

Joel Kiviranta had his first NHL hat trick and set his career-high with 10 goals in just 36 games.

In his third game as a member of the Kraken, Kaapo Kakko scored his first goal for them.

Elias Pettersson/J.T. Miller

Here's the latest on this saga from the Vancouver Province.

This has reached a bit of a fever pitch in Vancouver and it doesn't seem to be going away. Any goodwill towards J.T. Miller and his leave of absence has disappeared and people want to know why he is struggling after coming back to the team. Miller has three points in the six games since returning and Pettersson has gone pointless since Miller returned.

I get the sense that there is a little bit of pissiness from the Vancouver media that there has been so much silence about why Miller took his personal leave of absence and that the fans and media have a right to know and they've run with this narrative of Miller and Pettersson hating each other to the point where they aren't playing well because of it.

The contracts for Pettersson ($11.6 million AAV for eight years) and Miller ($8 million for seven years) are now under heavy scrutiny. Is there concern for Pettersson's contract? For sure, but I'd say the same for any other player with a similar contract when he is struggling. When the contract was signed, Pettersson was playing at that level, now it is just a matter of time to see if he lives up to it.

Is there smoke when it comes to the rift between Miller and Pettersson? Yes, but this is a case where the attention by the fans and media has potentially made things worse. You can see how tightly wound both Miller and Pettersson are on the ice and it is having a negative effect. One could argue that they make the big bucks and we have every right to criticize them and ask the tough questions and you'd be right. That doesn't mean it helps.

The Canucks have a record of 16-10-7 and sit seventh in the Western Conference. They haven't been great, but have a better record than they have played. This has been without Thatcher Demko for the most part and sub-par performances from Miller and Pettersson to this point.

What alternatives do the Canucks have at this point?

1. Trade Pettersson (his no-movement clause doesn't kick in until the off-season).
2. Trade Miller (he has a no-movement clause, so would need to waive).
3. Keep the status quo.

The only realistic option is to keep the status quo. The Canucks aren't going to win any trade involving Pettersson or Miller and certainly not one that helps them this season. The Canucks are at game 33 and are in a playoff spot. They need to ride this out and now that they have Demko back, they need to bolster their defense and play better for the remaining 49 games.

It is frustrating for the coaches, players, fans and media that Pettersson and Miller are struggling, but the only alternative is patience.

I've heard people mention that the NBA is a more enjoyable league to follow because of the willingness to trade and blow up rosters.

not saying #Canucks should or shouldn't trade Pettersson at this point. But the market reaction to the mere notion is a reminder of how risk averse hockey is in general. NBA trades are way more fun 🤩

— Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) December 17, 2024

I'd have to disagree, as most of the NHL fans (outside of fantasy) want to connect to the players on their home team, and a high turnover has the opposite effect. Imagine a seven-year-old fan in Vancouver gets his first NHL jersey and it is Elias Pettersson and he is traded that same year. He'd be devastated. Real life doesn't care about our fantasy pools and the excitement of trades happening. It cares about idolizing those players and pretending to be them on the ice, basement, or gym.

This doesn't even take into account the human element from a player or team's standpoint. What do we think will be Quinn Hughes's reaction if the Canucks trade either Miller or Pettersson in 2024-25 and weaken this roster in the short-term? He'd be playing in New Jersey starting in 2027-28, which could very well happen no matter what the Canucks do, but why help that scenario along?

Game by Game Consistency

One of the hardest things for an NHL player is to play well night after night for 82 games and then elevate their play in the playoffs.

That is what separates the superstars from the stars and the stars from the next tier.

Using my player game ratings (PGR), superstars average around 7.0 per game while stars are between 6.7 and 7.0 per game. Superstars will have a few games above 8.0 and quite a few games above 7.0. They will rarely have games below replacement level at around 6.25. Games under 6.0 are stinkers and enough of them will get you sent to the AHL or a retirement home.

I'm going to post three graphs for J.T. Miller, Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes which shows their player game ratings for 2023-24 and 2024-25.

I'll also post a graph for Nathan MacKinnon for comparison's sake at the end.

Blue is 2023-24 games and orange is 2024-25

In 2023-24, Hughes had 17 games under 6.25 PGR (20.7%), 24 games above 7.0 (29.3%) and two games above 8.0. He had 39 games between 6.26 and 6.99 (47.6%).

In 2024-25, Hughes has had just two games under 6.25 (6.1%), 14 games above 7.0 (42.4%) and 17 games between 6.26 and 6.99 (51.5%).

As good as Hughes was in 2023-24 (he won the Norris Trophy), he has been even better in 2024-25.

In 2023-24, Pettersson had 15 games under 6.25 (18.3%), 25 games over 7.0 (30.5%) and two games above 8.0. He had 39 games between 6.26 and 6.99 (47.6% identical to Hughes above).

In 2024-25, Pettersson has had nine games under 6.25 (27.2%, which is the big concern), 10 games over 7.0 (30.3% very similar to 2023-24) and his highest game rating has been 7.56. He's had no big wow games so far in 33 games, which is another concern.

If one includes the last 30 games from 2023-24, the playoffs and the first 33 games from 2024-25, there is surely warranted criticism for Pettersson in his play.

In 2023-24, Miller had just five games under 6.25 (6.2%), an impressive 32 games over 7.0 (39.5%) and three games over 8.0. He had 41 games between 6.26 and 6.99 (50.6%).

In 2024-25, he has played just 23 games and has had five games under 6.25 already (21.7%) and just four games over 7.0 (17.4%) with no games over 8.0. He's had 14 games between 6.26 and 6.99 (60.9%).

Miller has been all over the map and been a no show in almost a quarter of the games he's played in 2024-25. His season high game rating is just 7.42.

I'm including a graph for Nathan MacKinnon to display his consistency in 2023-24 and 2024-25.

In 2023-24, MacKinnon had just one game under 6.25 (1.2%), 56 games above 7.0 (68.3%), 11 games over 8.0 (13.4%) and one over 9.0!

In 2024-25, he has had two games under 6.25 (5.7%), 18 games above 7.0 (51.4%) and three games over 8.0 (8.6%).

MacKinnon is a machine who doesn't take nights off very often. He's a unicorn.

What drives fans and/or the media's expectations? What are realistic expectations for star players? What are the historical results of trading star players in their prime to another team?

Thanks for reading and if you have any questions or players you'd like me to look at, please message or follow me on Twitter @gampbler15.