Every year, around Christmas, as the NHL is winding down for their break, the hockey world turns towards the World Juniors. For many hockey fans, it's one of the highlights of the hockey calendar. It is also a huge moment in the careers of a lot of young players. Few of the players that take part will become NHL superstars, even if many make it. For some, it's a highlight of their entire careers.

That won't be the case for the 2022 edition:

Expecting an announcement soon that the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship will be cancelled.
— Chris Peters (@chrismpeters) December 29, 2021

Nothing much to say here but it sucks. For the players, their families, the fans, everyone. Some of these guys will never get another chance to do this, at least at the junior level. That extends to coaching staffs as well, who don't return every year. It is also a big money-maker for the host city and the rights holders, a big hit at a time when hockey revenue is down across the board.

They did say they’ll try to have a tournament later this year, likely in the summer. We will see.

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Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt each had a goal and two assists in New Jersey's 4-3 win over Buffalo. For Bratt, he has 27 points in his last 25 games, just an unbelievable stretch from the young winger. As for Hughes, he had six shots on goal and seemed to be attacking the net with regularity. Not that he has to do it all the time, but having that dimension just makes him that much more dangerous.

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It is my last Ramblings of 2021 as Ian has tomorrow's and then we're rolling the calendar. Looking back on this year in hockey, it was been, in a word, absurd. We had the intra-divisional play season last year that was off-and-on all season long with COVID outbreaks. Then we had playoffs stretch well into July. The 2021-22 season started this year relatively problem-free, but the last month or so has been a disaster for a lot of teams.

Of course, the absurdity brought a lot of good. We saw Connor McDavid go absolutely supernova at the end of last season, a run that we haven't seen in decades. We also saw a Canadian team head to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since the aughts, and the rise of numerous young stars like Makar, Kaprizov, Fox, Shesterkin, and Tkachuk, to name a few. We saw Trevor Zegras setup one of the most unique goals in hockey history, and we saw McDavid (there he is again) roast an entire team from a standstill. Again, it's easy to focus on the negative because there has been a lot, but there's been so much fun in the NHL, too.

I want to take this time just to review some stats from this past calendar year. A lot of players have somewhere between 75-85 games, giving us basically a season's worth of data. It is, more or less, just to review how good some players are, but also some guys with elite performances that are a bit under the radar. Inspiration for this came from Bren Des's latest 'Eastern Edge' column, so go read that. All data from Natural Stat Trick.

Total Points

To no one's surprise, McDavid-Draisaitl-Matthews were on the podium for most points. What may surprise some people is that Brad Marchand finished fourth. Behind him were another pair of wingers in Mikko Rantanen and Jonathan Huberdeau.

One of the reasons why it might surprise some that Marchand is fourth is that he's missed a handful of games this year and, quite frankly, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak haven't been monster producers. Pastrnak's points-per-game mark in 2021 is a four-year low while Bergeron is well under a PPG himself. A couple years ago, each player on this line was over the PPG mark. That has all changed for a couple of them, but not Marchand.

It is fair to point out that Bergeron is in his age-36 season while Marchand is 33. It could be a genuine decline, or just two seasons that amounts to basically one full season thus far. The final 55 games will help tell the story, but it's very much up for debate now.

Points Among Defencemen

Victor Hedman is second in points among all defencemen. That one surprised me a bit. I remember hearing during a game before the break that Adam Fox was first – he is – because they were talking about Norris contenders. But going back to last year, Hedman is second in points, and comfortably so. What is even more fun about that is Nikita Kucherov has missed basically every minute but 60 of Hedman's ice time. Is this a case where Hedman is taking some of the points missing from Kucherov's spot, or he took an outsized role upon himself? Or some hybrid explanation, as most things are. Regardless, what a year for Hedman.

Resilient Perron

Here's an interesting comparison: in 2021, David Perron has more points than both Mika Zibanejad and William Nylander, and in fewer games played than either. I find that interesting because since he recovered from his concussion issues a few years ago, Perron has been one of the more consistent producers in the NHL, but isn't often discussed as such. He had 60 points in 71 games in the shortened 2019-20 season, and has been a point-per-game since. He returned to the lineup last night as well, and if he can step right back into his profile, this is at least a 60-point forward coming back to play.

Perron is one of the guys I root for because his injuries have been extensive but he's still managef three successful acts to his career. He was a promising young player, then injured, then bounced around the league re-establishing himself, but was injured again (though, he did win a Stanley Cup that year, so it wasn't all bad). He has rebounded since that last injury bout and that kind of perseverance should be commended.

The Older Small Goals Boy

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Another entry in the "but of course" category: Matthews-Draisaitl-McDavid are the top-3 in goal scoring this calendar year. However, it's not Alex Ovechkin in fourth, as he rounds out the top-5. No, it's Alex DeBrincat coming in fourth place in goals in 2021. That was a pretty big surprise to me, as I would have gone with Ovi or even Kyle Connor. No, it's a guy that continues to play for a non-playoff team.

I know he gets to often play with Patrick Kane, but I often wonder what a guy like DeBrincat would do on an elite team like Colorado or Tampa Bay. Maybe we'll find out in the next few years, but until then, it's clear he can thrive just about anywhere. How he fell to the second round will remain one of the bigger mysteries in the NHL.

The Helpers

Most of the guys leading in assists per 60 minutes are what you'd expect, but I did notice Artemi Panarin being third in assists/60. This is a guy who skates nearly every minute with Ryan Strome and has had a rotating cast of wingers this season, the latest being Dryden Hunt. Yeah, the power play is a big part of it, but you don't get that high without being great at even strength, and it's not as if he's skating with all.

What surprised me was seeing Jakub Voracek seventh in assists per 60 minutes. Yeah, he's a guy we think of as a distributor, but he's also in his age-32 season with nearly 1000 games played. All the same, 55 assists in his las5 81 games, playing fewer than 17 minutes a night. Just a remarkable player.

Hey man, nice shot!

The leader in shot rate is Max Pacioretty with the guys you'd expect around him. There are two guys that I want to highlight, though.

First is Tage Thompson, coming in 15^th in shot rate in calendar 2021. We need to remember this includes the Bubble season, so we're including back before his "breakout". He has 198 shots on goal over his last 68 games, skating 15:28 a night. He's up to 17:29 this season alone, that has brought him over three shots per game. I have always been a believer in his talent and the move to centre, along with Don Granato, seems to have helped him make good on it.

I also want to talk about Sam Bennett. Having talked about him so much over the last eight months, I don't think I need to re-hash most arguments. What I want to note is that he was 23^rd by shot rate, but also 26^th by hit rate. If he can keep doing that, well, he's going to have fantasy value every year regardless.

Brady's World

On the topic of dual threats, Brady Tkachuk is top-5 by both shot and hit rate. While his peripherals have taken a bit of a dip this year, a lot of that is because his line mates are shooting so much more. Personally, I would rather have a 70-point winger take 275 shots and land over 300 hits a year, than a 50-point winger with 250 shots and landing over 300 hits a year. The assists are going to add a dimension that he didn't have in his first three seasons.

The Goalie!

Igor Shesterkin leads all goalies in HDSV% this year, with Alex Nedeljkovic in fourth and Juuse Saros fifth. Given that we know have parts of three seasons for Shesterkin and his prowess, and his pedigree heading into the NHL, I'm wondering how much longer we have to wait to call him the best goalie in the world.

Seeing Nedeljkovic and Saros in the top-5 warms the heart. Both are under-sized goalies, and one was traded with the other having his replacement drafted a year ago. Despite that, both have been great of late, and Saros now has a big sample of being very good going back several years.

We'll finish with a tweet about Carter Hart:

over the last two seasons, carter hart has faced way more high-danger shots per 60 than any other goalie. it's not really close. (via @NatStatTrick) pic.twitter.com/J0f937xuoD
— Michael Clifford (@SlimCliffy) December 28, 2021