Defenseman Patrick Wiercioch is set to enter the second year of a three-year, $6-million deal with the Ottawa Senators, and the 23-year-old could be on the verge of making a big impact on the club's blue line.
At least one NHL executive thinks so, at any rate.
"He's arguably the best passer on (the Ottawa) defence and he can run a power play," the executive told the Ottawa Sun. "He's ready for a breakout year."
Wiercioch appeared in only 53 games for the Senators in 2013-14, watching 29 others from the press box as a healthy scratch. While it appears as though head coach Paul MacLean is not a massive fan of his game at this point in his development, Wiercioch did display glimpses of being a good player at the NHL level.
In those 53 games, Wiercioch scored four goals and added 19 assists while averaging 16:22 of ice time per game, good for 36 points over the course of a full 82-game schedule. 12 of those points (three goals, 9 assists) came on the man advantage, and he ranked third on the team with 67 power play shot attempts.
At even strength, however, Wiercioch was relatively sheltered by MacLean, beginning 55.1 percent of his shifts in the offensive zone; he took advantage of that with a Corsi For rating of 53.1 percent, with one goal and 11 assists to his credit and an additional 140 shot attempts, good for third among Senators defensemen.
Clearly the coach believes Wiercioch's defensive game needs work, but the player astutely makes a correlation between using his strengths to keep the puck out of his team's zone.
I'm always work on trying to be a puck mover, making that first pass maybe quicker, giving my teammate a bit more time to make a play. I think that last year we struggled getting out of our zone a bit. Any time you can just transition from defence to offence, it makes the game easier, especially with the way I try to think the game, offensively.
Trying to get the puck into the guys hands that are paid to score, that's what we're trying to do.
As per Capgeek, the Senators have eight defenseman under contract for the upcoming season, leading some to speculate that Wiercioch could be on the move.
If the above-mentioned NHL executive is on point with his assessment, that could end up being a bad look for a team looking to make its way back to the postseason.
