Jesse the Goal Scorer?

I thought it’d be a good time to talk about JP and goal scoring. Please note this is only about goal scoring. Not pizza eating, not learning English, not attitude, not points, not corsi and not Jersey number choices. Just goals.

JP currently sits at 0 goals after 11 games.

As of this writing. 14 different Oiler’s have scored at least one goal. JP is not one of those 14 Oilers.

Is it lack of opportunity? Not really. He’s been put on the first line with McDavid and RNH. He’s been given powerplay time as well. In fact, his original line was with Turris (1 goal) and Neal (2 goals). He was replaced on that line by Kassian (1 goal). So his original line has had everyone score on it and his new line has teammates that are on pace for 100 points in a 56 game season. He is also averaging close to 14 minutes a night.

Here are all the Oiler’s who have yet to score a goal:

The first column is games played. The second is goals. Everyone on this list has 0 goals. However, Jesse has played more than double the games of half this list. The only other person with close to this many games is Bear and he’s a Dman but he does have 0 goals in 9 games. Then Jones at 7 games. Let’s look at just forwards with 0 goals:

Jesse has almost doubled every forward on this list in games played. The only person he doesn’t double in Games Played is Chiasson and he was waived (not lost) yesterday. This is not the best list to be on right now.

Exxonvaldez made a point earlier today (which inspired me to look this all up)

So I read that and looked at the goals in his career. Turns out he’s never really been a goal scorer. Point getter at times. Ice tilter at times. God given talent always. Not really a goal scorer though.

Let’s start with the World Juniors where he became famous and got himself into the Top 3 Draft conversation:

He was definitely a driver of offence in his second tourney (outstanding really) but he was also playing with guys who are much more established NHLer’s today. 5 goals in 12 games is good but it’s not mindblowing.

Let’s now look at his career after being drafted:

Several things to note here. Again, first column is games played. Second column is goals. I purposely left out the rest as I’m just looking at goal scoring today. I’m positive (and even welcome) someone could make a great argument about overall points, Corsi etc and I’d love to read it.

He scored one goal in his first 28 games in NHL.

He scored 13 goals in 2 separate trips to AHL (13 goals in 49 games)

Came back to NHL and got 12 goals in 65 games (his best output by far)

Back to 4 goals in 46 games at NHL

2 goals in the 4 AHL games before leaving

For the Liiga he was about a 40% goal scorer which is quite good (his second best output, a 40% goal scorer in the NHL would be a 32 goal scorer)

Now he’s back with 0 goals in 11 games

Lots of downs and 0’s. 17 goals in 150 games at the NHL level is not a goal scorer. That’s almost 2 full seasons of NHL hockey in a non covid year (164 games). 17 goals in 2 seasons would be a 3rd/4th liner.

Put another way. Since being drafted, JP has played 275 games in the NHL, AHL and Liiiga. He has 63 goals in those 275 games. 63 goals in 275 NHL games is a 19 goal scorer over 82 games. Unfortunately, almost half of those games were not at the NHL level.

It’s obviously early. JP could score a hat trick and go on a streak after that. His play has been good. I do prefer him on line 1. I hope we never trade him. However, I don’t see a goal scorer. He could be a great complimentary top 6 piece by the end of the season though.