Andrew Copp and Forwards Changing Roles
It is rare to make the jump from checker to scorer.
Andrew Copp is a 26-year-old forward who was drafted by the Winnipeg Jets in the fourth round of the 2013 Draft. He played three seasons at the University of Michigan, scoring 81 points in 107 games, before turning pro.
While Copp was building a reputation as a strong checking forward, that point production did not suggest that he would be a scoring forward in the NHL. In his first two NHL seasons, Copp produced 30 points in 141 games.
At that point, he looked like a fourth line forward, which is entirely fine. A fourth-round draft pick who turns into a legitimate fourth line NHLer is still a quality asset.
Copp built on that foundation. In his next couple of seasons, he contributed 53 points in 141 games. He was still playing 12-13 minutes per game but had improved his offensive contributions.
Last season, Copp started his career on a new trajectory. He finished with 26 points but it was in just 63 games and he had earned much more trust from the coaching staff so his ice time jumped to 17:42 per game, an increase of 5:32 per game over the previous season.
He still played primarily in a checking role but Copp’s ability to play center and wing allowed him to move up the lineup when needed.
Copp has put in extra time with his skills coach, Adam Oates, and it sure appears to have paid off because he is getting an opportunity to play in a top six role with the Jets. Tuesday, that meant skating on a line with Nikolaj Ehlers and Paul Stastny and producing four points in Winnipeg’s 6-4 win. Copp now has nine points through seven games this season.
It is not easy to make the jump from checking forward to scoring forward in the National Hockey League. Once a player arrives in the league there is usually a relatively short window to establish their place in the lineup.
Looking around the league, there are some other examples, though not many.
Sean Couturier might be the patron saint of checking forwards who eventually emerged as a first-line forward but this is not a standard path, to be sure. Couturier was so sound defensively as a young player that he would handle significant checking roles early in his career despite being a big scorer in junior and high first-round pick. Through his first six seasons, Couturier never scored more than 15 goals in a season but has since had multiple seasons with more than 30 goals and 70 points.
William Karlsson was on the fringe of the lineup in Anaheim and played in a checking role for Columbus before the expansion draft sent him to Vegas where he quite famously scored 43 goals in his first season with the Golden Knights. That hardly ever happens.
Penguins winger Bryan Rust steadily increased his role from a support piece on a couple of Stanley Cup winning teams early in his career but took his career to a new level last season, when he was 27, scoring 56 points in 55 games. Now, he’s a fixture in Pittsburgh’s top six, which means skating with either Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin as his center and is on the first power play unit. Opportunity really matters.
Andre Burakovsky was always a skilled forward and he was stuck in a mostly third-line role on a deep Washington team for his first five seasons. Then he moved to Colorado last season and scored 45 points in 58 games, playing more than 15 minutes per game for the first time in his career.
Tom Wilson was a first-round pick but he scored a total of 21 goals in his first four seasons. Then his ice time went up three minutes per game and he scored 14. It went up another couple of minutes per game and he scored 22 gin 63 games, then 21 in 68 games. Sure, he’s riding shotgun with some elite talent in Washington but Wilson still had to work his way up to that level. It would have been entirely possible for him to spend his whole career banging bodies and being a big part of an energy line.
A couple of forwards that might currently be on this trajectory:
Chandler Stephenson, the Vegas Golden Knights center who was acquired from Washington last season. Stephenson had been almost strictly a checker in Washington but in Vegas he is now centering Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone, and has 25 points in 48 games since joining the Golden Knights.
Also, Florida winger Carter Verhaeghe is a bit of a late bloomer who didn’t reach the NHL until last season when he was 24 and he played a fourth-line role for the Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning. It’s really early but, this season, he’s getting a shot on Florida’s top line, playing alongside Aleksander Barkov, and has produced five points in three games.
To bring this all back to Copp, it is rare for a player to climb an NHL depth chart, especially after they have been in the league for a while, but it can happen. Sometimes all a player needs is the chance and Copp is getting his.
TUESDAY STARS
VGK LW Max Pacioretty 3 G in 5-4 shootout loss vs. STL
WPG RW Andrew Copp 2 G, 2 A in 6-4 win vs. EDM
WPG LW Nikolaj Ehlers 1 G, 3 A in 6-4 win vs. EDM
PHI D Ivan Provorov 1 G, 2 A in 5-3 win at NJ
TUESDAY GAMES
Pittsburgh 2 Boston 3 (OT)
BOS LW Brad Marchand 1 G, 1 A
(4 G, 5 A in 6 GP)
BOS D Charlie McAvoy 2 A
PIT LW Jason Zucker 1 G, 1 A
N.Y. Rangers 2 Buffalo 3
BUF G Linus Ullmark stopped 28 of 30 shots for the win.
Philadelphia 5 New Jersey 3
PHI D Ivan Provorov 1 G, 2 A
PHI LW James van Riemsdyk 2 G
(5 G, 2 A in 7 GP)
PHI LW Claude Giroux 2 A
N.Y. Islanders 2 Washington 3
WSH D John Carlson
(2 G, 5 A in 7 GP)
WSH D Justin Schultz 1 G, 1 A
(2 G, 2 A in past 2 GP)
NYI C Mathew Barzal 1 G, 1 A
(3 G, 3 A in 6 GP)
Florida 4 Columbus 3 (SO)
FLA LW Carter Verhaeghe 1 G, 1 A
(3 G, 2 A in 3 GP)
FLA RW Anthony Duclair 2 A
(4 A in 3 GP)
Chicago 2 Nashville 3 (OT)
NSH LW Mikael Granlund 1 G, 10 iCF, 5 SOG
Edmonton 4 Winnipeg 6
WPG RW Andrew Copp 2 G, 2 A
(4 G, 5 A during 5-game point streak)
WPG LW Nikolaj Ehlers 1 G, 3 A
(5 G, 5 A during 5-game point streak)
WPG C Adam Lowry 1 G, 2 A
(4 G, 3 A during 5-game point streak)
WPG C Paul Stastny 1 G, 1 A
(2 G, 4 A in past 3 GP)
EDM D Darnell Nurse 3 A
(5 A in past 4 GP)
EDM C Connor McDavid 1 G, 1 A
(5 G, 7 A in 8 GP)
EDM C Ryan Nugent-Hopkins 1 G, 1 A
(4 G, 4 A in 8 GP)
Winnipeg winger Nikolaj Ehlers was on the ice for three goals for and none against at 5-on-5. Edmonton D Darnell Nurse was on the ice for three goals against.
Toronto 4 Calgary 3
CGY LW Johnny Gaudreau 2 G
(4 G, 3 A in 5 GP)
CGY C Sean Monahan 2 A
(2 G, 5 A in 5 GP)
TOR C Auston Matthews 1 G, 1 A
(4 G, 3 A during 5-game point streak)
TOR RW Mitch Marner 1 G, 1 A
(5 G, 7 A in 8 GP)
TOR D Morgan Rielly 2 A
(5 A in past 2 GP)
Los Angeles 2 Minnesota 1
LA G Cal Petersen stopped 23 of 24 shots for the win.
Detroit 1 Dallas 2 (OT)
DAL D John Klingberg 1 G, 1 A
(1 G, 5 A in 3 GP)
San Jose 3 Colorado 7
COL D Cale Makar 3 A
(8 A in 7 GP)
COL LW Brandon Saad 2 G
COL RW Valeri Nichushkin 1 G, 1 A
COL RW Andre Burakovsky 2 A
SJ C Logan Couture 1 G, 1 A
(3 G, 2 A in past 5 GP)
SJ LW Ryan Donato 1 G, 1 A
(2 G, 2 A in past 2 GP)
SJ RW Kevin Labanc 2 A
(1 G, 4 A in past 5 GP)
Anaheim 1 at Arizona 0
ANA G John Gibson 31-save shutout for the win.
(.963 SV% in past 5 GP)
St. Louis 5 Vegas 4 (SO)
VGK LW Max Pacioretty 3 G
(6 G, 1 A in 7 GP)
VGK RW Mark Stone 3 A
(2 G, 9 A in 7 GP)
VGK D Alec Martinez 2 A
STL RW David Perron 2 G
(3 G, 3 A in past 5 GP)
STL LW Jaden Schwartz 1 G, 1 A
Tuesday’s Shots/Expected Goals (via Natural Stat Trick)
Wednesday Game Probabilities
DFS Value Plays
NSH C Matt Duchene $5000 vs. CHI
NSH LW Mikael Granlund $3400 vs. CHI
VAN D Alexander Edler $4300 vs. OTT
Such a small slate of games it is tough to find a value goaltender. Maybe Juuse Saros or Braden Holtby, neither of whom has been great but is on a favored home team.