Through 13GP Binghamton is 7-4-2, good for 5th place in their conference – that in spite of only scoring 34 goals. Their leading goal-scorer is Derek Grant, who's a swell prospect to be sure, but fans are clamoring for more from those prefixed as "highly-touted".
Hopefully this post can ease concerns.
While Silf and Zibanejad are sitting on three goals between them, they have at least continued to generate shots consistently (which is good). In that vein I got to wondering how they stacked up against their prospect brethern. Below is a list sorted by shots per game of the top-30 AHL forwards who were under-23 at season's opening. (minimum 9GP, B-Sens in red):
| Player | GP | SOG | SH/gm |
| Schenn | 14 | 55 | 3.93 |
| Hoffman | 13 | 47 | 3.62 |
| Audy-Marchessault | 14 | 50 | 3.57 |
| Gallagher | 13 | 46 | 3.54 |
| Morin | 15 | 51 | 3.40 |
| Zucker | 12 | 39 | 3.25 |
| Fraser | 13 | 42 | 3.23 |
| Silfverberg | 13 | 42 | 3.23 |
| Niederreiter | 14 | 45 | 3.21 |
| Johnson | 14 | 43 | 3.07 |
| Nelson | 14 | 43 | 3.07 |
| Palmieri | 14 | 43 | 3.07 |
| Couturier | 12 | 36 | 3.00 |
| Dalpe | 15 | 45 | 3.00 |
| Horak | 15 | 44 | 2.93 |
| Tatar | 14 | 39 | 2.79 |
| Spooner | 13 | 36 | 2.77 |
| Pirri | 15 | 41 | 2.73 |
| Toffoli | 14 | 38 | 2.71 |
| Beck | 13 | 35 | 2.69 |
| Zibanejad | 13 | 35 | 2.69 |
| Brown | 14 | 37 | 2.64 |
| Nugent-Hopkins | 14 | 37 | 2.64 |
| Eberle | 15 | 39 | 2.60 |
| Conacher | 14 | 36 | 2.57 |
| Eakin | 13 | 33 | 2.54 |
| Josefson | 13 | 33 | 2.54 |
| Baertschi | 15 | 38 | 2.53 |
| Stalberg | 15 | 38 | 2.53 |
| Caron | 13 | 32 | 2.50 |
Three players in the top-30 seems pretty positive to me, especially as two are more or less rookies in North America.
– Hoffman sits second on the list, he's boosted his rate from 2.49 last season to 3.62 today. No small feat.
– Silfverberg is producing at a higher rate than he was with Brynas (3.14) last year.
– Zibanejad shot 2.16 last year with Djurgarden, and through 13 games is shooting 2.69.
– Among B-Sens who didn't make the list, but are creating at a decent clip: Petersson 2.00, Grant 1.92, Pageau 1.92.
And the top-20 defenseman:
| Player | GP | SOG | SH/gm |
| Moore | 14 | 36 | 3.29 |
| Stone | 13 | 42 | 3.21 |
| Gardiner | 15 | 47 | 3.13 |
| Cannauton | 15 | 45 | 3.00 |
| Schultz | 15 | 45 | 3.00 |
| Barberio | 14 | 41 | 2.93 |
| Voynov | 14 | 41 | 2.93 |
| OEL | 9 | 26 | 2.89 |
| Voynov | 15 | 43 | 2.87 |
| Faulk | 13 | 35 | 2.69 |
| Hamonic | 13 | 34 | 2.62 |
| Erixon | 14 | 34 | 2.43 |
| Wiercioch | 12 | 29 | 2.42 |
| Ekholm | 15 | 36 | 2.40 |
| Barrie | 16 | 36 | 2.25 |
| Manning | 13 | 29 | 2.23 |
| Kundratek | 15 | 32 | 2.13 |
| McNabb | 15 | 32 | 2.13 |
| Beaulieu | 13 | 27 | 2.08 |
| Acolatse | 15 | 29 | 1.93 |
| Scandella | 12 | 23 | 1.92 |
Plenty of quality players on his list so it's nice to see Wiercioch ensconced in the middle. I wondered prior to the season if this was the year he'd be able to take another step offensively. And while the points aren't showing it yet, his shot rate is the highest it's been since his freshman year at Denver when he put up an impressive 2.94 per game. This is an aspect he's clearly tried to focus on, telling Ken Warren "…i'm making a conscious effort to shoot more this year".
Now seven weeks of games isn't a great sample, but it is a snapshot if nothing. I'll be doing this again at the 30 game mark, so we can all see who's falling off and vice versa. Maybe by that time, a couple more shots (by the guys in red) will have found the back of the net too.
*Eyes On The Prize has a great post on AHL shot-rates and how they translate to the NHL.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
