Analyzing Adam Henrique's Season: Wrist Injury Justifies Second-Half Struggles

Adam Henrique is under immense pressure in New Jersey. It may not be fair to the 25-year-old forward from Ontario, but there can be no doubt that given the lack of talent and youth in the New Jersey Devils' forward ranks, Henrique shoulders a sizable burden.

During the 2014-15 season, he was the only forward 25 or younger to make consistent offensive contributions for the Devils, which obviously says more about the state of the team than about Henrique. Still, that makes his importance to the team undeniable.

With a free-agent class short on young, talented forwards this offseason, it may well be the case that Henrique is still the youngest offensive-minded forward in New Jersey by the time the 2015-16 season starts.

So, it is clear that Henrique's success is of the utmost important to the Devils. Unfortunately, for New Jersey, his season (like that of many of his teammates) was a roller coaster ride with more downs than ups.

Perhaps encouragingly though, many of the disappointing aspects of Henrique's 2014-15 season were out of his control.

There may initially be some cognitive dissonance in claiming that the player who led New Jersey in points this season struggled, but this simply was not an accomplishment of note. Henrique's 43 points were the lowest to lead the Devils in points in the team's history.

So, his contributions this season ought to be considered on their own, rather than be compared to those of other struggling players.  

Henrique started the season well, picking up three goals and seven points in New Jersey's first six games of the season. He understandably cooled off a bit after the team's blazing start but still had six goals and 13 points in the following 23 games, a more than respectable pace for a player of his caliber on a mediocre team.

So, in the 29 games Henrique appeared in before Christmas, and the Devils subsequent coaching change the following day, Henrique had nine goals and 20 points. If he had maintained that pace over the 75 games he played this season, Henrique would have wound up with roughly 23 goals and 52 points.

Instead, Henrique became one of the few Devils forwards to struggle more mightily after New Jersey's coaching change.

Offensively, the bottom fell out for Henrique—he picked up only seven goals and 23 points in his last 46 games, including no goals in his last 12 games. 

Defensively, his plus/minus fell from zero to minus-six between the coaching change and the end of the season, a period in which most Devils' plus/minus ratings improved.

For a while, there may have been some serious concern over this dip in play, particularly given its timing in regard to the Devils' coaching change. Henrique had played exactly one game for the Devils under a coach besides Peter DeBoer before his firing at the end of December, so it appeared that perhaps Henrique was not handling the transition well.

But Henrique played most of the second half of this season with a left-wrist injury, as reported by Tom Gulitti at Fire & Ice. He recently had surgery on the wrist, and it is not expected to have any long-term ramifications.

Henrique told Gulitti:

"

Probably for three or four weeks it as pretty bad and then it got better. It was still something I was playing with, but I wasn't going to take time off if I could play. … We kind of looked at it midway through the season when it was starting to become painful and an issue and then we just took it a day at a time if things got worse or things got better. Then, the pain and everything went away and we continued to go from there.

"

He told Gulitti the injury happened around Christmas and January.

This revelation puts the disappointing second half of Henrique's season in a new, more encouraging light. It seems reasonable to assume that the injury he sustained hampered his ability to perform.

This, in addition to having an offensively weak team around him and having his position and linemates constantly shuffled, makes it seem as though Henrique's second-half struggles were likely nothing more than a momentary blip on the radar.

So, what can the Devils expect from Henrique going forward? To get a better understanding of the answer to this important question, here are his numbers from his best two seasons in the NHL, as well as the projected output from a healthy 2014-15 season:

Season	Games Played	Goals	Assists	Points	Plus/Minus
2010-11	74	16	35	51	8
2013-14	77	25	18	43	3
2014-15 (projected)	75	23	29	52	0

Perhaps, the first thing that jumps out from these numbers is Henrique's transition from being predominantly a playmaker in his rookie season to being more of a goal scorer the last two years. 

This change came mostly as a matter of necessity—Henrique centered on a line with Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk for much of the 2010-11 season. By the time 2013-14 rolled around, both of those players were gone and not replaced in any significant way. 

The holes left by those players remain unfilled by outside talent. While general manager Lou Lamoriello may attempt to fix that issue this offseason, Henrique will still need to pick up the slack in terms of goal scoring. The need for Henrique to score more goals has coincided with his move to left wing from center.

That move to wing could well become permanent, particularly if the Devils re-sign Scott Gomez this offseason, as the team's need at wing far supersedes its need at center. 

If Henrique is to remain a winger and ideally a goal scorer, New Jersey would be happy if he could replicate his 2013-14 goals total of 25. His contribution as a playmaker, particularly if he stays at wing, will depend largely on what new talent comes to New Jersey this offseason.

In short, Henrique's 2014-15 season is one which is hard to draw conclusions from. There is no doubt that injury played a role in his disappointing second half of the season, not to mention the toll New Jersey's offensive woes took on the forward. 

It also seems clear that the Devils have begun to think of Henrique as more of a goal scorer than a playmaker, a change brought about in part by Henrique's skill set and in part by necessity. With Travis Zajac and likely Gomez on the roster next season, New Jersey does not need any more playmakers.

It needs goal scorers.

Henrique displayed an ability to be that player during the first half of the season, but the Devils will need that kind of play from him for 82 games next season if they want to be successful. If Henrique can be a 25-goal and 50-point player next season, the New Jersey Devils will have taken a first step toward getting back to the playoffs.

If not, they will need to find a lot of goals from other sources and quickly.