6 NHL Players Who Will Be Under the Most Pressure During the 2020-21 Season
Being a professional athlete means dealing with pressure.
So each of the 23 players on each of the 31 NHL rosters will be under some strain come January.
But there's pressure. And then there's pressure.
The higher-intensity latter version can stem from a variety of things—including a move to a new team, a string of less-than-vintage seasons or a newly inked multimillion-dollar contract.
Or a combination of all three.
That means a select few of the league's 713 players will be under a special brand of strain when things get underway January.
The B/R ice team sat down and compiled a list of a half-dozen of those players, complete with the reasons they will be feeling it. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a comment with your ideas.
6. Sergei Bobrovsky, Florida Panthers
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Call it a first-world hockey problem.
Sergei Bobrovsky signed a seven-year, $70 million deal with the Florida Panthers in July 2019, and given his status as a two-time Vezina Trophy winner, he was expected to play a vital role in the resurgence of a long-moribund franchise.
Let's just say it didn't go so well.
Rather than elevating the Panthers, Bobrovsky saw his numbers plummet—allowing better than a half-goal more per game (2.58 goals-against average to 3.23) while his save percentage went from .913 to a pedestrian .900, his worst since 2011-12.
Adding competitive insult to financial injury, Bobrovsky's bloated contract and the squeeze it caused is at least partially to blame for an offseason exodus that saw free-agent winger Evgenii Dadonov sign a three-year, $15 million deal with the Ottawa Senators and is likely to result in the departure of another unrestricted free agent, Mike Hoffman.
The good news? Bobrovsky posted personal bests in GAA and save percentage in 2012-13, winning his first Vezina a season after the aforementioned subpar performance early in his career.
At 32, it's imperative for that bounce back to repeat itself.
5. Philipp Grubauer, Colorado Avalanche
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It's not the worst situation for a goaltender.
The Colorado Avalanche are young, loaded at all positions and have positioned themselves to be major players in the NHL's Western Conference for the next several years.
Still, it's not exactly been determined where Philipp Grubauer fits into the scheme of things.
The 29-year-old played his first season as a No. 1 goalie with the Avalanche in 2019-20 and was perfectly respectable, posting a 2.63 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage in 36 games.
Still, he was outplayed by backup Pavel Francouz (2.41 GAA, .923 save percentage) while missing time with injuries in the regular season. He was hurt again during the playoffs while Francouz and third-stringer Michael Hutchinson went 4-5 and Colorado bowed out in the conference semifinals.
Entering the final year of a three-year, $10 million deal, it's time for Grubauer to prove his long-term worth to the Avs or make a case that he will be a sturdy No. 1 elsewhere come next summer's free-agency period.
4. Jesse Puljujarvi, Edmonton Oilers
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Need an NHL-style daytime drama fix? Cue up the Edmonton Oilers.
When the Oilers plucked Finnish winger Jesse Puljujarvi with the fourth overall pick in the 2016 NHL draft, early reviews indicated then-GM Peter Chiarelli had gotten himself a steal.
But whaddaya know? Crime doesn't pay. Not even metaphorical hockey front-office crime.
A teenage Puljujarvi floundered in parts of three seasons under the team's prior regime, scoring 17 goals in 139 games while registering a minus-10 and looking nothing like the can't-miss prospect he'd been billed as.
He stayed in Finland rather than coming to Edmonton to begin the 2019-20 season and seemed destined to be shipped elsewhere until Ken Holland and Dave Tippett changed his mind.
The new GM and coach never got an offer they couldn't refuse, and concurrent talks with Puljujarvi and his team convinced the player to give it another try with the new structure in place.
He's still just 22 and will get a chance to make an impact this season, but he will have to show quickly that he belongs or the naysayers will return and the dreaded four-letter word—bust—will get tossed around.
3. Frederik Andersen, Toronto Maple Leafs
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Think your job is tough? Try Frederik Andersen's.
Not only is the 31-year-old charged with stopping shots that can exceed 100 mph, he does so in the hockey-obsessed media fishbowl that is Toronto.
OK, he makes a living wage doing so. And he will soon enter the final season of a five-year, $25 million contract. So it's not all bad.
But he will have to prove in 2020-21 that he's worth another long-term investment in Toronto or elsewhere and will have to do so coming off a steady but unspectacular season in which he had a 2.85 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage across 52 games.
Toronto GM Kyle Dubas didn't make a trade or a signing to push Andersen out of the way during the offseason, but given the stockpile of talent elsewhere on the roster, it will probably be put on the goalie if the team doesn't progress beyond the initial round of this season's playoffs.
2. Johnny Gaudreau, Calgary Flames
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It was a cottage industry for offseason hockey writer types.
In fact, chronicling Johnny Gaudreau trade rumors or simply compiling lists of where the prodigious Calgary Flames winger might wind up after a transaction was something just short of a 24/7 job.
So, needless to say, eyes in many cities will be focused on Johnny Hockey in 2021.
Now 27, Gaudreau went from his statistical peak in 2018-19 (36 goals, 99 points in 82 games) to the worst season of his career in 2019-20 (18 goals, 58 points in 70 games) and managed just three points in the final four games of the Flames' six-game loss to the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference playoffs.
A New Jersey native, he's been frequently linked to deals with either the home-state Devils or the equally nearby Philadelphia Flyers, the team he grew up rooting for as a kid.
And unless the numbers bounce back early and quickly in Alberta, he and the final two seasons of a six-year, $40.5 million contract could be packing bags for a long trip away.
1. Taylor Hall, Buffalo Sabres
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Maybe freshly minted Buffalo Sabres forward Taylor Hall will fall in love with his new home, take a few tours on the Maid of the Mist at nearby Niagara Falls and become a Western New Yorker for life.
But the smart money, at least for the moment, suggests it's a short-term thing.
Hall entered the free-agency pool as the most coveted scorer available, but the flat salary cap and a paucity of long-term deals prompted him to sign a one-year, $8 million contract with the Sabres.
For a guy who had suggested winning was his motivation, Buffalo was a curious choice.
The franchise is the holder of the league's longest active playoff drought, a stretch that's prompted team captain Jack Eichel to express his frustration with things.
But Eichel is a star in the making and just the sort of partner who could help Hall return to the form—39 goals, 93 points in 76 games—that saw him named NHL MVP in 2017-18 with the New Jersey Devils.
If he does, it could mean big money on a long-term deal next summer. But he's got to do his part.
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