Connor an elite scoring talent

Opinion

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This article was published 10/12/2021 (1394 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VANCOUVER — This right here, folks, is a Kyle Connor appreciation column. If there are any haters out there, please show yourselves out.

Dare I say we’ve come to take the Winnipeg Jets winger for granted? While players with seemingly more star power or streaky scoring habits tend to be the primary focus, the incredibly consistent Connor continues to light the lamp at a torrid pace few others around the NHL can compete with.

Consider this: Only two current skaters — Leon Draisaitl and Alex Ovechkin — have more goals this season than Connor’s 17 heading into action on Friday night at Rogers Arena. That’s pretty good company, considering they have a combined four Hart Trophies between them.

Lest you think Connor is just a one-season wonder, how about the fact that since the 2018-19 campaign, only Ovechkin, Draisaitl and two other guys you may have heard of — Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews — have beaten opposing goalies with more frequency. If you want to stretch it all the way back to 2017-18, when the Michigan product burst on to the big-league scene after beginning the year with the Manitoba Moose, he’s sixth-overall in goal scoring, trailing the four superstars above and David Pastrnak (by a single tally).

Slice it any way you want, and the 25-year-old, who celebrated his birthday on Thursday night in Seattle with a pair of highlight-reel snipes, is in pretty rare air when it comes to doing the most important thing involved in winning hockey games — scoring. His most recent one, which sealed a 3-0 victory for the Jets over the Kraken, had coach Paul Maurice nearly speechless when I asked him about it in a post-game chat at Climate Pledge Arena.

“That’s a special set of hands,” Maurice told me, shaking his head. “What always surprises me about Kyle is he does it at such a high rate of speed. So many players can make that shot, but very few can make it at speed, His hands are just fantastic.”

Quick aside: Winnipeg might want to petition the NHL to schedule a game every Dec. 9 for the foreseeable future. Connor scored on his 21st birthday in 2017, his 22nd birthday in 2018, and now put the icing on his latest cake with two goals on his big day in 2021. Only a blank spot on the schedule in 2019 (day off) and 2020 (global pandemic) kept him off the scoreboard.

Provided he stays healthy, there’s no reason he shouldn’t smash through the 40-goal ceiling this season, and perhaps even hit the 50. And he’s doing all this at the relatively low, low price, at least by professional sports standards, of US$7.142 million per season. It’s part of the seven-year, US $50 million contract extension he inked in September 2019, meaning the Jets have their top sniper locked up for four more years after this, a period in which he should just be entering his so-called prime.

A scary thought for goaltenders around the league, indeed.

Take a bow, Kevin Cheveldayoff. Not only did you and your staff grab Connor with the 17th-overall selection in a franchise-defining 2015 draft — sure, they got a major assist from the Boston Bruins for passing on him not once, not twice, but THREE times just prior — but you also locked him up to one of the best value contracts in the league.

It wasn’t that long ago many around here wondered if Connor’s gaudy production was a result of playing on the top line with No. 1 centre Mark Scheifele and captain Blake Wheeler. Both those guys, after all, were point-per-game players and the heart of the offensive engine with the team. Now, it’s Connor who appears to be carrying his linemates, especially this year as they’ve struggled to get back up to speed after getting sidelined for five games each from positive COVID-19 infections.

Regardless of where you play him, Connor has proven he will contribute. He formed a dynamic duo earlier this year with Pierre-Luc Dubois, and that’s certainly an option Maurice could go back to at some point. As someone who covered the Moose during Connor’s rookie pro season, I’ve also seen him grow off the ice as well, from a rather shy, nervous kid to a confident young man who carries himself like a leader. His answers to media questions are always thoughtful and detailed, and he’s come to embrace this organization and the important role he plays,

The Jets have made “draft and develop” their mission statement since Day One, and Connor might be the ultimate poster boy for that. He put in his time with the Moose, playing parts of both the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons before finally getting the call up. At the time, some wondered what took the team so long, but Cheveldayoff, Maurice and others insisted patience would be a virtue.

It certainly has paid off. No doubt the organization hopes for similar positive results with the likes of top prospects such as Ville Heinola (currently on recall with the Jets), Cole Perfetti (currently on loan from the Moose to the Team Canada World Juniors) and David Gustafsson (currently leading the Moose in scoring) all ripening on the vine.

It was only a couple years ago that trade winds were starting to blow in Connor’s direction. The Jets, you’ll recall, were facing a salary-cap crisis of sorts, with several prominent players including Patrik Laine. and Jacob Trouba and Jack Roslovic all in need of new details. It was clear something had to give, and some roster surgery would be required. Cheveldayoff ended up shipping that trio out of town, got some additional cost savings with the surprise retirement of Dustin Byfuglien and career-ending injury to Bryan Little, and Winnipeg kept Connor in the fold.

Talk about dodging a bullet. Imagine if Connor was doing all of this for another team right now? Jets brass might just get run out of town for that one.

If there’s a negative to be found regarding Connor, it’s this: We might have created a monster, one who is going to come back to bite Canada big-time in Beijing. Connor, of course, is slated to be a prominent part of the United States Winter Olympics hockey team. Imagine how slick he’s going to look on the left-side with the likes of Matthews and Patrick Kane, or perhaps Jack Eichel and Brock Boeser. Along with Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, who turned in a 25-save shutout performance in Seattle, our country’s gold-medal hopes could be in peril thanks to a couple homegrown hockey heroes.

Of course, there’s only one shiny prize the Jets and their fans truly care about, and Connor’s tremendous talent is the type that Stanley Cup dreams are made of. Keep it up, and he might just lead them to the promised land.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg