from Nate Brown of Detroit Hockey Now,
Though he didn’t meet expectations, Erne is a solid and dependable forward for a team that needs some muscle up front. The caveat, of course, is that Erne is making just a hair over two million AAV, and with that comes the expectation that he’ll find his name on the scoresheet more.
According to Evolving-Hockey, Erne’s Individual Expected Goals (ixG) clocked in at 10.27. It lends credence to Blashill’s comment that Erne was often on the wrong side of puck luck. His Goals/60 cratered from 1.04 to 0.34, while he saw a 32 second dip in his average time-on-ice.
His lack of scoring certainly played into this, and as late as April 9th, Erne had a season low 10:22 of ice time.
Erne is entering the final year of his contract and will have his chance to show last season was an anomaly following 2020-21. With Yzerman sure to add more talent both on the blueline and amongst his forwards, Erne stands to benefit.
Though it will be crowded up front, Erne doesn’t seem like a forward Yzerman would flip to another team–yet.
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