New Jersey Devils 2016-17 Season Grades: Kyle Palmieri

Kyle Palmieri had a great year for the New Jersey Devils in 2015-16. He was a 30 goal scorer and a bright spot on a dark season. Palmieri had some big expectations on his shoulder coming into 2016-17.

Kyle Palmieri, along with Taylor Hall and Adam Henrique, were supposed to lead the way for the New Jersey Devils this season. It was a weird season for Palmieri, but he did what he was supposed to do and scored goals. Let’s take a look at this 2016-17 season.

Traditional Statistics

5v5 Advanced Statistics

(Statistics adjusted for score, zone, and venue)

Season Overview

Palmieri had a weird season for the New Jersey Devils this year. He had three points in the first four games of the season, and then was ice-cold for a 16 game stretch. During that stretch, Palmieri had one goal and five assists. That’s just not good enough, especially for a team starved for offense.

After that, Kyle turned it on big time. Palmieri’s next 50 games were fantastic, putting up 40 points in that time span. His longest pointless streak in that time frame was just three games.

The last 10 games of the season were a little less than average for Palmieri. He had 4 points in the last 10 games, which played into the Devils horrible finish. He wasn’t shooting as much either, averaging 2.1 shots per game in that span.

Even through some rough patches, Palmieri ended up leading the Devils in goals and tied for 1st with Hall in points. He also finished 4th in assists and 2nd in shots. His power play numbers were great too, finishing 2nd in power play assists and 1st in power play goals.

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Let’s Dig a Little Deeper

Palmieri had an interesting season when it came to possession. He was a negative 5v5 adjusted CorsiRel player, which isn’t awful on a bad New Jersey Devils team. You’d rather see Palmieri be a positive CorsiRel player, but his -0.22 is right on the edge. It was also an upgrade from last year, albeit just a little.

Where Palmieri did stand out was goal scoring metrics. Palmieri ranked 1st on the Devils in 5v5 adjusted GF% with a 61.23. His 22.60 RelGF% was not only good for 1st on the Devils, but 1st in the league. Needless to say, Kyle Palmieri was an extremely important part of the Devils this season.

An underrated aspect of Palmieri’s game this season was his penalty differential. Palmieri draw 21 more penalties than he took, which also led the Devils.  He did have 46 PIMs, but it’s still clear that Palmieri drew more penalties. With special teams being such an important part of the game, that’s huge.

Final Season Grade: B+

Palmieri was the Devils 2nd best offensive player this season. While he didn’t repeat his 30 goal season, he came close with 26. Palmieri was also a huge part of their power play this year. He doesn’t kill penalties and isn’t the best defensive player, but he scores goals for a very low scoring team.

I wish I could give Palmieri an A for the year, but the start was just so bad, so I think a B+ is a perfect grade. If he starts the year better, maybe he does hit 30 goals and even 60 points. If Palmieri showed us one thing, it’s that his 2015-16 season wasn’t a fluke. He can contribute at the NHL level and be a solid scorer. The fact that he has been a 0.68 PPG player during his time with the Devils says a lot.

(Statistics via Hockey-Reference.com, Corsica.hockey, and NaturalStatTrick.com)