DUCHENE RELIEVED TRADE DEADLINE COME AND GONE
Underperforming Preds’ centre facing his worst offensive season feared being dealt
There was a strange sense of relief for Matt Duchene as the trade deadline came and went on Monday and he found himself still a member of the Nashville Predators.
“You stop wondering what if,” Duchene said of surviving deadline day. “This (playing in Nashville) is what it is.”
Part of him didn’t really think he was going to get moved.
Not after signing a seven-year contract worth US$56 million in the summer. But then again, you never know in this league.
Duchene had been traded in each of the past two seasons. And whatever security his long-term contract might have initially offered was no doubt eroded by his lack of production and the team’s overall struggles this year.
“It’s been up and down for me this year a little bit,” said Duchene, whose Predators headed into Tuesday night’s game against the Ottawa Senators in 10th place in the Western Conference standings. “At the end of the day, all that matters is the last 21 games and trying to play my best hockey. We’d like to be more comfortable right now, but we’re not. But it doesn’t matter. What matters is what we do going forward.”
Duchene might still be in Nashville but that doesn’t mean he’s out of the doghouse just yet. Of course, he has plenty of company in there.
With apologies to the San Jose Sharks or Toronto Maple Leafs, the Predators’ have been one of the more disappointing teams this year. This was a team that many expected to compete for a Cup. Instead, it will be a dogfight just to claim a wild-card spot.
Looking down the middle of their lineup, it’s not hard to see why.
The centre position, where the team has sunk $26.1 million, was supposed to be an area of strength for Nashville. Instead, it’s become a source of weakness.
None of Nashville’s centres are among the top 100 scorers. Duchene, who is earning $8 million, has 12 goals and 38 points in 58 games. Ryan Johansen, who has five more years with an $8-million cap hit, has 13 goals and 34 points. Kyle Turris, who is being paid $6 million for another four years, has nine goals and 28 points.
Combined, the Big 3 have only two more points than Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl and nine fewer goals than Toronto’s Auston Matthews.
Lately, all three have dropped below Nick Bonino in the depth chart, which is not a great look considering Bonino is earning half of what Duchene and Johansen are making.
“We’ve had some honest conversations,” head coach John Hynes said of the lack of production from the top earners. “There’s certain areas in their games that need to be better and I think they recognize it. That’s part of coaching and playing.
You have to have clear expectations and standards and make sure that we’re all clear on what they are. They’re good players. We’re going to need those guys to be excellent players down the stretch.”
Duchene, who is on pace for one of his worst offensive seasons, has seen his offensive numbers get even worse since Hynes replaced Peter Laviolette behind the bench in the second week of January.
Since that coaching change, Duchene has also seen his ice time scaled back and his role diminished. He had been averaging 17-and-a-half minutes under Laviolette, where he scored 28 points in 38 games. He’s down to about 15 minutes under Hynes, with just 10 points in 20 games.
The other night, Duchene was on the ice for 10 minutes and four seconds and centring the fourth line. That’s not what he was brought in to do. Not that he is deserving of more minutes with the way he’s played so far.
“I think you just got to keep your head down and worry about what you can control,” Duchene said of his playing time. “Those are decisions that are made not by us. You have to worry about what you can control in this business. You can control your effort, you can control your compete and your attention to detail in terms of what the team needs from you.
“Points and production and goals and everything like that, you don’t always control those things. Those things will come when it’s time and they come when the feel and the rhythm is there.”
To be fair, it’s hard to get into a rhythm when you’re playing for your fourth team and for your fifth head coach in three years. At this time last year, Duchene was chartering a flight from Ottawa to Columbus, where he helped the Blue Jackets not only make the playoffs but upset the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round.
“It’s crazy that a year’s gone by,” he said of that trade. “Yesterday was the day that (Ryan) Dzingel and I flew to Columbus together. I grabbed my wife and my six-week-old kid. I still can’t believe I moved a six-week-old kid. It feels like it was a lifetime ago.”
Maybe Duchene, who took time to get comfortable in Columbus, can find his game in time for the playoffs. If so, he better hurry or else he could be on the move again before he knows it.
“The fine line between success and not success is just so thin,” he said. “This is a place where I want to be for a long time and I still feel that way.”