Avs could stand pat on trades
Thanks to Compher’s career year
When Mikko Rantanen scored the overtime goal, J.T. Compher was the first teammate he greeted with an embrace. When he was asked about the goal, Compher was the first name out of his mouth.
“First of all, really good job by Comph to win the draw,” Rantanen emphasized. “It’s really important in OT.”
His comment was a perfect glance into the high regard for Compher in the Avalanche locker room, just as that bow-on-top ending to Colorado’s improbable 6-5 win over the Oilers on Sunday was a quintessential example of Compher’s value.
It might have been his most important moment on a day when he recorded four points for the second time in his career (the other was earlier this season).
Compher was specifically on the ice to take the offensive zone faceoff with 30 seconds remaining in overtime.
Losing would cost Colorado possession and likely take the game to a shootout. Winning allowed the team’s best scorer to gather the puck and create a shooting angle.
It allowed the Avalanche (31-195) to snatch a second point after starting the game down 3-0.
But that’s just a microcosm of Compher’s success this season. As the March 3 NHL trade deadline nears, the top-heavy market for a second-line center has thinned rapidly. Bo Horvat was traded to New York. Ryan O’reilly to Toronto. And just Sunday, after the puck had dropped at Ball Arena, the Blackhawks released a statement from Jonathan Toews detailing the captain’s ongoing struggle with long COVID-19 and chronic immune response syndrome.
He’s on injured reserve because of the illness and will not be traded.
So now where do the Avs turn to replace Nazem Kadri, yesteryear’s exceptional 2C?
Don’t ignore Compher in that conversation. The “Swiss army
knife,” as coach Jared Bednar frequently calls him, has been holding down the fort in that role most of this season.
With impeccable timing, Compher offered one of his best performances Sunday after the Toews development, as though to remind everyone in Denver not to forget what’s right in front of them.
“I feel more comfortable in that position this year,” he said. “I think I knew I could do it, but now I feel more comfortable actually doing it. … Bedsy’s giving me more responsibility, and I’m just trying to make the most of it.”
On Saturday in St. Louis, he surpassed his career high in points. After adding four more vs. Edmonton, he’s at 38 points (11 goals) in 55 games. In the first six years of his career, he never crossed the 0.5 PPG threshold. He’s at 0.69 this season.
“I think it’s a few different things,” Compher said. “Obviously, playing with different linemates this year and playing with Mikko a lot. And I’m on the ice with Nate (Mackinnon) sometimes.”
In this most unpredictable of games, he scored the Avalanche’s first goal by redirecting a Mackinnon shot.
He shot the puck that turned into a game-tying assist via deflection with 4:12 remaining. He assisted two others, including the faceoff win.
That’s one area where Compher feels indispensable right now. The Avs are near the bottom of the heap in the faceoff circle, ranking 27th in the NHL at 46.1% as a team. Compher is the only player consistently relied on to win the draw in important moments, for example when time was of the essence Sunday.
To contextualize that: Compher’s 1,130 faceoffs taken are almost equal to the combined total of Colorado’s second and third choices. Mackinnon and Alex Newhook together have taken 1,143. They have combined to win 43.9% of those. Compher is significantly better at 48.2%.
It’s not a dazzling number, but it’s solid. None of Colorado’s other options come close in volume or win rate. So Compher finds himself on the ice in important moments.
He attributes the success mostly to experience. One of the tricks of the trade that he’s learned? He often talks with officials during games, especially at TV timeouts.
“Another thing with experience is just getting to know the linesmen a little bit,” he said in January. “And how they want the draws to go and what they’re looking for that night. Trying to have a relationship with them.”
That’s not to mention Compher’s two-way prowess. He’s used on the power play and penalty kill. He started the season on a line with bottom-six grinders Andrew Cogliano and Logan O’connor, fitting smoothly. Now he’s fitting next to the skill guys, and the Avs are suddenly as close to the top of their division as they are to the playoff border.
Not bad for a team that’s supposedly operating without a true 2C.
“He’s playing a career year,” Rantanen said. “I’m really happy for him. I’ve been playing with him a lot this year, and he’s just fun to play with.”