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One of the bright spots in an otherwise disappointing season in Tampa Bay was the breakthrough season from Steve Stamkos. He earned the Maurice Richard Trophy alongside Sidney Crosby as the league's leading goal scorer, having lit the red light 51 times -- more than even Alexander Ovechkin. This was a huge improvement over his rookie season where he scored 23 goals and 46 points (which is actually quite good for a teenager), making Stamkos the league's most improved player.
Interestingly, many of the league's most improved players were on non-playoff teams like Carolina, St. Louis and Dallas, and teams that just squeaked in to the postseason, such as Colorado and Montreal. Even Edmonton showed up in the top 15, proving that even the darkest clouds have silver linings.
Legend:
08-09: GVT in 2008-09
09-10: GVT in 2009-10
DIFF: Difference in GVT between seasons
Player Team 08-09 09-10 DIFF
Steve Stamkos Tampa Bay 4.2 21.0 +16.8
Jussi Jokinen Carolina -0.5 13.5 +14.0
Drew Doughty Los Angeles 4.9 18.6 +13.7
Chris Stewart Colorado -0.1 11.3 +11.4
Tomas Plekanec Montreal 3.2 14.1 +10.9
Dustin Penner Edmonton 3.2 13.8 +10.6
Patrick Kane Chicago 9.7 19.7 +10.0
Chris Pronger Philadelphia 9.1 18.4 +9.3
Mike Fisher Ottawa 2.1 11.1 +9.0
Alexander Steen St. Louis 0.9 9.9 +9.0
Brad Richards Dallas 6.6 15.5 +8.9
Wojtek Wolski Phoenix 3.9 12.7 +8.8
Brandon Sutter Carolina -1.2 8.0 +8.6
Christian Ehrhoff Vancouver 6.5 14.5 +8.0
Wayne Simmonds Los Angeles 1.2 9.1 +7.9
*Minimum 50 games both seasons
Vancouver's offseason acquisition of Christian Ehrhoff was pure genius, as he enjoyed the biggest defensive improvement in the league, followed by Chris Pronger and his linemate Matt Carle. Among forwards the biggest defensive improvement was New Jersey's Rob Niedermayer, proving that sometimes all a player needs is a change of scenery.
Most of these names are nothing new to Puck Prospectus readers. For example, Chris Pronger joined Phoenix' Radim Vrbata as one of my leading candidates for Bounceback Player of the year, both Jussi Jokinen and the stunningly successfuly Chris Stewart were on my list of Unsung Heroes, and we gave you the heads-up on Alexander Steen during our Summer Skate Series on ESPN.
Least Improved Players
On to the flip side. Late in the season we posted a companion piece to our Bounceback Player article about the Slideback Players, which featured David Krejcji, Devin Setoguchi, Michael Ryder and several others on our list of the least improved players.
Player Team 08-09 09-10 DIFF
Simon Gagne Philadelphia 18.7 7.6 -11.1
Patrick Berglund St. Louis 12.6 1.6 -11.0
Craig Conroy Calgary 11.4 0.4 -11.0
Slava Kozlov Atlanta 11.7 1.0 -10.7
Evgeni Malkin Pittsburgh 23.4 13.4 -10.6
Martin Havlat Minnesota 16.7 6.8 -9.9
David Krejci Boston 18.3 8.4 -9.9
Devin Setoguchi San Jose 13.9 4.9 -9.0
Todd White Atlanta 9.4 0.6 -8.8
Ruslan Fedotenko Pittsburgh 9.3 0.7 -8.6
Pavel Datsyuk Detroit 24.4 15.8 -8.6
Dennis Wideman Boston 14.6 6.0 -8.6
Michael Ryder Boston 12.0 3.5 -8.5
Jeff Carter Philadelphia 21.8 13.6 -8.2
Blake Wheeler Boston 11.2 3.6 -7.6
*Minimum 50 games both seasons
If you were expecting other names to be on this list, there were a few near-misses. For instance, Brad Boyes of the Blues took a massive 8.5 GVT dive offensively, which was the 3rd worst in the league, but sufficiently improved defensively to avoid making this list. Stephane Robidas had the league's 4th worst defensive slide, but dramatically improved offensively, to the point where he was actually better overall in 2009-10 than he was in 2008-09.
Among those listed, the biggest dive defensively was veteran Craig Conroy, who fell apart at both ends of the ice, just barely missing Jan Hejda for last place. Hejda didn't have enough of an offensive game last season to lose, otherwise he'd have snuck onto this list as well.
There are four Boston Bruins on this list, two more than any other team, making it all the more remarkable that Patrice Bergeron actually improved from 2.8 to 9.9 GVT. Personally I'm surprised that there are no Edmonton Oilers on this list, meaning that their horrible season is not the result of any individual players underperforming.
Wrap Up
Every season there are a few players that experience dramatic improvements -- they can be young stars having their initial breakthrough seasons like Steven Stamkos, or superstars bouncing back from disappointing seasons like Chris Pronger, or even secondary scorers finding their game like Christian Ehrhoff. Remember to re-adjust your expectations of the players listed above, and use this insight to try to find the next Jussi Jokinen (or avoid the next Patrick Berglund!).
Robert Vollman is an author of Hockey Prospectus.
You can contact Robert by clicking here or click here to see Robert's other articles.
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