Quote:
Originally Posted by Clever_Iggy
Looking at the regular season, Nikitin averaged 17:06 TOI in 66 games. Good for 7th on the Blue Jackets. In the playoffs, in 5 games he was bottom pairing (in terms of TOI) 4 times and a healthy scratch once.
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Fair to say, but for the two years previous to that he was their top pairing guy with Tyutin and played quite well overall - he was fantastic in 2012. So, sure, not a great year for him (though his Fenwick close % was still over 50% and third on the team), but not sure if you want to judge him based on that or a longer track record.
You may be right though, he may be on a steep and sudden decline. If so, the term limits the downside risk on this one.