Quote:
Originally Posted by Monahammer
Newcomer Kevin Bahl is someone I am actually really excited for. Young, massive. Some pretty reasonable numbers. Seems like a good skater. He was a key factor in the taylor hall trade from Jersey, so scouts have been watching him for a while.
I think he's got interesting potential as a linemate for parekh into the future. Good skater with a lean towards d, where parekh is o focused. Parekh is a bit of a #### disturber and bahl has the size to back that up. Both have Indian heritage through one parent, and grew up in the Toronto area, so may even have a lot in common personally.
Feel like we aren't really talking about him at all but I'm really excited for this acquisition!
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He's being overlooked for sure.
Played in all 82 games for the Devils, had the 2nd lowest offensive Zone faceoff start % on the team behind only Brendan Smith, and played the third most minutes.
Looking at his pairing usage is a bit interesting, he had 4 main partners:
Marino: 553 minutes - 51.9% xGF - 43.2% ozone
Marino w/o Bahl - 50.8% xGF - 49.10% ozone
Smith: 240 minutes - 49.9% xGF - 37.8% ozone
Smith w/o Bahl - 45.9% xGF - 43.8% ozone
Nemec: 200 minutes - 53.4% xGF - 49.1% ozone
Nemec w/o Bahl - 52.3% xGF - 52.6% ozone
Miller: 100 Minutes - 61.5% xGF - 58.9% ozone
Miller w/o Bahl - 52.5% xGF - 61.8% ozone
Every single partner that Bahl played more than 100 minutes with actually had a better expected goal outcome when partnered with him than they did without him.
And that's even considering that when partnered with Bahl they had less favourable zone starts than they did when they weren't paired with Bahl.
IMO he should be a big add for our second pair and reminds me of an Erik Cernak or Alexander Romanov type.
Edit: It extends to Devils top forwards too:
Hughes+Bahl: 272 minutes - 58.2% xGF - 59.2% O-Zone
Hughes - Bahl: 700 minutes - 52.4% xGF - 68.3% O-Zone
Bratt + Bahl: 371 minutes - 58.3% xGF - 46.5% O-Zone
Bratt - Bahl: 753 minutes - 55.6% xGF - 58.1% O-Zone
Hischer+Bahl: 324 minutes - 56.5% xGF - 40.2% O-Zone
Hischer -Bahl: 632 minutes - 53.1% xGF - 53.7% O-Zone
I don't know but getting a 24 year old, 6'6" d-man, who seems to make all of his linemates better while actually playing tougher minutes seems to be a pretty big win.