Zack Kassian
Kassian is back to being the resident heavyweight power forward, and everybody loves him for it.
Kassian has largely struggled the last couple of seasons, not being a physical factor or scoring.
He has revitalized both of those areas of his career this season. Kassian has so far put up 3-2-5 in seven games with one of those goals coming on the PP. There’s no way he’ll sustain a 60% shooting %, but it’ll be nice to enjoy the ride while we’ve got it. He’s already equalled his point totals from last year, but in eight games instead of 27.
No doubt having linemates who can win faceoffs and also put physical pressure on the opposition helps him as well. Kassian looks like he’s actually earning his $3.2 million a year now.
Thanks to the struggles of Kailer Yamamoto, Kassian has been re-inserted back into the PP, on the second unit to be precise. He spends about 27 seconds a game on the PP, good enough for 11th on the team.
He’s not a regular on the PK and only spends about four seconds a game there.
Kassian’s never been much of a defender but he’s sitting at -1 so far this season, only 1 mark off the best of his career.
As you’d expect, Kassian is currently second on the team in hits with 31 – only Darnell Nurse is better. No blocked shots for him yet this season.
The last time we saw Kassian this good was when he led the team in scoring against San Jose in the playoffs in 2017. We’re starting to see glimpses of that guy again. At 6’3″ and 211 lbs, Kassian is certainly built for the playoffs.
We’ll see, but so far in the early going Kassian’s been great for the Oilers. Expect his offence to level off to an extent but I don’t see 20 points as out of the realm of possibility for him. He’s already 1/4 of the way there and we’re not even 10 games into the season yet.
Bottom line
Although it’s early in the season, it’s nice to see that from the looks of it the Oilers already have a legit third line, which is a necessary ingredient for success in the regular season and only becomes moreso in the playoffs. I don’t know about you but I can’t wait to see how this line will perform in the playoffs.