Season in Review: Brandon Sutter

Brandon Sutter and his season can be described as....interesting? Or maybe it depends on how you view the 3rd line center and his contract. Regardless, here's a review of it.

By Mike Darnay@MikeDarnay May 25, 2015, 8:00am EDT

Age: 26 (February 14, 1989)

Contract Status: Under contract for the 2015/16 season followed by UFA on July 1, 2016 - AAV $3.3M

2014-15 Stats

GP	TOI/GP	Goals	Assists	Points
80	12.62 minutes 5v5	21	12	33

Corsi For %	Corsi Rel %	Quality of Comp. (TOI%)	Zone Start %	PDO
49.48%	-4.66%	50.04	-10.02	100.21

Penguins 2014-15 Forwards

Most frequent forward linemates

Linemates	Goals For%	Corsi For%	Total 5v5 time (1017:20 for Sutter)
Steve Downie	49.90%	49.6%	379:58
Nick Spaling	48.77%	49.9%	366:36
Beau Bennett	58.7%	50.6%	313:10

Brandon Sutter and his statistical analysis is a breeding ground for getting people fired up, worked up, getting the takes heated up, however you would like to say it. He is not a good possession player using all of the advanced metrics. He is a softish player, who rarely is seen winning a puck battle or a play for 50/50 puck. That said, 21 goals are 21 goals and for a team that struggled to score them down the stretch, I get the feeling that the Penguins are happy with that kind of production.

Bad Corsi, Good Shooter, Healthy Player

In a season where the Penguins were decimated by injuries, Brandon Sutter was one of the consistent solids. He only missed two games, and had a pretty good season. The Penguins fixing their depth problem a little bit, giving him some better line mates than Tanner Glass and Joe Vitale helped a bit. His frame and style of play aren't going to change, and that might be okay, as long as he can repeatedly put 20+ pucks in the back of the net.

The Good

21 goals speak for themselves. It's funny how many of these goals are scored off of the rush, especially from his sweet spot along the wing, outside the face-off circle. I don't know how he continually does it.

The Bad

What would be nice to see would be if Sutter could start scoring from the dirty areas, a la Patric Hornqvist, but I don't think it's realistic to expect that aspect of Sutter's game to change.

GIF of the Year

Really though, pick any of Sutter's goals off of the rush. Or his game that got the Penguins into the playoffs against the lowly and pathetic Buffalo Sabres in Game #82

Preseason expectations

It depends on who you asked. Some people wanted a 60% Corsi season from Brandon Sutter, wanting him to be Jordan Staal. Others would've been happy for a 20-goal season from the Penguins 3rd line center.

Verdict

Depending on said expectations and how realistic they were, maybe you think he met them, maybe he didn't.

Feel free to vote in the poll below to grade Brandon Sutter's season on a scale from 1 to 10. Vote based on your expectations for him coming into the season -- i.e. 1 being "he was incredibly disappointing and I want him out now", 10 being "he was outstanding even beyond my craziest expectations".