Patric Hornqvist still among league’s top shot volume players

Patric Hornqvist is in an interesting spot as a veteran with a hefty $5.3 million contract. Even though Hornqvist played very well on a line with Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel in the 2018 playoffs, in the last two years Hornqvist hasn’t played much with Crosby. Crosby+Hornqvist played together just 88 5v5 minutes this season, which considering there’s some power play overlap, isn’t much at all.

Hornqvist has morphed into a third line winger role, he didn’t play that much more with Evgeni Malkin either with just 126 even strength minutes this year. Still, getting to the net and then getting pucks to net at all opportunities and Hornqvist is among the best in the league there.

This year was a productive one for Hornqvist. Last season in 2018-19, a few concussions derailed him, and the Swedish winger only scored 11 5v5 goals in 69 games. At a big salary rate, and some injuries, the prognosis moving forward wasn’t totally great.

This season went well, Hornqvist tallied 13 goals in 52 games in the shortened year. A slight improvement, but considering there was 200 minutes less played and two more goals scored that’s a move in the good direction. Overall Hornqvist’s 17 goals in 52 games put him on pace for a 27 game season in a full 82-game season (which he wouldn’t have gotten to play due to injury).

Patric Hornqvist still has three more seasons on his contract to take him through the 2022-23 season. He still has a full no-trade clause for next season and turns 34 on New Years Day, which is believed to be about when next regular season is tentatively scheduled to begin.

As Hornqvist ages, his value will be determined on an annual basis. It wasn’t looking too promising this time last summer, but his 2019-20 season was a fairly modest bounce-back.