Why one of the BEST offensive players in the NHL is a 4TH LINER

Daniel Sprong has produced offense like one of the best players in the entire NHL over the past 2 seasons with the Seattle Kraken and the Detroit Red Wings. But for some reason, he’s consistently deployed as a 4th liner when it comes to his ice time. In this video, I break down why that is.

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Points per 60 is probably one of the most objectively telling stats when it comes to offensive ability in the NHL it’s the easiest way to measure how effective a player is at generating offense by normalizing for each player’s time on ice and unsurprisingly the list

Of players at the top of this stat over the past two years are probably who you would expect to be there and even more unsurprising is that Conor McDavid is the runaway leader when it comes to this stat putting up a ridiculous 4.9 points per 60 Minutes of ice time

The rest of the list is comprised of the cream of the crop of today’s NHL guys like Nikita kucherov Nathan McKinnon David pack Leon dry Sidle ilas Pon Austin Matthews cydney Crosby and kol Capri off and that’s just to name a few the rest of this list is just as star

Studded well except for one player who a lot of casual fans probably haven’t even heard of and that’s Daniel sprong sprong ranks 17th amongst all players in the NHL over the past two seasons when it comes to points per 60 putting up a ridiculous 3.4 points per 60 Minutes of

Ice time that makes him a more efficient offensive player than guys like cydney Crosby Braden Point kill capriso Alexander barov Ma zabad and Jack eel to name a few and that’s what makes sprong so interesting to me despite being more efficient offensively than some of the best players in the league he’s

Consistently used very sparingly both in Seattle last year and with Detroit so far this year in Seattle last season for example spra ranked 11th amongst forwards for average time on ice and if you’re a hockey fan you know that there’s typically only 12 forwards that play every game so he typically played

The second fewest minutes across all forwards on most nights but his offensive impact during the minutes he did play was the highest across the entire roster averaging 3.7 points per 60 minutes which is significantly higher than any other forward and the same is true for his stint in Detroit so far

This year sprong once again ranks 11th amongst Redwing forwards for average time on ice but his offensive impact is second only to the resurging Patrick Kane so what’s going on why does sprong seem to consistently play a bottom six role on teams that he plays on while being one of the most efficient

Offensive players in the entire league let’s talk about the good first there’s not a lot of players in the NHL that offer what sprong does the combination of his elite shot excellent skating ability I and above average playmaking and vision is what helps him create offense as efficiently as he does his

Shot in particular is amongst the best in the entire league according to money Puck’s expected goal model sprong ranks 11th in the entire league when it comes to his shooting Talent above average this stat tries to quantify a player’s ability to score more goals than an average player given the same scoring

Opportunities and if you watch this guy play The lethality of his shot is pretty obvious Schulz swings itong scores wiberg darts one timer bang sprung is sprung on the weak side 450 geeki a chance sprong scores Daniel sprung on the down and out more emotionally there’s a shot on and he [Applause]

Scores Daniel strong over the line he’ll do off shoot one he scores pick up the phone it’s answer time Daniel strong escape the check played it the fish back for strong SC what a Play What a play by fer to start with and then when you see

Some of those highlights it’s tough to understand how he hasn’t been able to consistently play top six or even middle six minutes on any of his teams in the past his offensive skill set is so attractive to be fair he does get some opportunities to step into a bigger role

When there’s injuries for example when Patrick Kane was out due to injury earlier this year sprong was given the opportunity to play in a top six role with Alex De Brit and JT Comer and he also does get to play on the power play as well but he’s seemingly never given a

Chance to play in a bigger role on an extended basis look at this timeline of sprongs time on Ice per game since last season the Blue Line represents his time with the Kraken and the red line represents his time so far with the Red Wings his ice time varies considerably

From game to game fluctuating anywhere from 10 minutes A Night to 15 minutes a night and this really just appears to be a byproduct of any injuries amongst the top nine forwards or if his team is in dire need of offense because the biggest hole in sprong game is his lack of

Defensive intensity and inability to make defensive reads on a consistent basis like on this play against the Stars where sprong was given an opportunity to play in a top six role with de Brink kit and comer while Patrick Kane was injured the play starts with a rebound off a point shot which

Pops loose to sprongs Wing this was a bouncing Puck and by all means could have resulted in a change in possession if sprong was able to use his body to engage Lindell along the boards but he instead halfhazard Le swipes at the puck and fails to make the defensive play

Resulting in the puck staying deep in the Red Wing Zone a few seconds later he gets another chance to make a play on the puck but he yet again makes the wrong decision by trying to reverse the puck instead of making the safer play along the boards this again results in

The Stars maintaining possession and keeping the wings hemmed in the Stars Then freely whip the puck around against an exhausted Wings team eventually resulting in a high danger opportunity for Wyatt Johnston in the slot the puck once again pops loose to a wide openen Essa Lindell who makes no mistake and

Buries this puck in the back of the net if you watch sprong closely on this play he once again drifts off away from his check until he realizes how open Lindell is but it’s too little too late by the time he realizes and then again on this play against the Colorado Avalanche

After a breakdown in the defensive zone for the wings the puck pops loose to spraw along the boards with essentially zero pressure on him but instead of making the safe play sprong tries to make a quick move and ends up losing the handle on the puck and turns it over in

The neutral zone instead and to make things worse his intensity after turning the puck over doesn’t Inspire any confidence either he casually tries to kick at the pass instead of taking the body or using his stick or skating back to get into a defensive position and just seconds later Nathan McKinnon would

Do Nathan McKinnon things to draw First Blood chances here’s ramp back in for McKinnon and he scores and then finally against the Oilers sprong gets caught after a sloppy line change against probably the best fiveman unit in the entire NHL in McDavid nent Hopkins Heyman echome and buard sprong yet again

Gets caught Puck watching and fails to see that buard has skated into the wide open slot and this is very very much why sprong hasn’t seen his role grow significantly while with the Kraken or with the wings for that to happen the coach has to be able to trust his

Defensive ability against the top lines of the opposing team these types of defensive Zone issues can be somewhat massed when he’s matched up against the opposing team’s fourth line who have limited offensive abilities in comparison to the top six or if he’s on the power play and that basically sums

Up exactly how he’s been utilized throughout the last two seasons by two different coaches as an offensive mind Ed fourth liner with some power play time due to his Elite offensive skills and to be honest I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that that’s a valuable player for any team to have

Considering his offensive skill set is likely of someone who would Garner a much higher salary if he wasn’t so ineffective in the defensive Zone he basically gives you an elite offensive option at a fraction of the cost of one but you have to deploy him in a manner

To maximize his strengths and to minimize his weaknesses I hope you enjoyed this breakdown thanks for watching