5 Jason Pominville Facts That Won't Change Your Mind About Him

If you're a Wild fan online, you can't click a hyperlink or scroll through your Twitter feed without seeing someone's newest #HOTTAKE on Jason Pominville, the 2015-16 front-runner for Official Team Whipping Boy*

Whatever those opinions are, it's unlikely that a collection of just five facts about him will change anyone's mind at all. I'll still fight the good fight, nonetheless. Here are five facts that won't change your mind whatsoever about Jason Pominville, but show that maybe all this criticism is a bit overblown.

11

1. Zucker- 18
2. Niederreiter- 16
3. Koivu- 15
4. Suter- 13
5. Parise- 12

In terms of missing the net, Pominville doesn't crack the Wild's Top-5.

24.7

From the 06-07 season to 12-13, Pominville played 7 years, accumulating an average of 24.7 goals. SincePominville is on the wrong side of 30, it's inevitable that he will suffer some decline. Let's take a look at his goals per (full) season from his Age-31 year on.

It's an average of 24. Taken separately, there's been a huge decline from his 30-goal season in 13-14 to his 18-goal effort in 14-15. But taken as a sample of two seasons, it's 24 goals per year- right in line with his career average.

69.8%

Sure, they start in the offensive zone a lot, but still, scoring 69.8% of the goals shows that this is a unit that clearly works well together. There has been talk about moving Coyle up to the Parise line, but it appears that doing so would be messing with what has been the Wild's most productive line for the last 2 seasons..

209

Pominville is on pace to get 209 shots on goal this year- a respectable number, but a sizeable drop-off from the 252 shots he fired last season. Assuming that his pace will not improve or decrease, Pominville has 181 shots left to take this season. If Pominville can shake off his slump and shoot at his career average 11.1% (meaning 9.6% for the entire year), he'll score 20 goals. Certainly not the 30-goal season that inspired his extension, but after this scoring drought, you'd probably take a return to 20-goal territory.

3.24

OK, OK, most of these show Pominville in a positive light. But I'm not an unreasonable man, and I certainly don't think Pominville should be immune to every criticism thrown his way. I think the best, most reasonable criticism is his performance and role on the Power Play. Pominville has been the net-front guy on the first Power Play unit all season, and while the Power Play has been clicking, Pominville has had relatively little to do with it. Pominville has gotten 3 points so far with the man advantage, but he's not been a threat to shoot the puck at all, registering a team-low 3.24 Shots/60.

It's a small sample size, but it's enough for me to think that there's a better fit for both the #1 Unit Net-Front player and Pominville. I'd flip-flop Vanek and Pominville without thinking twice, using Vanek to get deflections in front of the net, and Pominville on the half-wall to set-up and fire one-timers.

See! I'm reasonable after all!

*In case you're interested, here are the five past recipients of the Martin Skoula Wild Whipping Boy of the Year Award:

2013-14: Dany Heatley