The Stats:
Regular Season
Playoffs
The Charts:
The Key Stat: Fehervary has never come off as a high offensive player but he led all rookie defensemen in goals this season in all strengths with 8 and in 5v5 with 6. He has a booming shot and the speed to jump up into the play so maybe it shouldn’t be too surprising.
The Good: Before Fehervary was put into COVID protocol on December 27th, he was having a strong start to the season. In 31 games he had 53.15CF%, 54.19xGF%, 52.54SCF%, 53.43HDCF%. You can see, even as such a young player going against top player, he was reading plays well, making smart decisions, using his body to separate players from the puck, and use his speed to move the puck up the ice. It was very promising to see from a rookie defensemen playing in the big show.
The Bad: Well, after he came out of COVID protocol he struggled immensely. In the final 48 game he posted 47.08CF%, 43.89xGF%, 45.71SCF%, 46.59HDCF%. That’s not pretty at all and broken down better here from JP. We’ve seen multiple times around the league that once a player came back from having COVID they struggled (Lars Eller for example). It also probably wasn’t the best to keep Fehervary on that top pair after he was struggling, so those numbers should partly fall on head coach Peter Laviolette. It probably surprised everyone Martin was used on the top pair to start the season, let alone the back half of the season when he wasn’t playing well.
The Video:
The Discussion: Were Fehervary’s struggles to end the season who he was? Or is he who we saw at the beginning of the season? Somewhere in between? Was it due to not fully recovering from COVID? Was it maybe just taking on the grind that is playing in the NHL wore on him and his new legs? And finally, what would it take for you to give Fehervary a 10 next season?
The Vote: Rate Martin Fehervary below on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best) based on his performance relative to his potential and your expectations for the season – if he had the best year you could have imagined him having, give him a 10; if he more or less played as you expected he would, give him a 5 or a 6; if he had the worst year you could have imagined him having, give him a 1.