Trevor Daley: A Year in Review
By Jordan Dix
Throughout the offseason, Blackout Dallas will be doing season reviews on individual players and how their season played out. So far we have done recaps of Jamie Benn’s season and his brother Jordie Benn’s season. Next up is Trevor Daley and the most productive season of his career.
Trevor Daley’s Career Season…Offensively
The season began and the Dallas Stars had a dream powerplay unit in place. It featured Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, Jason Spezza, Ales Hemsky and Trevor Daley. While that group didn’t stick together for most of the season, Daley reaped all of the rewards while it was around. Sliding down from his point position, Daley scored a tremendous number of early season goals from the left circle on the powerplay. Only Art Ross champion Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin had more powerplay goals for the Stars than Trevor Daley. Only four defensemen in the NHL scored more goals than Daley and two have them have had extended stints at forward in their careers (Dustin Byfuglien and Brent Burns). All of this led to Trevor Daley setting career highs in goals, assists and points despite missing 14 games with a knee injury. Combined with the stretch run last season, Trevor Daley looked like a player who may have been playing the best hockey of his career. Unfortunately, the offensive success did not translate to the defensive side of the game.
Defensive Struggles
Corsi has become a valuable statistic in the hockey community and it is incredibly telling when looking at Trevor Daley. Despite having a career offensive season, in part due to the early success of the powerplay, he was abysmal at even strength play. Of players who played at least 400 minutes at even strength this season, nobody on the Dallas Stars finished with a lower corsi-for-% than Trevor Daley did at a 45.94. Perhaps an even more indicative stat of future performance is scoring-chances-for %, which is calculated by looking at how many scoring chances a team had for and against them while a particular player was on the ice. When game 82 was in the books, only Jamie Oleksiak had a lower scoring-chances-for % than Trevor Daley. Only three players were below 50% in that metric and two of them (Jamie Oleksiak and Erik Cole) didn’t finish the season in Dallas. All of this poor possession also came with Daley having the third-highest offensive-zone-start % among defensemen, with only Jyrki Jokipakka and Jamie Oleksiak having more sheltered minutes at even strength.
As Jim Nill noted in his exit interview, the Stars really improved their play and went 30-19-5 from December 13th on. This included a better performance by practically everyone in victory green down the stretch. I say practically everyone because Trevor Daley continued to struggle despite the team around him playing better in the second half. Of players who logged at least 200 minutes at even strength past December 13th, Trevor Daley was dead last on the Stars at a 47.26 corsi-for %. In fact, only one other player (Jyrki Jokipakka) finished under 50% in that category past December 13th. You could probably argue that Jokipakka was only there because he was paired with Trevor Daley on a lot of nights. Jokipakka posted a 54.90 corsi-for % during the stretch in March while Daley was out with a knee injury and nobody on the Dallas team finished that stretch under 50 in corsi-for %.
Scoring chances tell the same story when looking at the four-month run between December and April. Trevor Daley managed a 48.65 scoring-chances-for % while the rest of the team finished above 50% at even strength. With all of this happening, Daley saw an increasing amount of his starts in the offensive zone. Only Jyrki Jokipakka and a recovering Patrik Nemeth had a higher offensive-zone-start % in that time frame in terms of defensemen. Ultimately, Trevor Daley was a liability at even strength this season and did not seem to pick up his play like the rest of the Stars down the stretch.
Final Thoughts on Trevor Daley
The Dallas Stars already have a crowded blue line and that is before Jim Nill has had the opportunity to make additions in the offseason. I believe at least one Stars defenseman is on their way out and it very well could be Trevor Daley. Due to his fantastic offensive production and despite his struggles defensively, his value will likely not be higher than it is now. The Stars could decide to sell him for future assets or include him in a package for a better defenseman heading into the season. One suggestion that I have heard often is move him to a wing position on one of the top-two lines. This is pretty unrealistic in my eyes, as you generally don’t see somebody switch positions this late in a career. Don’t get me wrong, it is very intriguing to think about Daley and his speed on a top-line and there is no question he could produce. However it does seem a little unrealistic and I doubt that is what the Stars decide to do with him at this stage of his career. If he is in Dallas next season, the coaching staff will certainly be monitoring him closely throughout the season.