Jamie Benn: 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. These will be published in the coming weeks in alphabetical order according to the player’s last name. First up is the captain of the team, Jamie Benn.
Scoring Champion
To start off with Jamie Benn, we have to mention his incredible run to the top of the NHL scoring lead and how amazing of a story it is. Since the All-Star break, nobody has been as good offensively as Benn. He put up 47 points after the All-Star break, 6 more than second-place John Tavares. Only the Sedins and Nicklas Backstrom had more assists than Benn since the break, and only Alex Ovechkin scored more goals. Benn scored 7 points in the final two games, including two points in the final two minutes of the season finale to win the Art Ross trophy for the NHL’s leading scorer. If Tyler Seguin managed to stay healthy, it is very realistic that he and Benn could have been #1 and #2 in NHL scoring. Benn is the first Dallas Star to ever win the Art Ross and let’s hope there are more to come.
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Advanced Stats
Of players that played at least 500 minutes for the Stars this season, Jamie Benn ranked second on the team in even strength (ES) corsi-for % at 54.52. Going deeper, Benn also ranked second among forwards on the team in ES scoring-chance-for percentage at 55.84, only the surprising Colton Sceviour posted a better percentage than that. This tells us that not only are the Stars taking more shots than they are giving up with Benn on the ice, but the higher-quality chances are an advantage for the Stars as well. For individual players, the scoring-chances-for metric tends to be a more accurate predictor of future performance. Just in case you were wondering, only two players on the final roster finished the season with more scoring chances against than for at even strength and they were Travis Moen and Trevor Daley.
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Jamie Benn had a higher shooting percentage than he has ever had in his career this season (13.89% this year as opposed to 12.27% last year) but because he is presumably entering his prime there is no reason to think that it is not going to be sustainable. His points-per-60 minutes finished at 3.15, better than everyone on the team not named Tyler Seguin. Benn also posted a 3.79 points-per-60 after the All-Star break which was better than anyone in the NHL. I’m not sure if he felt upset about not getting on that All-Star team but there wasn’t a better forward in the league after the break.
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Battling Through the Pain
After the season was over the exit-interviews were taking place, Jim Nill revealed that Jamie Benn had been playing with a hip injury for a majority of the season and that it would require surgery in the offseason. Benn refused to acknowledge it throughout the season and even in his own exit-interview, not wanting to make excuses. Here is an excellent write-up by our own Josh Clark, which highlights the injury and has some incredible quotes from Nill and Benn. Jamie Benn was able to play through it every game on his way to becoming the NHL scoring champion. He did not miss a game this season and now it is easy to see why this team respects him so much as a captain and as a player.
Final Thoughts on Jamie Benn
Jamie Benn was the team MVP this season and it really isn’t close. He battled his way to the top of the NHL in scoring and he did so with a rather significant injury. He led the team down the stretch to compete for a playoff berth and even though they fell short, the run was pretty magical. He put the team on his back after Tyler Seguin went down with an injury and he continued to do so even after Seguin returned. And maybe the most impressive part of this season for Benn is that we most likely haven’t even seen him at his best yet. At just 25 years of age, he should continue to grow and get better and better in the seasons to come. He has already proven himself as a captain and Stars fans couldn’t ask for a better one. Despite missing the playoffs, the future is bright for Jamie Benn and the Stars.