Underrated NHL Star Kyle Connor May Go From Jets' 'Hidden Secret' To Group USA Standout

The final time the NHLPA requested its gamers for the title of the NHL’s most underrated player, throughout the 2022-23 season, Aleksander Barkov ran away with the class. He captured almost 23 p.c of the vote, whereas nobody else bought to 5 p.c.

What a distinction two years makes. Barkov is now a Stanley Cup champion with back-to-back appearances within the last. Earlier than that, the argument was that he was hidden away, taking part in on a Florida Panthers workforce that hardly ever noticed the nationwide highlight.

The identical might be mentioned for gamers on Canada’s small-market Winnipeg Jets. They do not get a lot airtime on U.S. nationwide broadcasts on ESPN and TNT and might even fly beneath the radar of their homeland — regardless of being the nation’s greatest regular-season workforce in 2023-24 and getting off to a traditionally nice 14-1-0 begin this yr.

Related: The Winnipeg Jets Are Off To The Best Start Ever, But Will It Actually Matter?

There’s an argument to be made that to be really underrated, a participant wouldn’t even get votes from his friends. And though he was on his solution to his fifth 30-goal season in his seven-year profession in 2022-23, Kyle Connor of the Winnipeg Jets was not talked about within the prime six.

After Connor’s three-point evening towards the Detroit Red Wings on Oct. 30, first-year Jets coach Scott Arniel had excessive reward.

“He’s an elite participant on this league,” Arniel told the media. “We wish to preserve him as our little hidden secret, however I don’t assume that’s going to occur anymore.”

This yr, Connor has gotten some consideration for his 9 targets and 19 factors, that are each tied for the Jets workforce lead. He earned the NHL’s second star honors for October due to his season-opening level streak, which reached 12 video games.

In opposition to Detroit on Oct. 30, Connor tallied his third game-winning purpose of the yr and his five hundredth profession level in simply his 541st NHL recreation. That made him the second-fastest participant in Jets/Atlanta Thrashers historical past to get to that milestone, behind solely Ilya Kovalchuk (500 video games).

Connor has been held off the scoresheet for Winnipeg’s final three video games. However slightly regression is comprehensible. So long as the workforce is profitable, it’s not an issue.

Have a look at Connor’s NHL Edge stats for the 2024-25 season, and also you’ll see that his skating numbers are robust in distance and velocity bursts. Whereas he isn’t the toughest shooter within the NHL, he doesn’t should be within the good spot to beat a goalie.

Solely two of his 9 targets this season have come from the high-danger space proper in entrance of the online. 5 had been scored from what NHL Edge calls mid-range distances, and Connor has scored twice on 4 pictures from close to the left boards — an space that the monitoring software program treats as a non-scoring zone.

Chosen seventeenth general by the Jets from the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms in 2015, the native of Shelby Township, Mich., is now the sixth member of his esteemed draft class to crack 500 factors. His 252 targets rank him fourth in that group, behind solely Connor McDavid, Mikko Rantanen and Sebastian Aho.

Connor spent one season on the College of Michigan earlier than turning professional. Regardless that he led all rookies with 31 targets in his official rookie season in 2017-18, he didn’t get a single first-place vote for the Calder Trophy. He completed fourth general within the voting behind Mat Barzal, Brock Boeser and Clayton Keller.

From Day 1, Connor has been a mannequin of consistency, eclipsing 30 targets yearly apart from the 56-game 2020-21 season, when his 26 targets would have projected to 38 over an 82-game marketing campaign.

His greatest yr was his 47-goal, 93-point effort in 2021-22. However the season was a large number: Paul Maurice resigned in December of 2021, and the Jets missed the playoffs by eight factors.

Even with out counting this yr’s scorching begin, Connor’s numbers since the fall of 2019 are unbelievable. His 132 even-strength targets are fourth-best within the league, behind solely Matthews, Pastrnak and McDavid. His 176 whole targets and 1,216 pictures each rank him eighth general. And he had 39 game-winning targets throughout these 5 seasons, which ranked sixth.

Connor needs to be a shoo-in for Group USA at subsequent February’s 4 Nations Face-Off. However whereas his Jets teammate Connor Hellebuyck seems to be to have the within monitor on beginning goaltending duties, the left winger has been a little bit of an afterthought for prognosticators of the People’ admittedly stacked ahead corps.

U.S. GM Invoice Guerin has talked about attempting to fill roles in his lineup quite than prioritizing familiarity and established pairs. However Connor’s resume is actually spectacular sufficient to earn one among eight spots on the wings.

If the People stay as much as their early billing as favorites for the match, Connor might garner extra consideration in 10 days than he’s had in his complete NHL profession up to now — particularly because the hype builds towards the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.

Like Barkov earlier than him, the stage is about for Connor to erase that ‘underrated’ tag and step out of his identification because the Jets’ ‘hidden secret.’ Three months from now, he might begin being acknowledged and appreciated as one of many NHL’s most enjoyable scoring stars.

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Related: Should Red Wings Star Patrick Kane Be On Team USA At The 4 Nations Face-Off?