Red Wings Year In Review: Tomas Jurco

In a down year, it is always tough to pinpoint the exact moments where it all went wrong. Such was the year for Tomas Jurco. After battling adversity as a depth winger, he may be given more of an opportunity starting as soon as next season. Does he deserve it? Can he be the player they want him to be?

As the Hero Chart indicates, his rate stats are pretty good overall. He is at least worthy of a third line role with the team. His time was spent with very few skill players this past year. He is a reliable defensive player and may not be considered as such due to his build and style of play. He has an uphill battle getting meaningful playing time next year.

As you can see, he has accomplished all he can in the minor leagues. Sending him down to Grand Rapids won’t do him much good. If he isn’t going to be given the right opportunity another team is going to pick him up whether it be a trade or waivers and he won’t get anywhere near his value. His point total was way down this year but if he continues with similar underlying numbers, he will be just fine.  

 All data courtesy of Corsica.Hockey and at even strength unless otherwise noted

Considering the line mates given to him, this isn’t too bad. Anyone with less than ten minutes of even strength ice time is never going to make too much of an impact. He will need to find a way to work his way up in the lineup to finally show his potential. 

The GF% is crazy, crazy low but that doesn’t mean much given the sample size. Only 25 goals total on the year isn’t a lot to take from any of this. When looking at his PDO and his xGF% both explicitly state that he was a victim of bad luck and should have a much better output come next year.

The problem with saying that Jurco will improve next year is that he will need a sufficient amount of ice time to do so and it doesn’t look like he will get it. If he does, I wouldn’t be surprised if he puts out a 20-30 point output next year. I anticipate that he will likely get traded this offseason, only because he seems to be the odd man out and doesn’t have the hype of other players.

Jurco is one of the more fascinating players on the team and seems to be an enigma to the Red Wings front office. No matter where he plays, whether it be the AHL or the World Championships, he seems to perform. Yet it doesn’t seem to happen with the Red Wings. This looks to be more indicative of a team problem then a player problem. It will be tough to remedy it.

His underlying numbers were fine and his scoring output was subpar. He didn’t bring the team down in any way and was mostly a depth player for them down the stretch. An average grade of a C seems to fit him just fine.