Andreas “Double-A” Athanasiou has had his up and downs this season, having amazing Datsyuk-like breakaway goals to being benched because he needs to earn his ice time. The benching of Athanasiou was unfair as the team as a whole wasn’t great. If the defensive liability or lack of one-on-one puck battles were a concern, nearly every player should have been benched at one time or another. The fact that Athanasiou is in his sophomore year and gets paid basically nothing against the cap allows Blashill the luxury of benching him when he feels he hasn’t been playing up to his standards. A bright spot in this season was the amazing goals Athanasiou would score on a breakaway. Blashill was quoted saying, “It’s a big goal kind of out of nothing. The one thing Double-A has is he’s got the ability to break people down and score goals on his own. Obviously, he took it end to end and scored a goal on his own. It’s hard to score goals in this league and when you get somebody that can self-create and do it on his own, it’s a big thing.”

Athanasiou’s hero chart shows that he wasn’t given much ice time, keeping him to 4th line minutes and his stats reflect this. The above stats don’t line up with his level of play and this could be attributed to the overall play of the team or the linemates he was paired with, which towards the end of the season, consisted of Larkin and Abdelkader (who didn’t have great seasons themselves). I don’t think this year’s numbers should have great influence over his place on the team next year as he has a high ceiling and with the right linemates he could be a great player who contributes to the team’s success.

(Stats courtesy of NHL.com)

Athanasiou numbers are pretty on par with last year with the allowance of the additional games. He played twice as many games as last season and kept up his point average. The only stats that have changed are the plus/minus and for Red Wings players that played more than 50 games and had a plus rating, was 4 out of 17. His penalty minutes also increased and he had two of his three career fights this year.

(Stats courtesy of puckalytics.com)

Only 3 players on the Red Wings had above CF% of 50 which is not surprising considering the lackluster season the Wings had. Athanasiou’s number show that he was on the ice for more scoring chances by the opposing team than the Red Wings and this is an issue that most players had this season.

(Stats courtesy of puckalytics.com)

Blashill has stated that Athanasiou has to earn his ice time and this year he only averaged 11 minutes per game. Looking at his GF vs GA there is nothing glaringly obvious as to why he should have to work for his ice time. The one goal differential between GF & GA shows that he is both effective offensively and defensively.

I believe that Athanasiou will improve given the ice time and the right linemates. His ability to find goal opportunities where others would not is a great asset to the Red Wings and should be utilized and commended. I hope that Athanasiou is protected in the expansion draft, if not Las Vegas would be stupid not to pick him as he would be an asset to any team and the loss to the Red Wings for nothing will cause mutiny amongst the fans.

I feel like Athanasiou was held to a different standard and that Blashill didn’t know what to do with him. He was benched because he wasn’t doing well with one-on-one battles but in another breath, he would commend his scoring ability: “He was excellent, excellent in the first, excellent in the third, I thought in the second maybe didn’t skate quite as well but he was excellent in the first, excellent in the third,” Blashill said. “When he’s that determined, he’s got big-time talent. You guys know it, I know it. As I said to him today, ultimately we’re a better team when Double-A’s going at a high level and he was going at a high-level tonight. So now the challenge for every player is to follow that up again Saturday against San Jose.”