It’s been a few years since the Goose was last loose. So much so, that I wasn’t sure what my expectations were for him going into the season. After having back-to-back twenty-five plus goal seasons, Gustav Nyquist shifted to more of a playmaker, setting a career high in assists (36) in 2016-17. This year wasn’t like that at all. He rekindled his goal scoring ways (although not to the same extent) getting back into the twenty goal column. The difference this year? He was doing so at even-strength.

Eighteen of his twenty goals were scored at five-on-five, as opposed to only eleven out of twenty-seven in 2014-15. That’s kind of massive. Most of it can be attested to the fact that he’s shooting more. He lead all Detroit forwards in shots at even-strength with 176. The majority of which have come from around the net, instead of off the rush. The graph below also demonstrates his shot locations remain very consistent in front of the net:

Because of this, he was able to generate many scoring chances, leading the team in scoring-chances-for-percentage. Which is probably why it felt on so many occasions he was robbed right in front of the net. Surprisingly, despite the many times Gus found himself looking skywards, he produced very close to what was expected. Having an expected-goals-for of 16 at even-strength is pretty much on par with his 18 goals.

Being more of a threat from the soft areas allowed him to be one of Detroit’s better possession forwards. His 50.83% Corsi-for-percentage ranked 3rd on the team. A large part of his success came from playing on a line with Henrik Zetterberg for the majority of the year. In fact, out of total player combinations in terms of minutes, Nyquist and Zetterberg lead the team by a looooooot.

They played 1098 minutes together, with the next closest pairing being at 640. It’s safe to say Jeff Blashill liked the Swedish duo together. With the way Hank likes to spread the puck around instead of be a one man show, it’s not surprising Nyquist found his goal scoring touch again.

Not a bad year at all for Nyquist. Relative to his teammates, he was one of the Wings best players. While it’s disappointing in the sense that he had his lowest point totals in a full season in his career (had a career low in assists) he was still one of the more impactful players. Not a star by any stretch of the imagination, but he was more consistent this time around.