Colorado Avalanche Should Give Joey Hishon More Minutes

Joey Hishon is a talented hockey player.

The Colorado Avalanche used their 1st-round selection in 2010 to acquire the dynamic center/winger, who became known as Hishon the Magician in his days with the Owen Sound Attack.

Perhaps a young Joey was keen on performing magic tricks as a child growing up, and has always been known as Hishon the Magician, but I haven’t heard any stories of him making bunny rabbits disappear as a child yet.

What I am seeing, is Hishon often disappear onto the Avalanche bench. Too often for my liking.

Hishon has appeared in 7 games for the Avalanche, yet he is only averaging 7 minutes 39 seconds of ice time in those games. He is yet to break the 11 minute barrier for ice-time (something Marc-Andre Cliche has done in 10 straight games). I think it was a respectable approach to let Joey ease into the NHL game, and try and prevent him from getting overwhelmed.

That little adjustment period needs to be over. Hishon may not have recorded a point yet in his 7 games, but he has been close, and he is doing things on the ice that lead me to believe he has offense in him.

Small sample size disclaimer, but Hishon is in MacKinnonesque and Landeskogian territory in his possession numbers right now. He is generating a higher ratio of shots at the opponent net vs. shots at his own net (Corsi % 5-on-5) than Ryan O’Reilly, Alex Tanguay, Matt Duchene, and oh yeah… everybody on the Avalanche roster aside from Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog!

Let’s throw out a Hishon, Duchene, Iginla line for the remainder of the season. I want to see what this kid can really do, and for that to happen, Roy needs to take the training wheels off.

The other thing about Hishon is how smart he plays. As noted by Cheryl Bradley, he seems to think the game at a level comparable to the elite offensive players on the Avalanche, specifically, Matt Duchene.

Hishon is so strong away from the puck, that he hardly seems to be a candidate to be a liability on any line. A word that comes to mind when I watch him is scrappy, and he almost reminds me of Chris Drury in some ways. I just have a gut feeling that the offensive upside is in there, he just needs to be put in a situation to coax it out. That hasn’t happened yet.

Hishon is driving the play, and generating tons of shots while playing with possession anchor linemates such as Jordan Caron, Cody McLeod and the above mentioned Cliche. Hish has generated 13 shots on goal in his 7 games, which is roughly twice as many as Cliche has in his last 7 games. The kicker is, Cliche has had double the ice-time that Hishon has been given.

My proposition:

Let’s throw out a Hishon, Duchene, Iginla line for the remainder of the season. I want to see what this kid can really do, and for that to happen, Roy needs to take the training wheels off. Hishon has really worked on his defensive game, and now has the versatility to do very well in a checking line role.

I want to see what he can do playing with the elite offensive weapons the Avalanche have to offer. At this point, we pretty much know what Cliche, McLeod, etc. are capable of. I want to see what Joey can do. I want to see him put in a situation where he has an opportunity to shine to his full potential.

With a respectable amount of minutes each night (around 15), and some decent linemates, I think Hishon could really flourish. Avalanche fans keep complaining about finding a winger for Matt Duchene. I think they have a pretty good candidate staring them in the face.

Free Joey Hishon. When I watch the Avalanche down the stretch, I want to see some magic. Your move, Patrick.

Next: Joey Hishon Deserves His Chance With Avalanche

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