Colorado Avalanche: Evaluation and Areas of Improvement for Carl Soderberg

While Colorado Avalanche center had a very good year, as the old adage goes, until you win the Stanley Cup, there’s always room for improvement.

Colorado Avalanche center Carl Soderberg had a good year. It wasn’t a career year — that came in 2015-16 when he recorded 51 points. However, Soderberg more than doubled his points from last year.

So much of Soderberg’s success came from his finding chemistry on the third line with Matthew Nieto and Blake Comeau. He finds continued success in the fact that, as a 6-foot-3, 210-pound player he doesn’t break easily. He missed only five games last season — two due to illness and three for the birth of his child (which happened while he was supposed to be in Sweden).

So, let’s evaluate how old Carl’s season went and identify some areas for improvement.

Evaluation of Carl Soderberg’s 2017-18 Season

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Goals: 16
Assists: 21
Shots: 150
Shooting percentage: 10.7%
Faceoff percentage: 45.3%
Takeaway vs. giveaway ratio: 41:14
CF%: 46.1%
CF% Rel: -2.1

The first thing I’d like to talk about is Carl Soderberg’s responsible play. That giveaway to takeaway ratio is inspiring — he took the puck away almost three times as many times as he gave it away. On a team that sometimes struggles with possession, that is a good model to have.

Now faceoff percentage… that’s another story. The Colorado Avalanche struggles with faceoffs this season. Their wings recorded better faceoffs percentages than any center. Faceoffs may not be as important as other metrics, but they still count.

I was pleasantly surprised by Carl Soderberg’s shots and shooting percentage, though. He was #7 on the team if you take out two players who played very few games and, you know, Matt Duchene. His 150 shots were good for #6 on the team, which really isn’t shabby at all.

Maybe all that accurate shooting helped Soderberg match his career best in goals with 16.

Other stats for Carl were his CorsiFor of 46.1% and relative Corsi of -2.1, neither of which is overly impressive. That put him at #20 on the list of all Avs who suited up this season.

Areas of Improvement for Carl Soderberg

Carl Soderberg is the old man of the team — dare I say the dad of the team by virtue of his age. However, thanks to his age and overall responsible temperament, he’s meant to be a mentor to the team. Hopefully he keeps up his responsible play to serve as a role model for the youth movement.

Now, just like with every other Colorado Avalanche center, I definitely would like to see Soderberg’s faceoff percentage go up. Puck possession is just so imperative in today’s NHL, and it all starts with the faceoff. That would definitely help Soderberg with his possession stats as well.

The 2018-19 season is going to be an important one for old Carl. He’s in the penultimate year of his lucrative, five-year contract with an annual vap hit of $4.75 million.

Last season, during the Dreadful Lost Year, Soderberg recorded only 14 points is 80 games. The Colorado Avalanche may have wanted to buy him out, but three years is a lot. This year’s numbers made Carl’s stock rise again. But another dreadful season… well, one year would be a lot easier to buy out, especially since the Avs have plenty of cap space and a commitment to the youth movement.

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So, whether Soderberg plays one or two more years with Colorado — and the NHL in general, you have to think — depends on how he plays in the upcoming season. Hopefully he can have continued success on the checking line.