Colorado Avalanche: Evaluation and Areas of Improvement for Alexander Kerfoot

Colorado Avalanche forward Alexander Kerfoot had a good rookie season — he’s to hoping he can match or exceed his achievements in his sophomore season.

Colorado Avalanche forward Alexander Kerfoot had a much better rookie season than I anticipated. He was fifth on the entire team for scoring and led all the rookies.

This was a young man whom some pundits scouted to have to spend time in the AHL, someone who wasn’t even expected to make an impact on an NHL team. Yet he became one of the most consistent players on the team. He never saw a ton of play time, average just over 12 minutes a game, though he spent some time on the second power play unit.

The sophomore season is going to be an important one for Kerfoot. He signed with Colorado as a college-graduate unrestricted free agent. Because of his age at the time, 23, the Avalanche signed him to a two-year deal with an AAV of $1,137,500. However, that makes the 2018-19 season a contract year.

So, let’s look at how our Harvard grad did last season and offer some areas of improvement for next year.

Evaluation of Alexander Kerfoot’s 2017-18 Season

Goals: 19
Assists: 24
Shots: 81
Shooting percentage: 23.5%
Faceoff percentage: 47.9%
Takeaway vs. giveaway ratio: 30:24
CF%: 48.2%
CF% Rel: 1.3.

Probably the first stat that most people talk about when it comes to Alexander Kerfoot is his shooting percentage. He doesn’t shoot enough. He played 79 games last season and took just 81 shots — that’s just 1.02 shots per game. Now his shot attempts were 136, which is a little better, but that’s still not enough.

Kerfoot is known for being a pass-first guy. Of course, when he does take the shot, he’s got a great shooting percentage. That 23.5% is probably not sustainable, but if he even cuts that in half, it’s still good accuracy.

His CorsiFor% isn’t fantastic, but that 48.2% puts him at the upper middle for the Avalanche. That Corsi For Relative bumps him up even higher.

What I like is that takeaway to giveaway ratio. Kerfoot is not a big guy — just 5-foot-10, 152 pounds. He’s playing smart with the puck if he’s taking it away more often than he’s giving it away.

Areas of Improvement for Alexander Kerfoot

I think the Colorado Avalanche are going to be watching Kerfoot at training camp to see if he has the same mettle as last season. Those preseason games can be all-important for Harvard. Last year, he found chemistry with Nail Yakupov and Matt Duchene. And while that didn’t pan out, Alexander himself did.

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In other words, he’s going to want to show some of his best sauce in the preseason.

Naturally, I want to see him take more shots. Also, just like every Avalanche center, he needs to work on faceoff wins. It’s just so much easier to control the play when you have the puck. And that starts with the faceoffs.

Last year, the Colorado Avalanche tried him on a line with his fellow rookies (and roommates, incidentally). Stats-wise, the experiement didn’t go as badly as some pundits thought — he was at a 47.3% CorsiFor with Tyson Jost and JT Compher as his linemates. He played better with Colin Wilson and/or Sven Andrighetto.

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I hope Kerfoot doesn’t have a sophomore slump. I’m hoping scouts underestimated him because of his size. Plus, one of his gifts is his ice vision — maybe Alexander finally has the right talent to follow his line of thinking. Hopefully he finds good chemistry on a line next season.

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