Canucks Army Year In Review: Emerson Etem

Etem, a typical bottom-six player, put up, well, bottom-six type numbers. In 14:10 of ice time a night (ranking eighth amongst Canucks forwards, he didn’t really blow anyone out of the water this year with his offensive output in either New York or Vancouver.  

There’s a lot going on here. Etem ranked last in amongst Canucks forwards in CA60 (Corsi Against per 60 minutes), which contributed heavily to his average-bad possession numbers. There’s not much else that stands out here other than his iCF – his actual individual shot attempts over the course of the season. His 126 didn’t stand out on the team, but stretched out to an 82-game season, he’d actually rank second on the team in total shots behind just Daniel Sedin. It’s not much, but at least he’s willing to shoot the puck.

A scoring chances for % of 2.81 percent relatively better than the rest of a mediocre team? WOW!

In all honesty, perhaps making up a bit for Etem’s poor possession numbers were the fact he seemed to drive scoring chances a little bit in the right direction when he was on the ice, and created 88 of them himself in his 39 games. Had he converted on them a bit more, that would’ve been nice, but hey, no one really found scoring to be the trendy thing to do in Vancouver this year. 

There’s an old piece of research from Eric Tulsky I’ve always been a fan of: that six goals equals about one NHL win, on average. So you could say Emerson Etem cost the Canucks about two points in the standings in his time in a Canucks uniform, but the rest of the team Jim Benning cost them a lot more.

As an RFA, Etem will likely find his way back in a similar role next season. He could have a breakout year of sorts if bumped up in the lineup and a few more of his scoring chances go in, but he’s also running out of time before he’s past the “getting used to the NHL” phase and entering his plateau years. Not a superstar, not an anchor. Emerson Etem, just kind of… there. 

Grade: C+

I’m not going to say Etem had an unbelievable season, because, well, he didn’t. He put up what could’ve been a 15-goal, 25-point season if the pace kept up over the full season, and did a few positive things, but ultimately was pretty average. He’ll likely never reach his full potential, and his acquisition didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but as he heads into RFA territory, he did OK in his time in Vancouver.

Keep on smiling, kid.