Not a problem at all, I get up in the morning to dunk on Kaapo Kakko.
Line | Year | Minutes | xGF% | Actual Goals |
20-93-24 | 22-23 | 229 | 59.46 | 10 |
20-93-24 | 23-24 | 222 | 51.74 | 5 |
20-93-17 | 23-24 | 288 | 46.87 | 17 |
Just as you thought, despite the analytics saying the opposite, they scored more with Wheeler in one season than Kakko in two seasons.
I respect the analytics. I think it's important to have guys on your team that can generate zone time and xG.
I'm also at a point where I feel you have to acknowledge guys who perform the opposite over large samples. Zibanejad is a PPG+ player with bad analytics for several years now, and he's had two good playoff runs, so you can't even give me the "when the games get tight tho" spiel (not so much Kreider, his expected numbers are also great when he's not with Zibanejad, but they score so who cares?). On the other hand, Kakko has been in the NHL for five seasons and scores nowhere near his expected. That's what he is at this point.