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What Will Dmitri Voronkov's Role Be With Rick Bowness?
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- What Will Dmitri Voronkov's Role Be With Rick Bowness?
Dmitri Voronkov, the 25-year-old hulk from Angarsk, Russia, has had a pretty good NHL career so far in two and a half seasons.
In just 195 games, Voronkov is tied with Kirill Marchenko for 10th all-time in power-play goals with 21. Last season, he led the CBJ with 8 power play goals in 73 games.
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So far this season, he has 7 power play goals through 47 games and is on pace for right around 14 power play goals for the season, which would tie him with Steve Heinze (14). The record for most power play goals in a CBJ season is 19, set by Rick Nash in 2003-24. Safe to say that record will stand for a long while.
For the most part, Voronkov has bounced back and forth between the first and second lines this season. But that was under former Head Coach Dean Evason.
In the two games since Rick Bowness has taken over, Voronkov has been pushed down to the third line in favor of Kent Johnson and Cole Sillinger. Cole Sillinger has been on the top line, while Johnson was moved up to the second, and it's worked out so far.
In the game against Calgary, Voronkov played 14:27, during which he saw 2:07 of power-play time. The Jackets had four power plays in that game and had five players see 5 or more minutes of power play time. Columbus went 1/4, with Zach Werenski scoring the lone goal. Several other players, including Voronkov, had two minutes or less of total power play time in the game.
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Last night against Vancouver, the CBJ had two power plays and scored both times, with Coyle and Werenski scoring the goals. In that game, only five players were on the ice for the two power plays they had - Coyle, Werenski, Fantilli, Marchenko, and Johnson. All five players played 3:08 on the power play.
Obviously, with only two power plays on the night, the numbers are a little skewed.
Voronkov's shift times are all over the place this season, but he's averaging 15:27 of ice time this season, down from 16:47 last year. Last night, his TOI was 13:22 with 20 shifts taken.
Per MoneyPuck.com , Voronkov has some interesting stats. While his expected goals are down significantly, his Expected Goals per 60is up to 1.33, from 1.26 last year. His Goals per 60is up to 1.32, from 1.13, and his shooting % is at 17%, up from 14.9%, despite averaging the same number of shots per game. His high-danger unblocked shot attempts are on pace to beat last year by a good margin, so that explains the higher shooting %.
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Voronkov is actually having another really good year when you dive deeper into the stats. But will new coach Bowness look at those stats, or just use his eyes to judge Voronkov?
So far, Bowness has made it abundantly clear that he loves Kent Johnson. Johnson played a season high 20:55 in Bowness's first game, and over 17 minutes last night, and got two points.
Sillinger doesn't have a point in the last two games, but seems to be everywhere on the ice.
So, what does all this mean for young Voronkov? We could be overanalyzing the situation, and Voronkov could very well be back on the first line against Pittsburgh, but with them winning the last two games with the same lineup, I wouldn't count on it.
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He hasn't been getting much power play time, as Bowness has been putting the higher-skilled players on the ice, and if were being honest, he's not wrong for doing it.
Dmitri Voronkov was at the forefront of trade rumors in the offseason, and just this morning on NHL Radio, GM Don Waddell told the hosts that he specifically told Bowness that Kent Johnson needs to get going and told him he needs confidence to do that. So, it's assumed that Johnson's ice time stems from that conversation.
Yesterday, on the same NHL Radio show, CBJ play-by-play man Steve Mears told the hosts that he thought it was "useless" to have Johnson play 7 minutes on the fourth line every night. Just about all of the national radio and TV hosts love Kent Johnson.
Clearly, Kent Johnson is a player that the Blue Jackets are invested in heavily and want to see him get on a second half run to rack up some points, and it seems to be at the expense of Dmitri Voronkov.
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Will Dmitri Voronkov continue to play down the lineup? Or will he earn his way back? Yes, it's only been a two-game sample size, but it's very telling as to how Bowness is going to conduct his business.
Columbus has some tough games coming up against Dallas, Tampa, LA, and Philadelphia, so expect the lines to shake up a bit next week.
Up Next: Columbus travels to Pittsburgh to take on the Penguins on Saturday night.
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