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About Last Season: Joakim Nordstrom Performance Review and Grade

After a breakout 2015-16 campaign, Nordstrom went back down to Earth in a fourth-line role.

By Brett Finger
Jamie Kellner

Joakim Nordstrom: 2016-17 By the Numbers

  • Age: 25
  • NHL Seasons: 4
  • Games Played: 82
  • Scoring: 7 goals, 5 assists, 12 points
  • Ice Time per Game: 12:43 in all situations, 11:01 ES, 0:04 PP, 1:38 PK
  • 5-on-5 Stats: 49.3% CF, 36.4% GF
  • Contract Status: Completed first year of two-year, $2.55 million contract.

About Last Season

Jamie Kellner

Canes Country’s player-by-player review and grades for the 2016-17 season.

Making the Grade

Joakim Nordstrom had a breakout season in 2015-16 alongside Jordan Staal and Andrej Nestrasil, finding the back of the net ten times and fitting into a role as middle-six player on that line.

This season, we saw him go back to Earth, and barring some incredible change in his play, we likely know exactly what to expect from him going forward.

His possession numbers were fine, his defensive play was good, and although his goal share wasn't anything to be impressed with, one would have to think that he wasn't helped much by the play of Jay McClement at even strength for 80% of the season and losing Viktor Stalberg from that fourth line at the trade deadline also didn’t help matters for him.

For much of the first half of the season, Carolina’s fourth line actually performed admirably, but the absence of Stalberg in the second half hurt their production.

As it pertains to Nordstrom, we saw some offensive consistency issues, but outside of that, he performed just about as well as he did a year ago in his own end and he was an important part of the league’s best penalty kill for 70% of the season.

With another year on his contract, he will come back and likely be part of next year’s fourth line. The only way this won’t happen is if he is part of some trade or if he is selected by Vegas in the expansion draft.

He’s expected to be one of Carolina’s exposed forwards, but one would assume that Vegas would prefer a veteran point producer like Lee Stempniak over a fourth-liner.

If he does return to the team, he will likely be the only familiar face on the fourth line with McClement’s contract expiring.

It’s too soon to predict who will join him on the bottom line next season, but guys like Lucas Wallmark, Brock McGinn, Phil Di Giuseppe, and a plethora of trade and free agent options are very realistic.

Nordstrom will play for Sweeden in the World Championships this offseason. It’s the first time since World Juniors, in which he won a gold medal with Victor Rask in 2012, that he will be representing his native country.

Also, who else is excited to see some more Nordy-Aho high-fives?

Exit Interview

Poll

How do you grade Joakim Nordstrom’s 2016-17 performance?

This poll is closed

  • 0%
    A - significantly outperformed expectations
    (0 votes)
  • 6%
    B - outperformed expectations
    (11 votes)
  • 59%
    C - met expectations
    (99 votes)
  • 29%
    D - underperformed expectations
    (50 votes)
  • 4%
    F - significantly underperformed expectations
    (7 votes)
167 votes total Vote Now