Examining MAL's Early Season

[Pandar 302]

Up to this point, MAL has been a little up and down.  A late-comer to the league, he had limited minutes through his first several games while he was figuring out the Wild’s system.  After that, it looked like he might be a break-out star, putting up a hat-trick in his first game at full minutes.  Since then, he’s cooled off a little, but he’s still producing.  Having played 18 games, Leblanc has notched 6 goals on only 18 shots and has won 67.03% of the face-offs he’s taken.  He’s been somewhat sheltered in that regard, as he’s been playing predominately on the wing, but he is a center by training, and will be looking to make that transition down the road.  It should also be noted that Leblanc has only seen 16 minutes of Special Teams play, and 14 of that was on the penalty kill.  When he matures and has a chance to see time on the power play, look for his points totals to jump accordingly.  MAL has a long way to go, but he’s shown flashes of a scoring touch that could make him dangerous down the road.  Only time will tell if he achieves this potential.