Van Lagen’s First Season Growth

[VanCanWin 180]

As the first half of the season is just about come and gone, it’s time to reflect on just how much Van Lagen has grown as a player.

 

His overall stat line of 10g-21a-(+2) in 34 games played is a solid stat line for the rookie.  However his growth this year off the ice is not quite reflecting in his play on it, at least not in the capacity he thought it would. 

 

Van Lagen quickly increased his scoring ability to a astonishing 80 but his scoring never increased. In fact, he has never had a multi-goal game through his first 34 games. His only multi-game goal streak happened in his first 3 games of the season.

 

He has worked on other areas of his game too, most notably his defence to 65 and his puck handling to 67. Let’s break up his first 17 games from his last 17 games to show where his improvement has happened:

 

First 17: 6g-10a-(-4)-54sh-24h

Last 17: 4g-11a-(+6)-50sh-23h

 

As we can tell, his offence has not improved at all (at least not in his stats) but it’s his defence — a +10 difference that has him proud of his stride towards becoming more of a 2 way player.  Once the offensive improvements starts showing up in the box scores, Van Lagen will have become a premier player in the VHLM and scouts of the VHL will surely be looking.