Many consider Edmonton's Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who leads rooks with 35 points in 38 games and was picked seven spots higher than Couturier in last June's draft, as the front-runner for rookie of the year. But Hopkins plays an average of 4 minutes and 17 seconds per game more than Couturier, and when you break down the numbers into per-60-minute increments, you will find that Couturier does more with less time:
Hopkins: 1.19 goals, 0.48 assists, 2.02 points per 60 minutes.
Couturier: 1.12 goals, 0.84 assists, 2.39 points.
Plus, Couturier has spent much of the season playing on the fourth line, with less-talented teammates than Edmonton's first-line star. Couturier is fourth among first-year players in shorthanded time-on-ice per-game (2:40), meaning nearly 30 percent of his total on-ice time is spent killing penalties instead of attacking.
Those numbers will start to mean more and more as Couturier continues to blossom offensively under the bright lights of March, April and even May.
2 Matt Carle will not sign an extension: If Carle, 27, continues his strong play and plays his cards right, he could be in the market for a new contract that rivals what James Wisniewski got in Columbus last summer: 6 years, $33 million. That is, only if he waits until July 1 to become an unrestricted free agent.
Carle is in the final season of a 4-year, $13.75 million deal, an average of $3.437 million per year. Reliable and durable, Carle is quietly one of the league's most consistent defensemen. He has 25 points in 48 games.
