Under-the-radar MVPs for each Conference Finalist in the Stanley Cup Playoffs
The Stanley Cup Playoffs are where great players have a chanced to be immortalized. Whether it’s through a clutch goal in an important moment on the road to a championship, or just stepping up your game throughout the playoffs, it’s the time where players really prove their worth. And often enough, they’re rewarded for their efforts with the Conn Smythe Trophy if they win the Cup.
However, there are also players that are bringing as much to the table as the players that win the playoff MVP award yet don’t quite get the same recognition. Sometimes it’s a player providing key depth scoring in fewer minutes, and sometimes it’s someone who is shutting down the other team’s top guys and helping his team get the win through elite defense, and sometimes they do both. But unlike their top-flight peers, they don’t get the same amount of credit.
So with that, I decided to take a look at a player on each team in the Conference Finals that fits that role. These four have been some of the more important players on their team, but don’t quite get the glory for it. Each of them probably won’t win the Conn Smythe trophy for their performance, but he’s still a big reason why his respective team has made it this far.
Dallas Stars: Evgenii Dadonov
When you think of the Stars’ depth up front, you probably have to go down the list of players that come to mind quite a bit before you finally reach Evgenii Dadonov. It’s not that he has been bad (he wouldn’t be on this list if he was), but he doesn’t exactly jump off the page for the casual hockey fan. On the surface, only three goals and seven points in 17 games doesn’t look like the kind of player you’d deem overly valuable to your team.
But under the hood, Dadonov has been a lot more impressive. When you adjust his production to account for his ice time, his 1.91 5v5 points per 60 is fourth on the team behind Jamie Benn, Wyatt Johnston and Jason Robertson. On top of that, Dadonov’s 55.3% 5v5 score-adjusted expected goals share is third on the team behind Roope Hintz and Benn, and that’s before you account for his matchups.
In the first round against the Vegas Golden Knights, Dadonov got at least 20 minutes against Mark Stone, Jack Eichel, Jonathan Marchessault and William Karlsson, with Vegas only getting one goal in each of those minutes, and the only player he lost the 5v5 expected goals battle with was Eichel. While Dadonov had less success against the Colorado Avalanche in the second round (Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen severely outplayed the Stars in Dadonov’s minutes and Makar and MacKinnon were on the ice for two goals), he’s been excellent against Leon Draisaitl in the third round, who hasn’t scored with Dadonov on the ice, and the Stars have a 57.43% 5v5 expected goal share in over 20 minutes with both players on the ice. It’s actually this success against the Oilers that earned him the spot here, as the other consideration in Chris Tanev, who had a dominant defensive performance through two rounds, has struggled against the Oilers four best players and is now questionable for Game 5 after getting hurt in Game 4.
Edmonton Oilers: Mattias Ekholm
The addition of Mattias Ekholm to the Oilers has done wonders for this team. It’s given Evan Bouchard the perfect defense partner for him to blossom into the elite defenseman he is rapidly becoming and given the Oilers a functional top pair to play with their best players. While they still struggle with finding the right fit for their bottom two pairs, especially when they need to give some of them shutdown minutes, they’ve at least solved this problem for the time being.
With the Oilers being a top-heavy team, obviously the top stars on the squad are the ones you think of as the ones carrying this team, especially when you have the likes of Connor McDavid, Draisaitl and Bouchard scoring at well above a point-per-game. But Ekholm has been just as valuable even with only four goals and 7 points in 16 games, largely due to his elite shutdown game and how he’s stifled some great players.
Obviously Ekholm had no issue against an offensively inconsistent Los Angeles Kings team in the first round, but what was more impressive was his play in the second round against the Vancouver Canucks. In 50+ minutes against J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser, Ekholm held the duo to one goal and won the 5v5 expected goals battle by roughly 68%, and in 35:19 minutes against Quinn Hughes, the Oilers also only allowed one goal and had a 56.38% 5v5 expected goal share.
And then so far against Dallas, Ekholm has already played at least 20 minutes against the likes of Johnston, Robertson, Benn, Logan Stankoven, Tyler Seguin, Joe Pavelski, Matt Duchene and Miro Heiskanen, and the only player to outscore the Oilers and win the expected goals battle against Ekholm is Seguin. Robertson and Duchene have also won the expected goal battle with Ekholm on the ice, and he’s also allowed goals against with Heiskanen, Robertson and Benn on the ice, but for how many different players the Oilers defenseman has had to keep an eye on in this series, he’s done a good job containing all of them in his minutes. Now if only the blueline beyond the top pair could do their job.
Florida Panthers: Gustav Forsling
Unless you’ve been paying close attention to the Panthers, you probably wouldn’t know that Gustav Forsling has developed into their best defenseman. Usually when you think of the blueliners on this team, you think of Aaron Ekblad as the big name, or Brandon Montour as the offensive weapon from the back end. But Forsling gets lost in the conversation for the casual fan despite being their best shutdown defenseman. It may have even come as a shock to see him signed to an eight-year contract extension with a $5.75 AAV, but he’s worth every penny, especially with his play in these playoffs.
Not only has Forsling been their best defenseman offensively in the playoffs with three goals and 10 points through 15 games, he’s also put up stellar performances against the opposing teams’ best players in these first three rounds despite a pedestrian 51.75% 5v5 expected goal share. In 45+ minutes against Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point in Round 1 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, only two goals went in the Panthers net, while Florida had roughly 54% of the 5v5 expected goals. In 52:28 against David Pastrnak in Round 2 against the Boston Bruins, the Panthers outscored the Bruins 3-2 and had 51.22% of the 5v5 expected goals. And so far in the Eastern Conference Final against the New York Rangers, Forsling’s kept Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider off the board with roughly 75% of the 5v5 expected goals against them in 30+ minutes and held Artemi Panarin, Alexis Lafreniere and Vincent Trocheck to two goals against in 20+ minutes.
At worst, Forsling is limiting the opposing team’s best players and allowing the rest of the team to thrive against weaker competition, and at best he’s shutting them down completely and helping to create offense against them, and it’s a big reason why the Panthers have made it this far in the playoffs.
New York Rangers: Alexis Lafreniere
Saying that Alexis Lafreniere’s play in these playoffs is “under the radar” might be a bit of a stretch. He’s certainly garnered plenty of conversation with his performance, with many citing that the former first-overall pick has finally arrived at the NHL level. However, I don’t think people recognize just how good he’s been. He’s certainly been the best player not named Igor Shesterkin or any of the five players that also occupy their top power play unit in the playoffs, and if anything, he might even be playing better than some of the Rangers’ six big names.
For starters, there’s the production. With seven goals, Lafreniere is tied for eighth in scoring, and his 13 points are 18th and also fourth on the Rangers. On top of that, he’s been even more productive at even strength considering the minutes he’s been given, with his 3.42 points per 60 minutes at all strengths second on the team behind only Trocheck, and his 3.01 5v5 points per 60 first on the team by a margin of 0.79, and is behind only Ryan Nugent-Hopkins amongst all players with at least 100 minutes of ice time.
On top of that, Lafreniere has done an excellent job winning his assignments in one way or another. Against a strong opponent in the Carolina Hurricanes, he played more than 30 minutes in the series against Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov and Jake Guentzel, and won the 5v5 expected goals battle against all of them. And then so far in this Eastern Conference Final series against the Panthers, he’s spent more than 20 minutes against Matthew Tkachuk and Carter Verhaeghe, winning the 5v5 expected goals battle by over 60% and seeing them only score two goals against them. While Lafreniere isn’t exactly a defensive phenom, he’s seen the play go his way on the ice, and with how well he’s scored in these playoffs, it’s made a huge difference for this Rangers team.
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