What Golden Knights fans can expect from Mattias Janmark

By Justin Emerson

Wednesday, April 14, 2021 | 2 a.m.

Mattias Janmark could be the player the Golden Knights need to provide a jolt to the offense as the missing piece to the third line.

Acquired at Monday’s trade deadline from the Chicago Blackhawks for a package of picks, Janmark is quick, defensively sound, and can play either center or wing.

He brings 10 goals and 19 points to the Vegas rotation, where he will likely make his debut on the third line at 7 p.m. tonight at the Los Angeles Kings.

“That’s a real strength of his game — that he plays with a lot of different players and players like to play with him, that he complements a line,” Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon said. “That versatility, I think, is going to be important for us.”

McCrimmon scouted Janmark in the postseason bubble last season when he played for the Stars, who defeated Vegas in the Western Conference Finals.

Coach Pete DeBoer said he talked to Stars forward Joe Pavelski, DeBoer’s former captain in San Jose, and came away pleased with the report.

“Real good reviews from everybody on both character, type of player, what he brings to the table and his importance and ability to play in the toughest time of year and that’s the playoffs,” DeBoer said.

The move could be considered a calculated risk by Vegas.

Janmark joins the Golden Knights in the midst of his worse slump of the season, having recorded no goals and one assist in his last 10 games. Most of his production came on a hot streak from Jan. 22 to Feb. 9, when he scored half of his 10 goals and accounted for nine of his 19 points.

While the 10 goals are a nice boost to a team that could use another goal scorer, Janmark has scored just once in his last 14 games dating back to March 18.

While his start was good enough to make his overall numbers still look strong through his recent skid, the analytics aren’t too favorable of his season.

When Janmark was on the ice at 5-on-5 for Chicago this season, the Blackhawks had a minus-150 differential in shot attempts and minus-6 differential in both goals and expected goals, all ratios that put him toward the bottom of the league. 

He’s been worth minus-1.7 goals above replacement, according to Evolving Hockey’s model, third-worst among Chicago forwards and a number that would place him as the third-worst Vegas forward.

Now those numbers do need some context. Chicago has been one of the worst possession teams in the league, so it’s not as if Janmark is dragging his lines down to places they wouldn’t be anyway. There’s also the human aspect of a player who had never been traded before seeing the writing on the wall and his play dipping as a result.

Janmark’s acquisition bears a resemblance to when the Golden Knights acquired Alec Martinez last season. While Martinez’s analytics weren’t as bad as Janmark’s, his scoring had dipped to career-low levels and Vegas took a chance anyway. Martinez arrived, scored in his Golden Knights debut, and is playing at a career-best pace this season.

Like Janmark, Martinez last season was moving from a bad team (Los Angeles) to a good one and there’s something to be said for being part of a team with a chance of winning. He’s also expected to return to more of the depth role he had in Dallas instead of the big minutes he played in Chicago. Vegas is counting on both those things to help him turn his analytics around.

Janmark figures to start on the third line alongside Tomas Nosek and opposite Alex Tuch, DeBoer said. That’s the logical spot for him, considering how strong the top-six has been with lines of Max Pacioretty, Chandler Stephenson and Mark Stone; and Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson and Reilly Smith.

It’s also a natural fit alongside Tuch, who plays a similar game to Janmark. Both are fast, and at times this season it’s looked like Tuch’s linemates have had trouble keeping up with his speed.

“I think that could be a really tough line to play against with a lot a speed and a lot of different elements,” DeBoer said. “It allows us to leave our top two lines intact, which have had some real chemistry this year, but we’ll see.”