Alex Killorn Goal of the Year
We're finally getting around to reviewing the 2022-23 season. Instead of assigning grades or any of that nonsense, we'll start by looking at the player's best goal from the season and go from there. For some it'll be easy, others have way more to choose from.
Player
Alex Killorn
Stat Line
82 games played, 27 goals, 37 assists, 45 PIM, 143 shots, iXG (5v5), 61 hits, 17:13 ice time
Playoffs - 6 games played, 3 goals, 2 assists, 0 PIM, 16 shots, iXG (5v5), 10 hits, 19:48 ice time
Goal of the Year Video
Goal of the Year description
Out of the 30 goals he scored this year in the regular season and playoffs I had it narrowed down to six to choose from. Honestly, any of the six could have been on the list, but we're going to go all the way back to November 15 and a home game against the Dallas Stars.
It was a back-and-forth game that got started early when Ross Colton scored just 80 seconds into the game. The teams traded one-goal leads up until the third period when Radek Faska tied things at 4 with a short-handed goal.
With time winding down in overtime, Killorn was on the ice with Steven Stamkos and Mikhail Sergachev when the Stars turned the puck over in the Lightning zone. Stamkos was able to slip a pass to Sergachev while also inadvertently (?) holding Jamie Benn's stick just a little.
Killorn skated straight down the middle of the ice to give Sergy a nice option to dish the puck to and set up a two-on-one rush. Miro Heiskanen correctly chose to defend Killorn, but was caught between selling out to block the shot or the pass.
With the world-class defender at sixes and sevens, Killorn calmly snapped a wrister over Jake Oettinger's glove. It was such a subtle little snapshot, something that you saw repeatedly throughout the season. While Killorn makes his living tipping shots and banging home rebounds, he has a really good wrist shot. On several of his goals, the goaltenders seemed stunned that his shot somehow beat them because it looked almost effortless when he released it.
How did 2022-23 go for them?
Pretty, pretty good.
Killorn picked a pretty good season to set career-highs in goals scored, assists, points, and even strength goals. His 64 points beat out his previous career high which was set a season earlier. The 33-year-old was his usual durable self as he played in all 82 games for the second season in a row.
Offensively he gave the Lightning something they needed on the second line, which was a finisher opposite of Steven Stamkos. With Killorn scoring at a regular rate at 5v5, teams couldn't cheat to the captain's side of the ice and focus on taking him out of the play, they had to respect Killorn's ability to put the puck in the net.
As usual, he had a lot of success in front of the net as the NHL credited him with a team-leading 6 tipped goals (they also credited him with one deflected goal) and a lot of those were uncontested in front of the net. He has the innate ability to find the soft spot in the defense and the hand-eye coordination to get his stick on a shot from the point, something that is crucial in the way the Lightning cycle their offense.
As nice as his numbers looked offensively, they could have been a little bit better, but a one-goal-in-nineteen-games skid in February probably kept him from hitting the 30-goal mark for the first time in his career. And even if he wasn't putting the puck in the net during that stretch, he still helped out with 14 assists over that time period.
His defense deteriorated a bit from year to year, but that held true for most of forwards with the Bolts this year, heck for most of the team honestly. It's not shocking that without Andrei Vasilevskiy bailing them out on a nightly basis, a lot of players saw their defensive numbers slide, and that included Killorn.
Unfortunately for the Lightning, Killorn's strong offensive year priced him out of the Tampa Bay area. One thing that the Lightning are really going to miss, unless new additions Conor Sheary and Josh Archibald can pick up the slack is Killorn's effectiveness on the forecheck.
He was the best forward on the team at recovering dump-ins and well above league average. It will be something to keep an eye on next season as four of the five players that were tops on the the team in getting to, and recovering pucks, are no longer with them. The good news for Lightning fans is that Tanner Jeannot and Josh Archibald were in that top right quadrant while Conor Sheary was right on the crosshair as league average.
2023-24 Contract Status
Alex Killorn will make $6.25 million this season (which is also his cap hit) as he begins his four-year, $25 million deal that he signed in the summer with the Anaheim Ducks.
Do we expect them to score more or less next season?
Does it really matter? Not really since he’s traded Disney World for Disney Land. The Ducks showed him the money and Killorn rightfully took it. At 33 years old he was able to secure a four-year deal, which came as kind of a surprise. He’s coming off of the two best goal-scoring years of his career, combining for 53 goals over his last 164 regular season games. He also played in 29 playoff games, recording three more goals.
Anaheim is betting that he can keep Father Time at bay for at least another one or two seasons and he can provide a little veteran leadership to the promising Ducklings the team has collected over the past few seasons. Chances are that he’s lining up next to Trevor Zegras (22) or Mason McTavish (20) or even possibly Leo Carlsson (18). That is some young talent out on the west coast.
The good news for Ducks fans is that Killorn plays a style that ages well. He isn’t overly reliant on foot speed or quickness and can earn his paycheck in front of the net. Oddly enough, he’s managed to defy the aging curve so far in his career as seen below:
As we can see from Micah Blake McCurdy’s research, the steepest decline in productivity happens from age 25 to about 31. After that things level out. We’ll see if Killorn can keep that going. Chances are he slips back into the 15-20 goal, 35-40 point range that he’s spent most of his career.
