MINNEAPOLIS, Minn – Martin Havlat, signed to a 6-year deal worth $30 million dollars at the beginning of the 2009-2010 season, is the subject of a sudden challenge between agent Allan Walsh and the Wild management.
The unexpected public criticism made by Walsh has had many wondering about the current relationship between Havlat and the Wild.
With the inconsistent offense the Wild has shown at the beginning of the season, many are trying to answer questions the team has been presented with, one being whether Havlat can produce more offensively.
In eight games, he has produced six assists and while he has helped lead the Wild to a decent 3-3-2 record, many expected more ice time from their highest paid forward. He is currently ranked fourth out of all Wild forwards in ice time per game played.
“Since that time (Havlat signed with Wild), Marty has been used in a purely secondary role. Look at this season, he’s played four straight games at about 14 minutes of ice time, he’s used on the second power-play unit, he sits for long stretches, he’s not used in the shootouts,” Walsh said, according to the Startribune.
“In a couple games this season, Marty played more even-strength minutes than any other forward on our team, but over the last three games, we’ve been shorthanded 22 times,” said Wild GM Chuck Fletcher. “Players like Marty, Andrew Brunette, Guillaume Latendresse will all play fewer minutes in games when we spend too much time in the penalty box.”
A closer look at the statistics also agrees.
In the four games in question (October 19th-25th), Havlat played 53 out of 184 even strength minutes played by the entire Wild team. During his final four regular season games with the Blackhawk, he played 64 out of 211 even strength minutes. That means he has played around 55 more seconds with the Blackhawks on even strength ice time as compared to when he played with the Wild.
While 55 seconds per game may seem to be a good amount, its remains an underwhelming number compared to the harsh comments made by Walsh. In addition, Havlat has the highest even strength minutes played than any other Wild forward, but has only produced 2 assists during that time.
The statistics always suggest that Havlat played just only 11 more powerplay seconds per game with the Blackhawks than with the Wild.
And while four games is considered a small sample size to draw solid conclusions, it remains suitable for the argument due to Walsh electing to use Havlat’s past four games as evidence that the Wild has underused the offensive forward.
And if Walsh truly believes that Havlat should be used more on the powerplay, it is hard to fault Head Coach Todd Richards for not doing so. The Wild have started the season with a 33 percent on the power play, ranked first in the entire NHL, using mainly Mikko Koivu, Andrew Brunette, Antti Miettinen, Matt Cullen and Marek Zidlicky. Havlat will have to wait until the current first powerplay unit becomes cold, because as of October 28th , the Wild lead the league with 13 powerplay goals.
Wild fans can truly understand where Walsh is basing his arguments, but unless Havlat can start producing more offense with his current ice time that is quite similar to his time with the Blackhawks, nothing will change.
Contact the writer at daniel.chan@prohockeynews.com
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