Carolina Hurricanes: Revisiting 2019-20 Player Predictions
By Austin Blum
3. Nino Niederreiter
We should expect more of the same from the player the Carolina Hurricanes acquired last season. Nino Niederreiter should see his goal total of 23 from the 2018-19 season increase. Expect him to score 25 or more goals this season. He also needed to improve the quality of chances in the playoffs as his shooting percentage took a drastic turn from the regular season to the playoffs.
Analysis of 2019-20 Performance Compared to Prediction
Part of this prediction may not come to fruition. The playoffs could happen, but there is a chance that they don’t. Nobody knows when things are going to return due to concerns of the coronavirus pandemic. We won’t know if his playoff shooting percentage will be improved, but if it’s anything like the season, it probably won’t.
Niederreiter was having a very inconsistent year. He started off the year extremely slow, scoring only one goal in the first 11 games of the season. There were times this season that looked like Niederreiter was turning the page, but he would go back to not playing like we have seen. He was even a healthy extra for a game, which you wouldn’t expect for a player that performed so well just a season ago.
https://twitter.com/Canes/status/1229954872147107840
He has 11 goals and 18 assists in 67 games played this season. He had 14 goals and 16 assists in the limited time for the Hurricanes last season (36 games). I figured a whole offseason in Rod Brind’Amour’s system and getting further adjusted to Raleigh would be a huge for him elevating his game even more. The opposite happened.
I had extremely high hopes for Niederreiter this season and even thought that he could be one of the Hurricanes best forwards. He just fit in so well so fast that I thought that magic would continue. My prediction for him to score 25 or more goals is not even close for now.