Emerson Etem is off to an eye-popping start to the 2011-12 WHL season when it comes to goal scoring. But where does it stand in historical perspective?
The Medicine Hat Tigers’ sniper tallied 22 goals in his first 16 games. That’s a pace to finish the season with 99 goals. The league record for goals in a season is 108 by Brandon’s Ray Ferraro in 1983-84. No other WHL player has ever scored more than 96 goals in a season.
But players don’t always maintain their pace, so where does Etem’s start stand? Neate Sager of Yahoo! Sports delved into the numbers in an attempt to put Etem’s start into some historical context. Among other things, Sager noted that hockey has changed considerably during the 50-plus years of the WHL’s existence, and that offensive numbers were considerably larger in earlier generations.
The people at Yahoo! Sports, with an assist to Gregg Drinnan of the Kamloops Daily News, pored over the online box scores from the past 15 seasons to find out what other players did during their first 16 games.
Sager found two other players who matched or bettered Etem’s pace through 16 games. Both came during the 2000-01 season, when Kootenay’s Mike Comrie scored 25 goals and Swift Current’s Layne Ulmer had 22. Comrie finished with 39 goals in 37 games before being called up by the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers, Ulmer finished with 63 goals in 68 games.
Otherwise, Etem is in a league of his own. The next-best pace from that 15-year stretch was Calgary’s Pavel Brendl, who had 18 goals in 16 games in 1998-99. The only other player who averaged more than a goal per game over the first 16 games was Seattle’s Brett DeCocco, who had 17 in 1998-99.
Since the Everett Silvertips began play in 2003-04, no one’s come close. The best were Chilliwack’s Ryan Howse (2010-11) and Kelowna’s Jamie Benn (2008-09), who were both at a goal a game with 16.
However, don’t expect Etem to shatter any records. The 19-year-old California native and first-round pick by the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks is a shoo-in to make the U.S. team for the World Junior Hockey Championships, meaning he’ll miss a number of Medicine Hat’s games around Christmas and New Year’s on international duty.
But that doesn’t make what Etem has already accomplished any less special.
Around the WHL
The NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets announced their intention to keep center Ryan Johansen this season. There was a chance the 19-year-old Johansen would be sent back to the Portland Winterhawks after appearing in nine games with the Blue Jackets. … Seattle acquired 19-year-old forward Sean Aschim from Moose Jaw in exchange for a conditional pick in the 2014 bantam draft. … Spokane picked up 17-year-old forward Carter Proft from Brandon for a fourth rounder in 2012. … Saskatoon released 18-year-old defenseman Zach Hodder. Hodder, a former first-round bantam pick, was a high-profile piece in a blockbuster trade with Vancouver earlier this season. … Medicine Hat’s Hunter Shinkaruk was named the WHL Player of the Week. The 17-year-old forward had seven goals and four assists as the Tigers went 2-1. … Etem was named the WHL Player of the Month for September/October. Etem had 21 goals and 10 assists in 15 games.
League leaders
Points — Emerson Etem (Medicine Hat) 39; goals — Etem 23; assists — Mark Stone (Brandon), Kevin Sundher (Victoria) 23; penalty minutes — Jesse Mychan (Everett) 76; wins — Matt Hewitt (Regina), Tyler Bunz (Medicine Hat) 12; goals against average — Nathan Lieuwen (Kootenay) 1.64; save percentage — Ty Rimmer (Tri-City) .947.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at NickHPatterson.
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