This has been a disappointing season for many Calgary Flames players, with Elias Lindholm and Jonathan Huberdeau being the ones taking the brunt of the blame. Lost in the weeds has been just how bad of a season Dillon Dube has been this year. With Adam Ruzicka and Walker Duehr drawing into the lineup, Dillon Dube is expected to draw out.
How did we get here?
Once seen as the team’s multi-plug who could slot in anywhere in the lineup, the former Kelowna Rockets captain and captain of Team Canada at the World Juniors has just seven points in 37 games this year.
On top of that, he has struggled mightily on the ice, seeming to lose the puck constantly and is just not himself. Analytically, Dube sits among the worst on the team in multiple categories. He is second-worst in expected goals for percentage, third-worst in goals for percentage, fifth-worst in high-danger chances for, and below 50% in shot attempts.
Take a look at his chart from HockeyViz:
Yikes! Ideally, a player should be in the positives in the top left corner and negative in the bottom left. Dube is the exact oppositive. How far skewed this is points to very poor results from the Flames forward. He simply has not been the player he was last season, and even head coach Ryan Huska said the same:
Does scratching Dube make sense?
With his performance, it makes a lot of sense as to why he has been scratched. For a player earning $2.3 million per season, Dube should be performing far better than this. He is getting outperformed by players on entry-level deals and prospects coming into the lineup.
Dube’s level of performance this season has been abhorrent, to put it mildly, and hopefully, a game in the press box is the reset that he needs to rediscover his game.
Photo by Brett Holmes/Icon Sportswire
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