Jonathan Huberdeau has seemingly turned a corner. He is currently leading the Calgary Flames in both goals and points, something that not many people would have predicted prior to the year. Despite being a career pass-first forward, It seems Huberdeau has decided to try out a new way of getting on the score sheet.
In the summer of 2022, Huberdeau was traded to the Flames and was signed to a massive $84M deal. The winger was coming off a 115-point season with the Florida Panthers and was seen as one of the best playmakers in the NHL. He had 85 assists in 80 games that year for Florida and the expectation was certainly that he would maintain that pace in Calgary.
Huberdeau’s initial struggles to adapt to Calgary
The first year in Calgary for Jonathan Huberdeau was not a positive one. His playmaking ability would not follow him to Calgary, he struggled with confidence early and never really recovered from the initial struggles. A big point of criticism was his decision making. While it surprised no one that Huberdeau was a pass-first player, he seemed hesitant to shoot at all. His shot totals dropped from 222 with the Panthers the previous year to just 126 with the Flames—a drop from 2.7 shots per game to just 1.5. Unsurprisingly this affected his goal scoring as well with Huberdeau scoring just 15 goals. Exactly 50% of his total in the previous year.
Not much would change in his second season. While his shot totals did increase from 126 to 143, a goal increase would not follow. For the second year in a row, Huberdeau would fail to crack 20 goals, scoring just 12 goals and 40 assists for 52 points. The Flames would miss the playoffs for the second straight year and public opinion of the French-Canadian forward was at an all-time low.
huberdeau may not have good passes for his teammates anymore but dang that was a good one for the opponent
— The Win Column (@wincolumnCGY) December 15, 2023
New year, new Huberdeau
We now sit just barely over halfway through the 2024–25 season and in just four months, the narrative around Huberdeau has changed in a way maybe more unpredictable than even his initial fall. For the first time in his 13-year career, Jonathan Huberdeau is currently poised to finish with more goals than assists. So far he has 19 goals on the campaign to just 17 assists. On pace for a career-high 34 goals, you don’t have to spend too long looking at the stat sheets to figure out what changed.
Huberdeau is scoring on nearly 22% of his shots, the highest shooting percentage of his career by almost 6%. His shooting percentage is good enough for ninth on the NHL’s shot percentage leaderboard. Oddly though, his shot totals are looking almost identical to last season.
| Season | Games Played | Total Shots | Goals | Shooting Percentage | Shots Per Game |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022–23 | 79 | 126 | 15 | 11.9% | 1.50 |
| 2023–24 | 81 | 143 | 12 | 8.4% | 1.76 |
| 2024–25 | 48 | 87 | 19 | 21.8% | 1.81 |
While Huberdeau has been impressive when it has come to putting the puck over goal line himself, he hasn’t been putting up as many assists compared to previous years. Even when just comparing his season so far to the previous two seasons with the Flames, he hasn’t been very close to hitting the same mark. He is on pace to have 29 assists by season’s end, the lowest he has had in a near full NHL season since his second year.
Who needs assists anyway?
That being said, it is hard to be unhappy with his performance so far. He clearly realized that what worked in Florida wasn’t going to work in Calgary and that something needed to change. It took a few seasons but he is really starting to look pretty solid in Calgary’s red and yellow. He may have a lot of work ahead of him to get back in the good graces of some fans but being the leading scorer on a potentially playoff bound Calgary Flames team is certainly a good start.
