A quick glance at the top vote-getters for the 2015 NHL All-Star Game reveals most of the names you would expect to find there.
Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, Carey Price and P.K. Subban all sit near the top of the list, which is voted on by fans. It’s at the very top, though, where things take a sharp left turn.
Buffalo Sabres centre Zemgus Girgensons leads the NHL All-Star Fan Vote, and it’s not even close. Girgensons had 399,356 votes as of Tuesday. The next closest player is Subban with 240,362.
As for the source of Girgensons’ surging popularity… look no further than his country of birth: Latvia.
Barring a case of electoral fraud or Latvia dropping into the Gulf of Riga, it appears as though Girgensons will be making the trip to Columbus for the All-Star Game in January.
Here’s a closer look at the most popular player in the world.
Age: 20 (turns 21 in January)
Shoots: Left
Position: Centre | Number: 28
Height: 6-foot-1
Weight: 190 pounds
Drafted: 2012- 1st round (14th overall out of the USHL) by the Buffalo Sabres
NHL career stats: 95 games, 16 goals, 20 assists, 36 points, 18 PIM, plus/minus rating of 0
So, is Girgensons deserving of an all-star roster spot, or is he simply the benefactor of a more effective version of the infamous “Vote for Rory” campaign?
All-star games in all of the four major professional leagues will occasionally cede performance to body of work to honour great talents, but Girgensons doesn’t fit that category as a second-year player with 36 career points.
There’s no denying his skill, though.
Girgensons may not even be the player who most deserves an all-star nod on his own team. Tyler Ennis leads the Sabres in scoring, and the goaltending tandem of Jhonas Enroth and Michal Neuvirth are providing the club with above average play despite facing the most shots per game in the league.
The case for Girgensons is not exactly further supported when we look beyond the basic counting stats, either.
The Sabres are a bad hockey team, but you can’t exactly overlook the sub-40% puck possession totals (Corsi for percentage) that Girgensons and his linemates Matt Moulson and Brian Gionta currently sport. Girgensons has had a lot of luck on his side so far this season to boot. His shooting percentage right now is at a Steven Stamkos-esque 17.4%. And his PDO, the number that’s so often equated to luck, is riding high at 106.8.
Girgensons is due for some regression in certain areas, and that’s a scary thought for a player who’s had moderate success on an awful hockey team.
So why Girgensons?
Sabres head coach Ted Nolan is very familiar with Girgensons, even beyond their experience in Buffalo. Nolan coached him at the Sochi Olympics. He sees Girgensons’ popularity as something he’s deserving of, even if it’s largely based on geographic factors.
Via NHL.com:
“He’s a very popular man over in Latvia,” Nolan said Monday. “I think from the Sochi Olympics he got his name out there a little bit more. Playing the way he’s playing here in Buffalo the first couple years, he’s getting his name out, so hopefully he’s going to be a household name here in North America the way he is in Latvia. And good for him, he deserves everything he’s getting.”
In the end it’s all about the fans. If the voting system dictates that Girgensons is an all-star then an all-star he will be.
As for right now he’s a good young player who is developing on a team locked in the throes of a full-scale rebuild. We’re all going to be a little more familiar with him come Jan. 24 in Columbus.
With data from Hockey Analysis and War On Ice
