Another summer is upon us, which means another round of player reviews. AnaheimDucks.com will feature a different Ducks player throughout the summer (in numerical order), highlighting key stats while also keeping an eye on next season. Next up is right wing Jakob Silfverberg.
2016-17 Player Review: Jakob Silfverberg
Believe it or not, the 2016-17 campaign marked Silfverberg's fourth full season with the Ducks. Time flies, but it really wasn't that long ago when Silfverberg, now 26 years of age, came to Anaheim as a baby-faced 22-year-old after a 48-game slate with the Ottawa Senators in 2012-13.
Since then, Silfverberg has emerged as one of Anaheim's most skilled two-way forwards and is an integral component on the club's shutdown line with center Ryan Kesler and left wing Andrew Cogliano. Silfverberg had himself a strong 2016-17 season, setting career highs in goals (23) and points (49), and tying a career high in assists (26). He has finished on the positive side of the plus-minus line in each of his five seasons in the NHL, including a +10 mark last season.
If shot quality, skating, passing/playmaking, physical strength/tenacity and defensive awareness/hockey sense could be comparables to baseball's version of a five-tool player, Silfverberg checks all the boxes.
Ducks fans witnessed his tremendous shot in his first season with the Ducks back in 2013-14, and he has gone on to record 66 goals and 150 points in 294 career games with Anaheim. His go-to in shootouts (snap shot, high glove) still manages to find success even though everyone in the building - fans, teammates and opponents - know it's coming.
His 6-foot-2, 196-pound frame is thick, and his overall strength allows him to win board battles and keep plays alive in the offensive zone. For a big man, he is swift on his feet and his tenacity gives him an edge when it comes to winning battles or 50/50 pucks. How often did we see Silfverberg recover a loose puck or come out of a scrum with possession, or keep possession of the puck while being hounded by the opposition? Quite often.
He is also incredibly smart on the ice, which could be defined as "hockey sense" - the ability to seemingly be one step ahead of the play, anticipating where the puck (or your teammates and/or opponents) will be, and so forth. No player is perfect, but Silfverberg always seems to be in the right place at the right time, and rarely does he commit an egregious turnover.
In addition to scoring (his 23 goals were second-most on the team behind Rickard Rakell's 33), he is equally adept at killing penalties. Silfverberg finished the season with the third-highest shorthanded time on ice among forwards (129:01), only behind linemates Cogliano (145:35) and Kesler (223:11), while his 10 shorthanded shots ranked second behind Cogliano (19).
Silfverberg had himself a stellar individual effort on November 10 at Carolina when he had a career-tying four-point performance (2g/2a) in a 4-2 victory over the Hurricanes at PNC Arena. He became the first Duck to record four points (or more) in a road game since Dec. 21, 2013 when Ryan Getzlaf had a hat trick and four points against the New York Islanders.
When the playoffs rolled around, Silfverberg took his game to another level. He paced the Ducks in goals (9) and finished second in points (14), ranked tied for second in game-winning goals (2) and third in power-play points (3). Only two Ducks have scored more in a single postseason than Silfverberg: Andy McDonald (10 in 2007) and Corey Perry (10 in 2015).
He did his most damage in the Second Round against the Edmonton Oilers, finishing with eight points (5g/3a) in seven games, including an overtime dagger in Game 4 at Rogers Place that evened the series at two games apiece. With his goal that night, Silfverberg joined Getzlaf as the first players in franchise history to score seven goals in the first eight playoff games of any postseason.
Silfverberg married his longtime girlfriend, Clara Welin Brook, this past weekend in Högbo, Sweden (just east of their hometown, Gavle). Among those in attendance were teammates Rakell and Hampus Lindholm, as well as Nashville Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm.
