Is Tim Stützle ready to cement himself as a top 20 player?

With the Ottawa Senators beginning their season 8-4-0, the team has been propped up by the strong starts of a few of their key players. One of their most important players has been centre Tim Stützle. The 24-year-old German has begun the season by scoring 8 goals and 8 assists in the team’s first 12 games. His 16 points rank tied for 11th in NHL scoring, and his 8 goals are tied for 7th in the league.

Currently, the Senators star has 425 points in 459 games, all before the age of 25. TSN tweeted after the boisterous win over the Florida Panthers that Stützle had just passed Leon Draisaitl for the most career points by a European-trained player prior to age 25. With a January 15th birthday, Stützle has the opportunity to pass David Pastrnak (427), Anze Kopitar (434), Mats Sundin (437), and potentially Ilya Kovalchuk (466). This is an incredible feat for Stützle, who some thought had most likely hit his ceiling as a point-per-game player, which is still extremely impressive.

What has made Stützle’s campaign even more impressive this season has been the rotating cast of wingers he’s played with. So far this season, he has played with Andre Burakovsky, Warren Foegele, Drake Batherson, Nick Cousins, William Eklund, Claude Giroux, Stephen Halliday and Fabian Zetterlund, who is half of the forward corps. Coach Travis Green has had a challenge finding the right fit for his star centre. However, analytically, the line of Stützle, Giroux and Zetterlund is beginning to heat up offensively, with a 95% xGoals% and an xGoals against of 0.1. If this pairing is able to stay together for the foreseeable future, not only will Stützle’s point totals go up.

On top of that, Stützle is also dedicated to the defensive side of the game as well. He’s taking more and more faceoffs and currently sits at 54% this season. On top of that, he’s being played on PK2 and already has a shorthanded goal this season. Though his defensive analytics look average at the moment, that may have more to do with the Senators as a team rounding into form than anything else.

Stützle has many of the tools that coaches in the NHL dream of: a great shot, high hockey IQ, great skating ability, and a willingness to be coached. Once coach Green took over as the bench boss,
Stützle's game became more complete as opposed to simply offence-driven. As fans have seen, his offensive game hasn't suffered much at all; he's been able to find a happy balance that Green expects of his players. He's become much stronger on his feet and falling significantly less, winning puck battles along the walls and corners, and routinely hitting the opposition. When he gets the chance to flip to offence, though, and use his incredible skating speed, that's when he shocks opposing defences. It plays like below, where he's able to use his skating to create separation from the defender and get a clean look on the net.

With Stützle’s offence and defensive game rounding into form, he has the opportunity to become a bona fide top-20 player in the league this season. He’s a dual threat of playmaking and goal scoring, and if he continues at the pace he’s played at, he’s looking at 54 goals and 54 assists over an 84-game stretch. That most likely isn’t attainable, but with how he’s playing and not cheating for offence as he did in the year he scored 90 points, it’s very likely he sets career highs this year.

If the Senators continue their winning ways, general manager Steve Staios may want to reward the team early with an acquisition for the top six to play with Stützle. With the pace the Senators are playing at this season, it’s likely they’ll find themselves in the playoffs again and be more than ready to advance past the first round, with Stützle playing a key part in that.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow