Even though Jake Guentzel had already spent parts of two seasons in the NHL and been highly productive — especially come playoff time — I still didn’t truly know what to expect from him this season.
His playoff performance speaks for itself, and even though he still scored 22 goals a season ago it still seemed to be a very “quiet” 22 goals in the sense that he didn’t always stand out. Then there was also the Sidney Crosby variable where you had to determine how much of his goal-scoring success was related to Crosby, and how good he could be independent of playing next to one of the best players of all-time.