2015 Season In Review: Andrew Cogliano

Cogliano's fourth season in Anaheim saw him hit a milestone on November 23rd. With Jay Bouwmeester of the St. Louis Blues unable to take the ice against the Winnipeg Jets, he surrendered the title of reigning NHL Ironman to the Duck speedster, who still has yet to miss a single game in his eight year career. One of, if not the most astounding things about this streak is the fact that Cogliano has played 622 consecutive games while being a guy who never shies away from the physicality of the game. Last season, Cogs dealt 139 hits, 5th most among Ducks (if you include Devante Smith-Pelly) players. This really isn't a "holy smokes" statistic in and of itself, but Cogliano is a pretty small dude by NHL standards. This season, the average skater in the NHL stood at about 6'1" and weighed in at just over 200 pounds (info courtesy of hockey-graphs.com). Our boy, by comparison, is 5'10" and 184 pounds. A 15-20 pound differential isn't ridiculous, but the fact that Cogs has been squaring up with that deficit for the last eight years without getting injured to the point of missing even one game is incredibly impressive, and is very much deserving of the Ironman title.

Season in Review

Although Cogliano did not end up putting the puck in the net as frequently as he did last year, he still remained a crucial part of the forward corps. Due to his versatility as a go-to winger to take faceoffs if his center ever got kicked out of the circle, and especially his speed, Cogs was a strong asset to the penalty killing unit. Even when the opposing teams were up a man, they always had to be wary of where #7 was on the ice due to situations like this:

If you let him get behind you, you're not catching him. Skaters in Cogliano's vicinity during a 5-on-4 situation were one bad pass or poke check away from a breakaway going in the opposite direction. Although he missed more of those opportunities than we would've liked to see this season, he still managed to net three shorties this season, most out of all Ducks and good for 5th most in the league. Even on his missed breakaway chances, Cogliano still managed to kill 15-30 seconds of valuable penalty time while he was carrying the puck away from his net. Despite the misses, is that really a bad problem to have?

Another thing about that speed is that it makes Cogliano a little tougher to play once he gets those jets turned on. A good example is shown here:

If you make a play on him too early you run the risk of getting beat, which is even more dangerous when you're the last guy between him and your goalie. Kevin Connauton tried to keep Cogs along the boards as opposed to him making a move to the inside, but instead, those wheels got him around the Columbus defenseman effortlessly, and the velocity and angle at which he was driving to the net caused Sergei Bobrovsky to give up that near side post. The result makes both Connauton and Bobrovsky look silly.

More often than not, whenever Cogliano did light the lamp he ended up going into a multi-week drought before he scored again. Fortunately, his skill set is one that allows him to generate many opportunities as the year progresses, so it's not a stretch by any means to assume that his production can rise slightly next season.

2014-15 Stats

Ducks Impact

There's not a lot to add here that wasn't generally stated in the season overview. Cogliano is a depth scorer for the Ducks who didn't produce as much as he did throughout the his career high filled 13-14 campaign. The additions of wingers Carl Hagelin and Chris Stewart may result in him seeing less playing time next season. However, his quickness, presence on the penalty kill, and veteran experience among the depth players will likely ensure that he still gets a good portion of ice time.