Even without the dynamic duo of Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, the Anaheim Ducks were able to put up a fight against the New York Islanders eventually falling in overtime 3-2.
To have any chance of winning, they would have had to find a way to replace 36% of their total goals missing by the absence of Getzlaf and Perry. Eventually, they got some from Matt Beleskey who scored his sixth goal of the season.
Outside of Perry, Beleskey has been the team’s most consistent scorer doubling up the next player on the scoring list for the Ducks. The fourth-round pick in the 2006 draft scored 41 goals and 90 points in his last year in the Ontario Hockey League. The 41 goals was one higher than a then 17-year-old John Tavares scored that same year. Tavares scored two goals including the overtime winner in the game.
The Ducks are entering the second season since they traded former Getzlaf/Perry wingman Bobby Ryan, and since then, they have been looking for a permanent fixture on the top line. Ryan scored 30 goals in four straight years primarily playing with Getzlaf and Perry, but the Ducks have tried to plug and play since then to no real avail.
They brought back Dustin Penner last season to try and reignite the old magic of the ‘PPG’ line that led him to score 29 goals his rookie season and despite some initial flashes, he was eventually sent to the Washington Capitals at the trade deadline.
Beleskey offers a great blend of grit and budding skill that would make him a perfect third wheel to one of the best tandems in the league. In the same way Jonathan Cheechoo piled up a plethora of goals playing with Joe Thornton, Beleskey can do that with Getzlaf, who has 466 assists in 646 career games.
Fourteen games into the regular season, Beleskey is only five goals away from tying his career high of 11 in which he scored in 2009-10. With an increased shooting percentage, he could push the 30-goal mark, but at 14% that will be hard to maintain.
Even if Beleskey drops back to his career average of 8.7%, at 2.92 shots per game he will still top the 20-goal plateau this season. Anaheim only had four players top that mark last season and lost one to the Vancouver Canucks by trade in Nick Bonino (in fairness, they got one back in return).
Some of the more true ‘power forwards’ take a little longer to come along. Beleskey showed in juniors the more he played the better he got. As a fourth-round pick, it’s no surprise that it has taken him a few years to tap into his scoring touch, especially since he has never been in a scoring role for the most part.
With more of an opportunity – on pace to have his highest average TOI of his career – as well as the potential of playing with one of the league’s best playmaker, it appears Beleskey is well on his way to a career year and becoming the secondary scoring source the Ducks need.
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