Allan McShane
The Montreal Canadiens drafted Allan McShane in the fourth round of the 2018 NHL Draft. The Collingwood, Ontario native had already played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League at that point and made himself an interesting prospect by putting up decent numbers over those two years.
As a 16 year old, McShane split his first OHL season with the Erie Otters and Oshawa Generals. He had 44 points in 62 games as a rookie, which is pretty solid production. It must have been hard to find power play time in Erie, since the team had Alex DeBrincat, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh among others that were much older and more experienced than McShane.
Still, he put up decent numbers and then improved upon that production in his draft year. McShane scored 20 goals and 65 points in 67 games during his second season in the OHL. Those numbers obviously caught the eye of the Canadiens and they took McShane with the 97th pick in the NHL Draft.
When an NHL team drafts a player out of Junior hockey, they should expect his production to increase following his draft year. McShane set the bar pretty high by scoring just below a point per game pace before being drafted. The problem is, he is still at the same rate two years later.
Last year, McShane slightly increased his scoring numbers by putting up 34 goals and 69 points in 62 games. So, his points per game went up a little, but he was a far more dangerous goal scoring threat a year after being drafted. This season, he played the same number of games (62), but scored 23 goals and 67 points.
So, this season, McShane’s points per game dropped slightly compared to last year and his goal totals went way down. That’s not the trajectory you want to see from a teenager. McShane’s production has been very consistent the past three seasons. Consistency is great from a 25 year old in the NHL, but when a player is in Junior, you want to see his scoring rates increasing every year.