With Jones being called up, I thought I’d update my tracking numbers. As mentioned, I fell behind and probably won’t track all games in order to catch up a bit. Regardless, this should give you ‘some’ idea of how the D prospects are doing. 7 of the first 8 games are tracked.

Average TOI (all situations except for goalie-pulled)
Jones - 25:13
Lowe - 22:25
Bouchard - 22:20
Lagesson - 19:51 (2 games)
Day - 16:47 (1 game)
Kulevich - 16:40 (AHL contract)
Samorukov - 12:10
Corbett - 9:29 (2 games, AHL)
Desharnais - 6:42 (2 games, AHL)

Controlled Exits % (5x5 only, min 5 games)
Jones - 63.5%
Bouchard - 58.2%
Kulevich - 51.4%
Samorukov - 41.4%
Lowe - 40.7%

Controlled Exits / 60
Jones - 19.0
Bouchard - 16.6
Kulevich - 10.5
Lowe - 10.4
Samorukov - 8.8

D-zone turnovers / 60 (5x5, min 5 games played)
Samorukov - 6.62
Jones - 7.13
Kulevich - 8.20
Lowe - 8.52
Bouchard - 10.87 (he handles the puck a lot, so don’t panic; Jones was up here too and came down in the last couple games I tracked)

Shot contributions / 60 (shots on net + primary assists to shots on net, 5x5, min 5 games)

Samorukov - 8.09
Bouchard - 7.77
Jones - 6.18
Kulevich - 5.27
Lowe - 4.73

Controlled Entries Against % (lower number means they defend their own blue line better and either force more dump-ins or break up entries entirely)

Kulevich - 30%
Bouchard - 38.7%
Jones - 41.5%
Lowe - 43.3%
Samorukov - 52%

5x5 Corsi % (min 5 games)

Samorukov - 60.3%
Kulevich - 57%
Bouchard - 55.9%
Jones - 53.8%
Lowe - 52.5%

Note, up until the last game I tracked, Jones’ primary partner was Lowe & they played the heaviest minutes at evens. Samorukov played depth minutes.

Anyways, Jones has been very good in the games I tracked and Woodcroft leans on him in all situations. I’m not sure there’s much left for him to prove at the AHL level. He’s a #1D in the AHL at the age of 22 in his last year of his ELC.

Another note while I’m at it: I’ve been impressed with Bouchard. He’s an impact AHL D at barely 20yo. My only concern is he could be a step quicker. If he gets whatever juice Draisaitl got, look right out. We know he can move the puck, but his defense & positioning is solid.

Samorukov is going to need a bit more time. He’s got skill for sure and there’s clearly some good potential there but he’ll need a bit more time (and opportunity) relative to Bouchard.

I forgot to mention, Jones has done all this playing all but a small percentage of shifts on the right side.