So, who is the true Chris Kreider?
The answer is that he is both. Perhaps the most accurate description from either camp is that he is streaky. Actually, he is incredible streaky and that means when critics say that he vanishes for long periods and has little impact on the team, they are right. But they are wrong when he is hot. When he is on a hot streak, he is the game changer that everyone hopes for and he is a key to the Rangers being a winning team.
How streaky is he? We took a look at the last five seasons and found that Kreider’s streaks are not limited to a handful of games, they go on for weeks. In fact, the last two years, the difference between his droughts and his hot streaks has been vast.
2019-20 season
Last season Kreider was in an extended slump for the two months of the season. In his first 28 games he scored six goals and added seven assists for 13 points. Over his last 35 games he scored 18 goals and 32 points. He increased his Goals Per Game (GPG) average from 0.21 to 0.51 and his Points Per Game(PPG) average from 0.46 to 0.91.
In other words, he doubled his production the last 35 games he played, just in time for him to cash in with his big contract. If he had not picked up play, there is no way the Rangers would have re-signed him and similarly, his revival was a big reason the Rangers played so well the back half of the season.
2018-19 season
Two seasons ago it was the reverse. Kreider started off hot and then he cooled off. In his first 52 games he scored 24 goals, a 0.46 GPG rate. He added 20 assists for 44 points, a .85 PPG rate. Over a full season, that would have meant 37 goals and 70 points. He finished with 28 goals and 52 points.
Over the last 27 games of the season he scored only four goals and four assists. That was a .15 GPG and .30 PPG rate for over one third of the season.
2017-18 season
While the last two seasons has shown radical shifts, he was less inconsistent in the 2017-18 season, most likely due to the fact that Kreider missed 24 games with a blood clot. In essence, he had to restart his season twice. As a result, he had two mediocre stretches of goal scoring, but had good assists totals after coming back from the blood clot.
2016-17 season
In 2016-17, Kreider had his best season as a goal scorer, totaling 28 goals in 75 games. But again, it was a tale of two seasons. In his first 40 games he scored 18 goals and totaled 34 points. The last 35 games he had only 10 goals and nine assists. That was a drop off in GPG from .45 to .28 and a drop in PPG from .85 to .54.
Again, instead of scoring what projected to be 36 goals and 70 points he finished with 28 goals and 53 points.
2015-16 season
The 2015-16 was Kreider’s fourth season in the NHL and at age 24 he was no longer a raw rookie. He displayed the same inconsistency that he has shown over the last five years. In the first 40 games of the season he scored only six goals. In the last 39 games he scored 15.