Brendan Lemieux thriving in change of scenery with LA Kings

You can say that he is the definition of an analytical darling. The power play isn’t amazing, but he doesn’t play on it, therefore it’s not something to worry about when you look at the chart.

To compare this season to his last, here’s his RAPM chart from last year:

Lemieux went from being a replete liability on the ice at all times to a key piece on the roster. His improvement has been so drastic, it’s like every aspect of his RAPM chart was flipped around completely. Given, the Kings were a much worse team last year, but Brendan still looks like an utterly distinct skater in every single way.

He sure looks far more defensively responsible than he did before. He skates faster. He looks and feels like an amazing NHL player. I don’t know what he did this off-season, but whatever he did, it worked. You cannot deny that he’s changed his playing style while staying the chippy and aggravating bottom-six forward.

Listed above is the LA’s goals above replacement chart from the 2021-22 season so far. Notice the fourth-best GAR player on the Kings. It’s the man of the hour, Brendan Lemieux. Other than Arthur Kaliyev, he seems to be the most well-rounded player on the entire team when it comes to goals above replacement. When Lemieux has a better GAR than players like Alex Iafallo, Drew Doughty, and Anze Kopitar, you know he’s doing something right.

Here’s his WAR card from this season compared to his last. The stats on the left is his entire 2020-21 season, while the one on the right is this season’s stats added to the last year’s stats too. The sample size isn’t large enough to create a WAR card alone for this season, so the stats must be added. Either way, the improvement is visible. His wins above replacement have gone up 23 percent.

That’s one of the most improved WAR’s in the entire NHL. He’s improved offensively and defensively on 5 on 5, going up 17 and 10%. He has started to draw less penalties and take a few more bad ones, decreasing his penalties by 25%, but his finishing, or better yet scoring, has had a 30% increase up to 66%. For the LA Kings, who struggle to finish, that’s dignified beyond belief.

Here are a couple of other tinier stats that make Brendan Lemieux so portentous to the LA Kings:

Lemieux is seventh on the team in WAR with 0.5. He is also sixth on the team in SPAR (Standing Points Above Replacement) with 1, and sixth on the team in xG+/60 (expected goals plus per 60) with 0.068.

It’s these small statistics that prove how Lemieux is actually a charitable hockey player in this league. The narrative that Lemieux is some sort of fourth-line scrub who only fights, is completely dead. It’s a deception. The best part of his game is that he’s been a clutch team player while getting under the skin of literally everybody in the league that isn’t a Kings fan or Kings player.

He’s one of those players who you love to have on your team, but once you have to play against him, it’s your worst nightmare. 

The fans in LA love him, his teammates love him, and most importantly, the rest of the league hates him. It’s Brendan Lemieux, one of the most improved players in the NHL this year. Whether you want to hear it or not, Brendan has been one of LA’s MVPs this season and has been a key to most of the wins that LA has gotten this year.

The Kings are 10-4-2 with him in the lineup and 2-7-2 without him. It’s weird to say, but he’s been the heart and soul of this Kings team this year. If I’m Rob Blake, I’m starting to discuss the possibility of an extension for Lemieux in LA. He’s deserved it, and I’m sure the rest of the team would be excited to see him back for longer.