Avalanche season grades: Tyson Jost

Tyson Jost was drafted 10th overall in 2016 and enjoyed a successful freshman year at North Dakota before signing with the Avalanche and appearing in six NHL games. This past season was his first full year in the NHL.

Overview

Jost came into this season as the most hyped of Colorado’s many young players looking to secure jobs in the NHL. Alongside J.T. Compher and Alexander Kerfoot, among others, Jost was hoping to get off to a good start and have an impressive rookie season that set him up for future stardom. That…did not quite come to fruition. He suffered an injury during training camp that cut valuable ice time during the preseason. Despite starting on the opening night roster, he played just six games before another injury curtailed his first NHL season.

Jost missed several weeks and played a handful of games for the San Antonio Rampage before turning to the Avalanche. From there, he remained (mostly) healthy and found his legs in the NHL. While his 22 point-season isn’t anything particularly special, just five of those points were recorded during the 2017 portion of the schedule. He was producing at about a .5 PPG clip until an eight-game scoreless streak in March cratered his rate of production.

Despite being asked to play a pure chess piece role on the power play, Jost scored eight power play points this season, good for the eighth on the Avalanche. It wasn’t a statistically strong debut season for Jost but he got better in the second half and had some downright excellent games. There were obvious growing pains and unlike with Mikko Rantanen the year before, Jost was not given the luxury of playing alongside the best linemates the Avs had to offer.

Jost’s most common linemates this season were Compher, Kerfoot, Colin Wilson, and Sven Andrighetto. He also had a lengthy stretch on the fourth line next to Gabriel Bourque and Nail Yakupov. Despite playing just 65 games this season, Jost was fourth on the Avalanche in penalties drawn at even strength.

Biggest Moment

With the Avalanche trying to secure a playoff berth and on a road trip through California, Jost picked a good time for the first multi-goal game of his career. His two goals had the Avalanche up 3-1 going into the third period in Anaheim but the team couldn’t hang on and lost 4-3 in overtime. While without a doubt a disappointing end result given how they got there, the point proved pivotal as the Avs needed every single point in order to make the postseason. Jost’s best game of the season got them there.

What’s Next

Jost begins his second season at the ripe old age of 20 and his role is as uncertain as ever. Is he a center or a wing? Is he a second line player or not? Will he improve enough defensively that Gabe Landeskog won’t feel the need to make fun of Jost on Twitter? These are all questions Jost needs to answer next season.

He’s in just the second year of his ELC so his contract status is not likely to be a point of conversation for a couple more years.

Final Grade

C.

He was hurt early and spent the majority of the year as a 19-year-old kid in the NHL trying to find a role. Unfortunately, his play never really dictated a consistent spot in the lineup. That’s not a big surprise for a player his age. It was obvious there are some serious skills there and a long way to go in other aspects of his game. He’s still one of the pillars of Colorado’s future but it’s not hard to feel like his season wasn’t just a bit of a letdown. I expect he’ll have a fun sophomore season and this year will be a distant memory in no time.

His strong second half elevates him from a C-. He wasn’t very impactful in the postseason against Nashville but it’s also important to note the Predators got almost nothing done against him. He was among the lowest-event players on the Avs and essentially broke even