J.T. Compher remains an important part of the Avalanche’s young core. He had some ups and downs in 2017-18, but you can be sure of one thing: he’ll work hard to improve. Here’s a more detailed look at his season and a final grade at the end.

Overview

What started with a really strong training camp and a strong first half of the regular season tailed off quite a bit, statistically at least, for the former University of Michigan standout. It was kind of baffling, too. There’s so much to like about the kid – his energy, his toughness, his willingness to go into the hard areas – so it didn’t make a lot of sense that Compher would seem to get a bit smaller as the games got bigger.

Compher started the season with points in three of his first four games. He scored goals in four of five games, from Jan. 23-Feb. 6. He scored two goals in that big, blowout victory in Minnesota March 13, one of the biggest wins of the season.

But in the final 13 regular season games, Compher did not score a goal and only posted one assist. That, despite getting some pretty good ice time on a line with Tyson Jost and Alexander Kerfoot. He did post three points (all assists) in six playoff games, however. Defensively, the numbers weren’t great. Compher was a minus-29, the lowest on the team and one of the lowest numbers in the league. He doesn’t lack the will to go and hit opponents, but sometimes he does it outside the structure of the team defense. When you go to hit someone with the puck, but you don’t separate that player from the puck, or at least slow it down a lot, you can leave your teammates scrambling to plug the dike. That happened too often with some of Compher’s defensive game, and it will have to improve.

Biggest Moment

That March 13 win in Minny, 5-1, put the Avs temporarily ahead of the Wild in the first Wild Card spot. And, it really gave the Avs a lot of confidence moving down the stretch. Compher scored twice in the game, giving the Avs a 1-0 lead and putting the dagger in the Wild with a third-period goal that made it 4-1.

As previously noted, that would do it for goal-scoring the rest of the season for Compher.

What’s Next

Compher’s entry-level contract will expire after next season. He will make $925,000 in 2018-19. After that, he’ll be a restricted free agent. So, he’s not going anywhere for a while. Well, unless he were traded, of course. I don’t see that happening.

Final Grade

C+

I’ll go along with the grade from our proprietary analytics formula from the chart above. The point total (23) was a bit of a disappointment, and the minus-29 obviously is a bad-looking number. Arguably, this grade could have been a little lower.

But he does things that don’t always show up in easy-to-quantify ways. He’s a battler, a grinder, who works so hard. A little more channeling of his aggression into more useful ways would turn Compher into the player many still think he can become.