What should we expect from Boston Bruins’ right wing Ondrej Kase in 2021?
The Boston Bruins acquired right wing Ondrej Kase last season in a trade deadline deal that required the organization to send over forward David Backes and a 2020 first-round pick (turned out to be Jacob Perreault) to the Anaheim Ducks.
Since joining the Black and Gold, Kase hasn’t played much. He was put on injured reserve (IR) right after being acquired and wasn’t activated for almost a week.
After just six games and one assist with the B’s, the season was stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s not much time to get assimilated with your new team and prove your worth.
However, Kase would get another look in the playoffs, where he did much better. During the postseason, Kase seemed to finally find his spot in the lineup on the second line with Jake DeBrusk and David Krejci. In 11 playoff games, Kase was able to record four assists.
So, what exactly can we expect from Kase in 2021?
Over 204 career NHL games, Kase has a 0.21 goals per game and 0.26 assists per game for 0.48 points per game. However, every time he gets hot or is having a breakout season, he seems to get injured as he’s never played more than 66 games in a season.
Kase’s two best seasons were in 2017-18 and 2018-19 where he played 66 games and averaged 0.58 points per game, and 30 games and averaged 0.67 points per game.
If Kase can continue to hot play throughout this shortened 56-game season that he had in the playoffs where he was averaging 0.36 assists per game, we could get something similar to his 2017-18 season where he scored 20 goals and 18 assists for 38 points.
However, Kase doesn’t seem to be the goal scorer he once was, so I think he’ll have more assists than goals. In 2017-18 his goals per game was 0.30 and his assists per game was 0.27. In 2021, I’ll say he has a 0.25 goals per game and 0.30 assists per game for 0.55 points per game.
These averages would put him at 14 goals and 17 assists for 31 points if he’s able to play all 56 games.
However, with his injury history, I think Kase misses a few games. So let’s say he plays just 50 games this season. This puts him at 13 goals and 15 assists for 28 points.
Overall, I think Kase could have a season this good in 2021. He has the potential which can be seen by looking back at a couple of his earlier seasons with the Ducks, and with DeBrusk and Krejci on his line, he has the playmaker and finisher to be able to record a decent amount of goals and assists.