When he suffered a season-ending injury against the Chicago Blackhawks on April 1st, Gabriel Bourque was the Predators' leading goal-scorer.

Gabriel Bourque #57 / Left Wing / Nashville Predators Height: 5-10 Weight: 192 Born: Mar 04, 1989 1st Quarter Grade: B 1st Half Grade: B

GP G A P +/- PIM PPG SHG GWG

SOG PCT 2012 - Gabriel Bourque 34 11 5 16 +6 4 3 1 2 50 22.0

Fancy Stats

5-on-5 Usage EV TOI/Gm OZ % QoT QoC 13:54 45.2 +0.57 +0.85 Individual Team Metrics 5-5 Shots/60 5-5 Pts/60 Corsi On Corsi Rel 5.59 1.56 -4.68 +1.00 Power Play Penalty Kill PP TOI/Gm 5-4 GF On/60 5-4 Pts/60 PK TOI/Gm 4-5 GA On/60 1:03 8.32 4.99 0:51 6.11 Penalty Plus/Minus Favor of the Hockey Gods Taken Drawn On-Ice Sht% On-Ice Sv% PDO 0.3 0.9 10.19 934 1036

Fortune smiled upon Gabby to a large extent this season, but his underlying performance was nevertheless impressive. He seems to be a solid option for 2nd- or 3rd-line winger duty, and when he made the jump to Ludicrous Speed, opponents often had little option but to hook, hold, or trip him to prevent a scoring chance (his balance of Penalties Drawn to Penalties Taken was best among Nashville's regulars).

He was also productive on both sides of special teams, and perhaps warrants a larger role there going forward.

My Grade: A- (what's yours? vote in the poll below...)

Outlook

Bourque is under contract for two more seasons (at a bargain salary of $725K next year, then $825K in 2014-15). If he can continue to productively fill a Top 9 role, that's a huge win in a salary cap league.

Here's to hoping his recovery from recent meniscus surgery goes well, and he's ready to fly right from the start of next season. His game-breaking speed is a valuable addition to the lineup, and provides a much different challenge to opposing defenses than Colin Wilson's less speedy, but more physical approach from the left wing.

While it's not realistic to expect him to continue scoring on 20% or more of his shots, he could still provide something like 15-20 goals and a similar number of assists from a depth role, with the ability to step up as needed should injury strike.

2013 Highlight

Witness Bourque's skating ability on this shortie he scored against San Jose:





A guide to the Fancy Stats table above: 5-on-5 data is at the top, with Even Strength ice time per game, Offensive Zone Start percentage (% of non-neutral zone faceoffs taken in the offensive end) and Quality of Teammate and Quality of Competition measures, based on Relative Corsi.

Next we have how many shots on goal that player took per 60 minutes of 5-on-5 time, then Points earned per 60, followed by the basic Corsi measure, and then Corsi Relative (how his numbers compared to what the team did while he was on the bench).

Below that we get into special teams. For power play, we show ice time per game, the scoring rate for the team while that player was on the ice, and how many points he earned per 60 minutes of 5-on-4 play. For penalty killing, we show ice time and the rate at which goals were given up.

Lastly, we show how many penalties a player took during 5-on-5 play per 60 minutes, and how many he drew from his opponents (thus generating Power Plays for the Preds). Lastly, we show the team shooting & save percentage while that player was on the ice in 5-on-5 play, the sum of which is PDO. Individual skaters have very little influence over these numbers, so they are a very good indication of how "puck luck" worked for or against him.

Red values are bad, green are good, and the more intense the color, the more extreme the value. Basically, the lighter version of the color reflects being in the top/bottom 30% of the league based on position, with the more saturated color representing the top/bottom 10%. Values without a background color are in the middle 40%.

Data for the Fancy Stats table was consolidated from NHL.com and Behind The Net.