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ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — The most eye-catching statistic for Nikita Scherbak this season with the AHL’s St. John’s IceCaps is not a good one.

Minus-26.

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That number would easily win you a green jacket at The Masters golf tournament, but it’s not a good one when you’re a hockey player. It’s even more eye-catching when you were the Canadiens’ first-round pick (26th overall) at the 2014 NHL Entry Draft.

Scherbak had by far the worst plus/minus on the IceCaps, who wrapped up the season with a 2-1 victory over the Hartford Wolf Pack on Saturday night and will miss the playoffs with a 32-33-11 record. Lucas Lessio had the second-worst number at minus-16 and Scherbak’s figure could have been even worse since he only played in 48 games because of an ankle injury.

“It’s hard to have a good feel of really what he can do and also to evaluate what happened this year because of his injuries,” coach Sylvain Lefebvre said. “Nikita’s got lots of talent. He’s easy to coach, he wants to learn. He does a lot of homework … he’ll watch a lot of video. Where we want him to be more of a professional is practice habits, workout habits. He’s improved a lot, but he needs to improve even more. Maybe it’s not natural in him to go hard every time.”