Micheal Ferland was an immediate impact player for the Carolina Hurricanes, showing his scoring ability as well as his physical style of play. He finished the 2018-19 season playing 71 games, scoring 17 goals, and dishing out 23 assists. There is something about these numbers that stand out, however.
Ferland tallied 11 goals and six assists before January 1 this past season. So, from January to the beginning of April, he only scored six goals, but gathered the majority of his 23 assists with 17. Why did Ferland’s goal scoring drop off at the start of the calendar year, but his assists went way up?