When the Dallas Stars traded a 2020 second round pick and recent seventh round pick Dylan Ferguson to the Vegas Golden Knights for Marc Methot, fans were split on the move. Many saw Methot — who played with Erik Karlsson on the Ottawa Senators’ top defensive pairing — as the ideal partner for John Klingberg, and hoped Methot’s steady defensive game would help Klingberg develop into yet another Swedish blue line superstar.
Others saw Methot as a possession black hole who was arguably holding Karlsson back, and that the veteran defenseman could potentially worsen Klingberg’s game while eating up the ice time of some of the younger defenseman on the roster, such as Esa Lindell. And of course others didn’t have much of an opinion, electing to take a “let’s wait and see” approach to the trade.
So how did Methot end up doing? Unfortunately for the Stars and their fans, it’s still hard to say. Although Methot never had a history with injuries — I don’t count Methot’s “shattered finger” from last spring since that’s not a typical injury — the Stars defenseman missed most of the season due to various injuries, including a knee surgery. Methot ended up playing in just 36 games, second least out of all players to play at least 10 games with the Stars. Only Jason Dickinson played less, and he spent most of the time in Cedar Park, getting full-time duty only when Martin Hanzal underwent season-ending surgery.
Even when he was in the lineup, it was hard to get a good read on Methot. He only finished with three points, including his first goal in over two years, but the team never expected offensive firepower out of him. On the defensive front, he started 58.2% of his shifts in the defensive zone (all stats courtesy of hockey-reference.com), and was fifth on the team in plus/minus with +11, finishing behind only Esa Lindell (+19) out of defenseman.
However, Methot was never the top line partner for John Klingberg that fans had envisioned him as. He ended up paired with Stephen Johns most of the season, and saw Dan Hamhuis and Greg Pateryn take on the tougher assignments as the Stars’ shutdown defensive pair. Methot had an average time on ice of 15:41 at even strength, fifth among defenseman and above only Stephen Johns and Julius Honka, and his 2:08 ATOI while shorthanded was only fourth.
Then there’s the advanced statistics. Methot had the lowest Corsi For % out of players with at least 10 games played with 47.5%. His Fenwick For % wasn’t much better; at 48.7%, it ranked above only Martin Hanzal and Jason Dickinson. For comparison, Pateryn was the only other defenseman with a CF% less than 50% (his was 49.8%), and all other defenseman were above 50% for FF%.
All in all, Methot probably deserves an “Incomplete” grade more than anything. His season was derailed by injuries, and it’s hard to get a read on his performance when he was on the ice, if you consider that he might have been playing hurt. But on the other hand, that’s just how the cookie crumbles sometimes.
Grade Marc Methot’s 2017-2018 Season
| A – One of our best defensemen when in the lineup. | 8 |
| B – Good trade, just wish he had been healthy more. | 67 |
| C – Hard to judge based on how few games he played. | 198 |
| D – Both injuries and play were disappointing. | 77 |
| F – Dylan Ferguson is going to be the next Henrik Lundqvist, isn’t he? | 19 |