In Sonny Milano's four-year pro career, this season has seen him earn the least average ice time to date.
After seeing 55 games of action last season and racking up 14 goals in the process, Milano seemed to be a favorable choice as a third or fourth-line winger going into this year, who would at the very least contribute to the Blue Jackets' scoring woes.
But after five games and an average workload of under eight minutes per game all while the Jackets still seem to be having some problems putting the puck in the net (ranked in the middle of the league in goals for), we kind of have to wonder what happened.
"I know how to use him (Milano), I know how I want to...I have not been able to do it yet," said head coach John Tortorella in a press conference on Monday. "I need to get him in more offensive situations."
In short, it's more complicated than just throwing Milano on the ice more often. There's a few prohibiting this at the moment, as explained by Tortorella.
One is that Anthony Duclair threw a (good) wrench in the plan for wingers' ice time. Duclair has already tallied three points, seen some minutes on the No. 1 power play unit, and is averaging the most ice time of his career at 15:37 – almost double what Milano is getting.
Not many could have guessed all those things would be happening just a few weeks in to the season, which has made this process even more difficult for the head coach.
Tortorella said the same case could be made for Oliver Bjorkstrand. From an outsider's perspective, Milano and Bjorkstrand have been invisible. But their playing time has been a big reasoning for that, and jumping on the ice at seemingly random times and not establishing consistency would be hard for any player.
This leads to Tortorella's other reason that Milano hasn't gotten as many opportunities, and it's that the stars for the Blue Jackets just aren't shining quite yet. They haven't found their groove to the point where younger guys like Milano are able to benefit from a truly balanced lineup. The minutes are going to the top guys right now because the Blue Jackets need them to start clicking.
"I'm trying to get (Pierre-Luc) going, Bread has points, but is any anyone really firing on all cylinders?" Tortorella said. "That's where Sonny kind of gets lost a bit. He's on my mind, he's always on my mind. He scored 13, 14 goals last season. I've gotta figure out how to utilize him."
There are mixed opinions on Milano and whether he can be a top-six NHL forward, but the bottom line is that he can score, and you'd be lying if you said the Blue Jackets don't need help in that department right now. And according to Tortorella, Milano's growth is reason for optimism, though he'll have to wait a little while to get a chance higher in the lineup.
"There's some guys that are higher on the list right now for me is the best way to put it. He certainly deserves consideration to be put in more offensive considerations...I have to make some decisions of where I go first before I start going down the line."
