Kole Sherwood has had an up and down development path.
He can’t seem to string two good seasons in a row. He was fantastic last season playing with the Flint Firebirds. He had a prominent role on the team and with 85 points in 60 games and was an integral part in helping them reach the playoffs. This season Sherwood came into Blue Jackets camp, hoping to earn himself a spot on the Cleveland Monsters. He was unable to do so and was sent back to the Ontario Hockey League for his overage season.
This was a smart move for the organization, they learned from their mistakes in how they handled Dante Salituro a year prior. Salituro was in a similar situation to Sherwood, he had the option to return for one final OHL season, but the Jackets kept him around and he bounced between the AHL and ECHL hardly ever playing. By the time he was returned to the OHL in January he had played just 12 games.
Once it was known Sherwood would be returning to junior, the Firebirds, who are entering a rebuild, traded him to the Kitchener Rangers, who were expected to be one the best teams in the league and potentially challenge for the Memorial Cup. Sherwood was expected to be a major part of that. He would be playing with a much better supporting cast than what he had in Flint, 100 points didn’t seem out of question.
Kitchener has lived up to the hype, through 54 games they lead their division with 76 points and have already clinched a playoff spot. Sherwood however hasn’t been as big a part of that as he was expected to be. He’s played in 43 games and has 24 goals and 23 assists. His 47 points and 1.09 points per game both rank third on the team. He hasn’t played terribly he’s just taken a step back from last season.
Graphic courtesy of prospect-stats.com
Sherwood remains a very good goal scorer; of his 24, two came this past Wednesday when I was in attendance. Sherwood has a good shot, it might be his best tool, but what was interesting was the location of the goals. Both were scored from nearly identical spots on the ice.
Both goals are scored from basically the same spot on the ice, the high right slot. This is common for Sherwoord take a look at his shot heat map, again from prospect-stats.com.
What’s interesting about shot location is that it can be an indication of how a player is going to play at the next level. Steven Burtch wrote a piece back in 2016 looking at OHL shot locations and found that OHL players take a lot more low and medium danger shots than NHL players. This is because the goalies are not as good and you can score from farther out. The players who consistently get to the high danger areas of the ice in junior should continue to do so at the professional level.
Sherwood does get to the high danger areas of the ice, it just not as consistent as you would like. He has 20 high danger shots on the season, tied for 89th in the league. He has 22 medium danger shots and 123 low danger shots. 20 of his 24 goals this season have come from low and medium danger areas, including both goals above. Last season he had 23 high danger shots and 28 of his 33 goals were from the low and medium area of the ice. He’s definitely getting to the slot more this season but it’s not at an elite level and that doesn’t inspire confidence for his future.
What that being said all is not lost for Sherwood. Of his 47 points, 41 have been primary. His overall drop in offense has come primarily from fewer secondary assists. He’s been a very good player at 5 on 5 this season, scoring 18 of his goals. He has 30 primary points at 5 on 5, tied for 19th in the league.
Sherwood reminds me a little bit of Josh Anderson when Anderson was a junior player. Sherwood isn’t as aggressive physically as Anderson was, but a similar skillset in terms of a big body who can skate pretty well and has good shot. Sherwood is going to need a couple seasons in the AHL, just like Anderson, but he has potential. If Sherwood can make the adjustment and shoot a little closer to the net, his game should translate to the AHL and from there he’s just one step away from being a Columbus Blue Jacket.
