The Vegas Golden Knights have had the most successful expansion year in NHL history and now their players are starting to get rewarded.
As they refer to him, Jonathan “The Corsi God” Marchessault, earned a 6-year, $30 million dollar contract after playing just above league minimum for the past two seasons. Marchessault went undrafted in the NHL and is on his fourth team in the league. At 27 years old, it’s odd that last year was the first real shot that anyone gave him in the NHL.
So, why is he just earning all of this attention now? Probably, because of his height (5’9”).
There is a meme that circulates the internet nowadays about how women perceive the difference between a 5’11” and 6’0” man to be far more substantial than it really is, but it might be more accurate when applied to NHL organizations. Time and time again, smaller players prove that there are different styles that will thrive in the NHL.
Some teams seem more willing to give smaller players a shot and they’re reaping the rewards.
Just look at the Tampa Bay Lighting, who actually gave Marchessault his first season in the NHL with more than two games played, are lighting up the NHL with a shorter roster than most. Tyler Johnson, Cory Conacher, Ryan Callahan, J.T. Brown, Yanni Gourde, Nikita Kucherov, Vladislav Namestnikov, Brayden Point and Anton Stralman are all under 6 feet and thriving in Tampa. Of course, they have some taller players as well (Victor Hedman, Andrej Sustr, Braydon Coburn etc.), but this isn’t saying taller players can’t have success, it’s just that height shouldn’t be as significant of a factor as it currently is when drafting and building a roster.
Of course, they were also the home for perhaps the most successful player to ever be overlooked because of size, Martin St. Louis.
Not many people would have predicted this amount of success for Marchessault (37 points in 35 games this season and 30 goals last season), but as shorter players across the league prove their ability to get it done in the NHL (Clayton Keller, Johnny Gaudreau, Brayden Point, Brad Marchand etc.), perhaps shorter players will stop dropping in the draft and dominating in the AHL. Because even when shorter players are drafted or signed by teams, they still might not get the same shot that a team might offer to a less-skilled, bigger player.
That’s pretty evident when you look at AHL scoring and see that four out of five of their top scorers are under 6’0” and led by 5’7” Chris Bourque (Who has dominated the AHL and never been given more than 20 games from an NHL team).
