For part three of this series, Columbus Blue Jacket’s forward Kirill Marchenko gets his grade on his 2023-24 season performance. In the first two parts, I graded Johnny Gaudreau and Zach Werenski. You can find the grading criteria in the first link. Keep in mind these grades focus mainly on how well a player did on the team and compared to their previous performances, not how well the team did.
The articles started with the team points leader and have been going down that list. As this is part three, Marchenko is in third place with 23 goals and 19 assists for 42 points. He led the Blue Jackets in goals. He is in a seven-way tie at 177th place for points in the NHL. This season, he played 78 games with an average of 0.53 points per game. Of his 193 shots, he scored 11.9% of them. Kirill made 55 hits to give him the tenth most hits on the team and had 39 blocks, putting him at 13th.
Last season he played 59 games and got 21 goals and four assists for a total of 25 points. That gave him an average of 0.42 points per game. He blocked 39 shots and made 34 hits.
Grade: A-
Kirill Marchenko’s improvement from last season greatly affected his grade. Last season he broke the Blue Jacket’s franchise record of most goals by a rookie. This year, he broke his personal goal record and set a new high in assists. One thing that hurt his grade this year was his goalless streaks. He started the year with no goals for the first seven games and had a nine-game streak between February and March. Despite that, he was at the top of the team in goals and near the top in points. As one of the Blue Jackets’ top forwards, his shooting percentage could be a little better. Kirill was second only to Werenski in shots and more than doubled his shooting percentage, but to compete with other NHL top forwards, he’ll need to find a way to raise it even higher.
If Marchenko wants to improve his grade for next season, it may not take much. Besides finding a way to increase his goals, he needs to continue the trajectory of his development and make the most of every opportunity he gets. One thing that has been surprising about his game is his defensive skills. He had the fifth most blocks of any Blue Jacket’s forwards. While +/- is not the best stat, no one on the “Russian line” had less than -6. The chemistry between him and his fellow Russian linemates Yegor Chinakhov and Dmitri Voronkov has been key to their success this season. Their hockey IQ and skills combined could make them a powerhouse in the NHL.
Next season, Columbus will have a new general manager, which could come with other changes. Given a full training camp with a singular head coach and having a plan to focus on could help Marchenko find even more success. With the head coaching debacle at the start of the Blue Jacket’s season, one could wonder if having fewer distractions and more consistency from up top could help the team and individual players find more consistency.
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