Rookie of Beniers

Update: On Wednesday, May 3, the NHL announced Matty Beniers as a finalist for the 2023 Calder Memorial Trophy.
It's been a remarkable year for Kraken rookie, Matty Beniers. There have been so many great moments in his first full NHL season, it's hard to describe all that the 2021 second overall Draft pick has brought to his team.
So, we decided not to try. We asked his teammates. "Describe Matty Beniers in three words."
Oliver Bjorkstrand answered first. "Young. Street smart. Superstar."
That checks out - let's look at why.

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The Young Gun

This season, at 20-years-old, Beniers leads this season's rookie class in goals (24) and total points (57) and is second in game winning goals (4). He is the youngest player in the NHL to reach 50-plus points this season.
That sounds pretty good but how does that stack up among what NHL first-season players have done historically?
We looked at the first 82 games of any NHL player in the modern cap era and current Entry Draft format (2004-05 season-present) to see how Beniers stacks up.
Across all those years, only 11 skaters have scored more goals: Sidney Crosby, Matt Duchene, Jack Eichel, Taylor Hall, Patrik Laine, Connor McDavid, Elias Pettersson, Jordan Staal, Steven Stamkos, Brady Tkachuk, and Jonathan Toews.
That's pretty good company to keep.
It also might be why, in addition to describing Beniers as a "perfectionist…he hates being bad at anything," Morgan Geekie picked the word "dawg, as in he's got that dawg in him." (For those of us not at hip as Geekie, that is someone who is "mentally tough and able to perform in important situations," according to Urban Dictionary.)

Let's look at Beniers' offensive output a different way. We can compare how the center's performance lines up against the average output of an NHL forward in their first 82 games (again, since 2004-05).

Seems Eeli Tolvanen was pretty spot on with his description of Beniers. He described the center as young and added with emphasis "carefree (and) star."

Mat(ty)ure Beyond His Years

One could certainly look at Beniers' offensive performance and there would be plenty to marvel at. But there's more. He is proving he's a difference maker in all three zones of the ice.
That's in line with Philipp Grubauer descriptors of "skilled" and "great guy" and Daniel Sprong's tag of "talented."
If we look at the tracking work of Corey Sznajder, we see the impact Beniers has on transition play.

For example, watch how the center moves the puck the entire length of the ice to create a scoring chance for his team.

And Beniers doesn't just maintain possession, he creates possession opportunities. He ends the regular season with 55 total takeaways. That's tied for 23rd most in the NHL and that's more than players like Anze Kopitar, John Tavares, Jamie Benn, and Brayden Point.
But if you're a first-year player and active defensively, you're probably likely to get called for an infraction or two, right? If we look at all rookies this season who played at least 300 minutes, the average number of penalty minutes was 8.7.
Matty Beniers has two.
That's right. Through 80 games of action, Beniers was called for just one penalty. Of all players to play at least 500 minutes this year, he's one of only seven players who have taken only one penalty (Cole Caufield, Ilya Mikheyev, Isac Lundestrom, Jesper Boqvist, Josh Bailey; Valeri Nichuskin).
Of those seven players, only one has more goals (Caufield) and none have more points.
To put that in a bigger context, Beniers is the only rookie in NHL history to have 57 or more points and take just one penalty and he is just the second player in the last 32 years to have accomplished that feat regardless of tenure (Ryan O'Reilly, 2013-14 and 2017-18).
Beniers ends the season as one of only four players in NHL history to play at least 80 games and get called for just one infraction (O'Reilly; Ben Smith, 2014-15; Butch Goring, 1977-78).

Viz courtesy of ROOT Sports NW, Data as of April 1, 2023
Sounds like Adam Larsson was onto something when one of the words he used to describe his teammate was "nice."

A Perfect "10"

All in all it's been a tremendous rookie campaign for Matty Beniers. He's showing that he can center the third highest scoring line in the league (40), and that he can also move the puck and drive possession all while playing with the best type of sportsmanship and conduct on the ice.
It doesn't seem far-fetched to say Beniers deserves to be in the conversation for both the Calder and Lady Byng trophies this year.
Dave Hakstol summarized the player best, but he needed more than three words.
"(Beniers) is a complete player," Hakstol said. "He takes a lot of pride in all the areas of the game. He continues to work at his game with and without the puck and that's physically and mentally. He's a guy that can think the game very well. He's extremely competitive. And he shows that day in and day out on the ice.
"He's always ready for the next challenge. He's ready for the next task. . .and it always comes with an excitement for that next opportunity."