The most surprising and disappointing NHL players this season

Ilya Kovalchuk's return from the KHL did not go as anybody planned. The Los Angeles Kings were hoping he could spark one of the league's worst offenses, but it never quite clicked for him or the team. Kovalchuk was a healthy scratch on more than one occasion and never gained the trust of new coach Willie Desjardins after he was hired in the middle of the season. 

The surprise isn't that Leon Draisaitl had a good season, it's that he had a great season. He has taken a huge step forward in his development and shattered all of his previous career highs to became one of the NHL's most dominant offensive players. Draisaitl and Connor McDavid ended up as the first set of teammates to both record at least 100 points in a season since Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom did it for the Washington Capitals back in 2009-10. 

After spending a couple of years in the KHL, the Stars lured Valeri Nichushkin back to Dallas with a two-year, $5.9 million contract in the hopes he could fully realize some of the potential he flashed earlier in his career. It never happened. Nichushkin ended up setting an NHL record by going through the first 50 games of the season without scoring a goal or taking a penalty. It was a non-eventful season for a player the Stars had big hopes for. 

When Jordan Binnington made his first career start for the St. Louis Blues on Jan. 7, they had the worst record in the Western Conference and the third-worst record in the NHL. Their season looked over. It was at that point that Binnington, a 25-year-old rookie, helped turn that around by almost instantly becoming one of the league's best goalies, winning 22 of his first 30 starts and helping the Blues rapidly climb the standings. 

Martin Jones has always been a solid starter for the San Jose Sharks and even backstopped them to the Stanley Cup Final in 2016. But something went wrong for him this season, as he not only put together the worst season of his career but also one of the worst seasons of any goalie in the NHL. Between him and backup Aaron Dell, the Sharks have the worst team save percentage in the NHL and it's looking like the Achilles' heel of an otherwise great team. 

In Max Domi's final two years in Arizona he scored a total of 18 goals, with four of those being empty-net goals. His offensive game had badly regressed, and it was starting to look like he was never going to be a top-line goalscorer. In his first year with the Montreal Canadiens, he ended up topping both the 25-goal and 70-point marks. Nobody saw that sort of offensive production coming from him. 

Like for every player in Los Angeles, it was a very forgettable season for Drew Doughty. Always one of the league's best defensive players, Doughty is on track to finish the 2018-19 season with one of the worst plus-minus marks in the league. Along with that, he also saw his offensive numbers decline from where they were a year ago. 

Maybe Elias Lindholm just needed a fresh start with a new team. Acquired by Calgary from the Carolina Hurricanes as part of the Dougie Hamilton trade, Lindholm finally became the player he was expected to be when he was selected with the No. 5 overall pick in 2013. He nearly doubled all of his previous career highs, was close to a point-per-game player and is one of the driving forces behind the Flames' rise to the top spot in the Western Conference. 

While Barry Trotz gets all of the credit, the real stars of the New York Islanders' turnaround have been their two goalies, specifically Robin Lehner. After a miserable 2017-18 season with the Buffalo Sabres, Lehner's career has been rejuvenated with the Islanders. He is going to finish the season with one of the league's top save percentages and help the Islanders go from being the NHL's worst defensive team a year ago to one of its best. 

The Edmonton Oilers were hoping that Tobias Rieder could come in and provide some of the scoring depth the team had lacked the past few years. He did not score a goal in his first 60 games and was the focal point of some harsh, and ultimately misguided, criticism from team CEO Bob Nicholson that directly blamed him, of all people, for the team missing the playoffs. 

Losing starting goalie Antti Raanta to injury could have been a devastating blow for the Arizona Coyotes' playoff chances. But it wasn't because his backup, Darcy Kuemper, was able to step in and put together one of the most impressive, and surprising, individual seasons in the league. A backup for most of his career, Kuemper's .924 save percentage is one of the biggest reasons the undermanned and injury-plagued Coyotes have hung around in the playoff race. 

His skill level and potential was obvious the moment he stepped on the ice in the preseason, but nobody expected Elias Pettersson to jump right into the Vancouver Canucks lineup and have a rookie season quite like this. He has not only been the best rookie in the league, but he also has immediately become one of the NHL's must-see players. He is the superstar the rebuilding Canucks need to build around. 

All summer the Pittsburgh Penguins talked about Daniel Sprong as if he was going to be a significant part of their 2018-19 lineup. It never happened, and after more healthy scratches and limited ice time Pittsburgh sent him to the Anaheim Ducks where he was expected to finally get a real opportunity. Unfortunately for him, and the Ducks, it has been more of the same since the trade, as he remains more potential than production. 

The Chicago Blackhawks' championship window seems to have slammed shut for this current core, and the decline of their defense is one of the biggest reasons why. The bright spot on that group, though, has been 26-year-old Erik Gustafsson thanks to his career year that saw him be one of the most productive blue-liners in the NHL. He is still signed for one more season at a bargain rate of $1.2 million and figures to be one of the team's reasons for optimism heading into next season. 

This is about expectations more than anything else. For most players Patrik Laine's 2018-19 campaign would be viewed as a successful, productive performance. But Laine, when he is at his best, is one of the NHL's top-five goal-scorers and maybe even a player who could challenge Alex Ovechkin for the league lead. Instead, Laine's season was filled with inconsistency and extended goal droughts that never allowed him to reach that elite level. 

Unsigned for much of the first half as a restricted free agent, when William Nylander finally rejoined the Toronto Maple Leafs the offensive brilliance that he displayed over the first three years of his career never really showed. The Maple Leafs have a ton of money invested in him, and he should be better than he has been this season. But there is no denying the 2018-19 season has been a disappointing one for him. 

With Erik Karlsson gone and the rebuild underway, the Ottawa Senators need hope for the future. There was no player who provided more of it for them this season than Thomas Chabot. He is the future of their defense and had a breakout season that saw him become one of the best offensive blue-liners in the league. He may not be Karlsson, but he is a darn good replacement. 

The Nashville Predators acquired Kyle Turris last year in a three-team blockbuster to help improve their center depth. They had high hopes for what he could provide to the lineup, immediately signing him to a long-term contract extension. But the 2018-19 season has been a stunningly down year for Turris, as his production dropped to levels he had not seen since the early part of his career when he was still finding his way in the NHL. He can be a difference-maker in the middle when he is at his best, and if the Predators are going to make a Stanley Cup run they will need him to rediscover that scoring touch. 

Columbus' Cam Atkinson might be the NHL's most overlooked goalscorer, but he has elevated his play even more this season becoming just the second Blue Jackets player to ever score 40 goals in a season, joining only Rick Nash. The Blue Jackets have him signed for six more years after this one at what should be a bargain rate of $5.875 million per season. 

Ben Bishop has been a finalist for the Vezina Trophy, awarded annually to the league's best goalie, two different times in his career. But it had been a couple of years since he played at that level, and now that he is 32 years old it seemed unlikely he was ever going to get back there. But here is, quietly emerging as a front-runner for the award with the league's best save percentage and an incredible season that has helped carry the Dallas Stars back to the playoffs.