I recently came across a blog post saying that the in thing is to exclude Horcoff from the PP, but that line of thinking is wrong. Well, I of course disagree. Besides the fact that we will have no less than three other viable options to play the RW half boards on the PP, Horcoff was brutal on the PP last season.
Horcoff was second on the team in PP minutes for forwards behind only Dustin Penner. Penner had 17PP points (9-8-17) in 249:24 minutes while Horcoff had 10PP points in 202:11 minutes. Sam Gagner had 17PP points despite playing nearly 30 minutes less on the PP. Hell Patrick O'Sullivan was better on the PP in less ice time and both Mike Comrie and Ryan Potulny tied Horcoff with 10PP points while playing over seventy less minutes on the PP.
One point was that Horcoff is great for the possession game on the PP because he's good on the dot. Horcoff took the most draws on the PP last year and was just a tad under 50% 70w/71L, meanwhile both Dustin Penner and the departed Ryan Potulny were well over 50% last year, and Sam Gagner lost just three more draws than he won in 119 attempts.
Why shouldn't Shawn Horcoff see the light of day on the PP next year? Taylor Hall, Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson, Linus Omark, onetime misses, poor offensive production, less than stellar faceoff percentage, and an overall lack of offensive skill.
Horcoff has patterned his offensive game to his long time linemate Ales Hemsky, always looking for the onetime shot. Because of this he hasn't shown the playmaking prowess that he once did and as a result he has become a one trick pony on the PP and that trick is currently broken. Play him on the PK, play him at ES, but unless you want the team to tank and tank hard again, you don't play him on the PP.
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