The season has been laid to rest.

Fans have completed their lamenting of the Anaheim Ducks sweeping the Winnipeg Jets. The healing process has begun.

But, before full closure can be completed, an autopsy of the Jets season must be initiated.

We turn our evidence-based breakdown of the Jets young top-six centre, Mark Scheifele.

Both of Mark Scheifele’s assist and point per game production improved, although only his assist production increased relative to his ice time increase in his sophomore year. Scheifele experienced a slight decrease in points this season driven by a lower shooting percentage, despite producing more shots relative to ice time.

With only two full seasons worth of sample, it is impossible to know where Scheifele’s true talent lies in finishing. It could be near this season’s nine percent or last season’s thirteen.

Scheifele’s team-best penalty differentials gave the Jets some additional value. Goals Above Replacement estimates the impact of Scheifele’s discipline to be worth 2.37 goals, and his ability to draw penalties worth 1.91 goals. To put this in perspective, those values were 2nd and 47th in the entire NHL for forwards.

Under Claude Noel, Jim Slater was the Jets number one go-to-guy for defensive zone starts. Under Paul Maurice though that guy was Mark Scheifele. Yes, Scheifele was the Jets defensive zone faceoff specialist. He took more defensive zone faceoffs than offensive zone, on a team that has the opposite. Overall he was the primary choice for the Jets.

He was also Maurice’s number one even strength centre. While Bryan Little played more minutes due to special teams, Scheifele ate the even strength minutes while Little rested. Scheifele manned the second power play unit. He was used on the penalty kill, although sparingly.

Scheifele played 5v5 minutes like a first line player, and so he gets judged here as one. While Scheifele did play with excellent shot metric linemates on a strong team, Scheifele was one of the reasons why the Jets were a strong team. Scheifele overall performed above first line average in shot attempt differentials, although not in the elite regions.

Scheifele spent most of his season on the second line. The one exception was some minutes where Mathieu Perreault centred the second line and Scheifele played with Adam Lowry and Michael Frolik.

His most common right wingers were Blake Wheeler and Frolik, while his most common left side companions were Perreault and Drew Stafford. Scheifele out shot opponents pretty consistently, although his numbers started to fall after the addition of Stafford. Luckily some save percentage magic with a Ondrej Pavelec hot streak stopped any issues.

Scheifele scored at a below average pace for a second line forward at even strength. He did however make up much of this with the man-advantage.

Despite taking most of the Jets defensive zone responsibilities, Scheifele ended up above 50 percent in both shot attempt differentials and scoring chances. In fact, the Jets did better in these with him on the ice than on the bench.

Using weighted shots, a Corsi derivative where goals factor 5x more than non-goals, Scheifele looks a little better, although still very similar.

dCorsi combines linemates, opponents, and zone deployment and suggests that Scheifele took the toughest minutes he could without any severe drop in performance.

In terms of impacting the Jets goal differentials, Goals Above Replacement places Scheifele fourth for Jet forwards, and third for centres (if you count Mathieu Perreault as a centre).

Overall the season was a good one for Scheifele.

There was no real sophomore slump, although his shooting percentage did dip. (note: players do exude much control over small sample shooting percentage)

Scheifele improved his even strength scoring, while taking a larger share of minutes and a more important role. His two-way numbers improved immensely, although his linemate quality improved a bit as well.

It will be interesting to see where Scheifele develops. At this moment he could turn into a bonafide top line forward or an above average second line centre (or anywhere in between).