For the backstory of what we're doing here, check out and of the series. To sum it up as succintly as po sible we're trying to distinguish between which players were responsible for moving the needle for their teams on the puck po se sion front, and which ones were hopping on for the ride.We've lumped the players up into tiers based on how much icetime they logged at five-on-five during the regular season.The only wrinkle here is that we've broken the defensemen down into three tiers rather thanfour.BOSTON BRUINSZdeno Chara is an absolute animal. Despite having turned 37 years old during this past season, he put together yet another Norris
Washington Commanders Accessories -caliber campaign. While his workload has been slowly but surely reducing, he was still in a cla s of his ownamongst Bruins blueliners. He played against the best the other team had to offer every single night, and the Bruins still walked away with a cool 56.1% of the adjusted-shot attempts whenever he was on the ice. He's been doing it so well for so long now that we've almost come to expect it from him, taking his immense talent somewhat for granted.Last year the Bruins only gave up onegoal against in the 283 minutes that Chara and Patrice Bergeron sharedat 5v5. Their dominance wasn't quite that extensive this past season, but I think Claude Julien will happily settle for the 73.3 goals for percentageand62.8 corsi for percentage. Having one of the few best centers,defensemenand goalies is a pretty good core to build your team around.BUFFALO SABRESCAROLINA HURRICANESYou could say that the Hurricanes got the better of last summer's Jamie McBain-for-Andrej Sekera swap. Yeah, you could say that. Like most of the individual Sabres, it's tough to say how much of McBain's woes were a byproduct of the team around him. While itdidn'thelp his cause that his most common partnermay very well be one of
Terry McLaurin Jersey the worst non-facepunchers in the NHL, it's not like McBain did much when he wasfree from Mike Weber's anchor. The final result was anadjusted-corsi rate of 40.8%, and just 17 points in 69 games.Sekera, meanwhile, bounced back from a lull in play during his last moments in Buffalo. Playing with Justin Faulk, he was one-half of alegitimate top pairing in Carolina;averaging nearly 24 minutes of ice-time a night, scoring44 points, and helpinghisteam control 51.7% of allshot attempts while he was on the ice. Unfortunately for the Hurricanes, beyond that top pairing and some nice value they extracted out of Ron Hainsey the rest of the backend was underwhelming.COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETSWe might need to call David Caruso to figure outwhy the Edmonton Oilers gave Nikita Nikitin $4.5 million per season. If some bodies weren't involved, then why did Craig MacTavish bid against himself to the point where he gave a player twice, maybe three times, the amount anyone else would've reasonably offered? Nikitin had a rather , but that may've very well been more of notch in Prime Fedor Tyutin's belt than anything else. Since then Nikitin has 24 points in 109games, and to the point where he was playing just 17 minutes a night this past season. The le son as always: you never want to go full Oilers.Not enough people have spenttime raving about James Wisniewski's seasonHis 51 points were good for eighthamongst all defensemen, and his 53.8% adjusted-corsi rate was head and shoulders better than any other Blue Jackets blueliner. Ho-hum.DETROIT RED WINGSFor as excitingas Detroit's forwards were,thanks totheir dynamic youth, their defense is just as pedestrian. Niklas Kronwall is a horse, but
Kendall Fuller Jersey there's not much beyond that. Except for maybe Brendan Smith, who I'd be trying to lure away from Ken Holland if I could this summer. "Come on, he only had 19 points in 71 games. He was also a minus-two. Did you watch "24/7"? He makes way too many mistakes for your taste, I bet!" Just make sure you conceal the fact that the Red Wings controlled 54.6% of shot attempts at 5v5 with him on the ice, and that he'll probably look markedly better when that .905 on-ice save % isn't next to his name.Kyle Quincey, on the other hand, is someone that'll probably make too much moneythis summer, benefitting from what's a starvedmarket for defensemen.FLORIDA PANTHERSLet's play a fun game! Here are the resumes for two different players over the past 3 seasons combined:Player A: 212 games played, 19 goals, 98 a sists,on the ice for 3813 5v5 shot attempts for v.3489 against (52.2%), 125 goals for v.153 against (45%), plus-12 penalty differentialPlayer B: 209 games played, 19 goals, 102 a sists,on the ice for 3498 5v5 shot attempts for v.3674 against (48.7%),
Taylor Heinicke Jersey 155 goals for v.135 against (53.4%), minus-29 penalty differentialPlayer B logged the most total minutes out of anyone in the NHL during that time, and Player A was 2nd. The difference in total time on ice between the two was smaller than the difference between Player B and the 3rd most heavily used player over the past 3 seasons.What if I were to tell you that Player A is Brian Campbell, while Player B is Ryan Suter? Suter's on-ice save percentages in those three seasons have been .928, .925, and .934. Campbell's have been .934, .898, and .911. I wonder how differently those two would be thought about if those percentageswere flipped. Much of that is , despite what your favorite talking head may've rambled on about on the air.MONTREAL CANADIENSP.K. Subban is a great player. He was on the ice for 1478 minutes at 5v5; in that time the Habs were out-attempted by the position by eighttotal attempts. In the 2,340 5v5 minutes that Subban was on the bench? The Habs gave up 463 more shot attempts than they took themselves. That's beared out by , which shows how each of his regularteammates did with him on the ice vs.without him. I have no idea how much money Subban will command this summer, but if he shows up to the negotiations with a
Washington Commanders Hoodies Sweatshirts piece of paper that says "all of it", no one would be able to blame him.Not shown: Douglas Murray's 41.4% adjusted-corsi. What a shame; this could've been a lot more fun.NEW JERSEY DEVILSAndy Greene's was basically hockey porn for all of the nerds out there. He was one of the best non-ELC bargains in the entire league,earningjust $3 million as a No. 1 defenseman, and his contract is up after next season. Unle s he falls off a cliff,he'll get handsomely paid, but I'd be a little weary of footing the bill; he's turning 32 and that sterling performance was his first.I never know what to do with any of these New Jersey guys, really. Mark Fayne has been an underlying stats star for a while now, and he's finally hitting the open market as an unrestricted free agent. The demand is so much greater than the supply that Fayne will surely attract a ton of int
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