Simulation Hockey League

Hello everyone! The SHL Awards committee is in the midst of analyzing mid-season data! I thought it would be a good opportunity to share current thoughts on some awards!


The Scott Stevens - Best Defender


At the halfway mark this season’s potential nominees list is pretty large! There are a lot of defenders doing a lot of great things! In no particular order, let’s have a look at some of them!





Manhattan’s Jaromir Jagrbomb is making lots of noise this season. They are tied for 1st in points by a defenseman and 5th in hits with 44! GA/TA isn't too bad at 8/31 but will be something to watch. They're also 3rd in PIMs, something else to keep an eye on. This may just be MAN's glass cannon. Still impressive work offensively.





DuBolk is working hard in Tampa currently leading defenseman in scoring now with 16 goals and 4th in points with 33. They have a lethal shot as they to lead all dman in shooting perentage. 113 Shots blocked looks pretty good as well currently 9th in all defenseman. They're not shy on hitting either with 31 hits, just 21 away from the Hits leader. GA/TA looks fantastic now at 6/23. This guy is doing everything. Split time on the PP and PK and averaging 23:58 on the ice. DuBolk making a great case here for the Stevens as a fantastic two way defenseman.





Now moving onto Texas we get a good look at Jack McCarthy who is tied for 1st in points by a defenseman and 2nd in goals. They are leading in powerplay goals so they are crushing time on the PP. Defensively they aren't bad either. A 5/40 GA/TA is really good. 89 shots blocked looking good as well for such an offensive player and 36 hits which doesn't have them too far off the top 10. If they can keep up this pace they can certainly see themselves getting nominated for the Stevens as well.





Now I’m going to get into two LAP defenders and I want to bring up something I’ve noticed. LAPs defenders are far behind in shots blocked this season but one thing that has been very noticeable is that their defenders have been dominating in hits:





That’s 4 of LAP’s defenders in the top 10 with two others not on this list at 39 and 24. It’s pretty clear that LAP is going for a different defensive strategy this season being much more aggressive and going for checks instead of blocking shots. Now with that in mind, let’s continue to look at Bergling. 


Bergling is currently Leading in hits with 52 but also 8th in points at 27, 19 of those points being assists (good for 10th best in assists). Only 62 blocks but if the team's strategy isn't shot blocking this may need to be overlooked. They are at 4/35 GA/TA so they are effectively getting the puck back through hits. I'd be keeping an eye on Bergling. Another player to watch in LAP is





Elena Maximova! Elena is doing some excellent work for LAP as well. 4th in hits right now with 47, 101 blocks, a very nice 5/32 GA/TA and split time on the PP and PK and just 3 seconds away from leading the league in average time on ice with 24:16. They are out there a lot and being incredibly reliable. They're also 1 point behind tying the other top points leaders at 34 points, currently the assist leader at 26. Incredible work here from Maximova.





Now over to Hamilton we have Wide Peepo Happy 3 Koivu who despite some older legs is still getting the job done! They are tied for 9th in points and 5th in blocks at 127. They are currently  playing split special teams similar to DuBolk and Maximova but results aren't as good offensively. They have a decent GA/TA at 4/23. If Peepo starts scoring he will definitely find his way up the list of considered nominations. 


The JOHN MCBRIDE - TOP GOALIE


This season it was tough to find a clear-cut runner early in the season but as we made our way to the middle of the season we started finding the leaders of the pack. There are a few goalies impressing the committee at the moment, here are some of them!
























THE JEFF DAR - Best Two Way Forward


The Dar is one of the league’s hardest awards to earn. There are lots of forwards who can score but they end up with lots of penalty minutes and giveaways and while you need goals to win games you also need to step it up in your own end. Here are a few players the committee believes are looking good as potential Dar nominees.





Marton Diehm has become a pretty important part of the Renegades roster playing on both sides of the ice. They've already proven themselves to be a big part of the offense with 53 points this season, tied for 10th most in the league. They're also in the top 3 in hits right now, really sacrificing the body with 89 at the time of writing this. Their GA/TA is at 26/23 which could be cleaner so something to watch as the season goes on. Only 20 PIMS so they're not spending too much time in the box so far this season. They are spending most of their time on the powerplay and have a -0.4% fenwick showing they are spending just slightly more time in the defensive zone but overall, pretty even.





Gnabe Dabson is another great name coming out of Philadelphia this season. They've got 45 points and 92 hits so they are really crushing bodies and scoring points for their team. However their GA/TA is a bit low at the moment with 39 giveaways and only 20 takeaways. They've also got 51 PIMS which means they are sitting in the box a lot and missing out on ice time and putting their team down a man. Can they clean up their game and pick up the pace?





New England is always making players look good and Antoine Beauregard is no exception. With 46 points they are certainly doing their part offensively. They aren't afraid to get to the dirty areas with 72 hits and have a very nice looking GA/TA of 28/36 right now. They have more PP time than PK but they certainly aren't absent on the PK averaging about 01:12 there. They are also at a 1.3% fenwick so they are definitely helping the team with possession. Definitely keeping my eyes on Beauregard and I'm also very happy with them in fantasy at the moment.





Remember the guy who won all the awards last season? Salad guy? Cale! That's right. Cale Salad continues to do work for Philly. With 52 points they have yet to lose their offensive prowess. In addition to being PHI's go to offensive guy, they are also playing a tight defensive game. 52 hits, a nice 28/31 GA/TA and a really nice 3.5 fenwick rating is showing that Cale is helping Philly keep the puck on their sticks. Cale is split on PP and PK time and is doing lots of work on the ice. They need to watch the penalties, they're currently at 34 PIMS. A bit more discipline and Cale could run away with this.





Here's a guy who's been pretty impressive this season. Jarrod Lakemore of the Buffalo Stampede has been having an incredible season. 63 points both scoring and passing has been a huge help to get Buffalo where they're too in the standings. Jarrod has his time split on the PP and the PK this season, has 36 hits and a 49/30 GA/TA. If they can stop the giveaways from going any higher they could see themselves improving their chances at a Dar. Lakemore has had a strong part of keeping the possession for BUF as well with a 7.7% Fenwick. 





Finally, another name brought up by the committee is Atlanta's Jiggle E. Puff. ATL has plenty of offensive firepower and Puff has done their share of contributing to that with 43 points of their own. Not afraid to hit bodies, Puff is at 62 hits at the time of this write up and has a very nice 24/29 GA/TA. Another stat standing out for this player that no other player has shined on is this wingers ability to block shots. They are currently leading all forwards with 49 shots blocked which is pretty impressive. Of course Puff is split on the PP and PK and has a 0.7% Fenwick showing that they are doing a lot of work in keeping Atlanta in the offensive zone so they can focus on something they do well which is score goals.




As you can see there are a lot of players making names for themselves this season! We are excited to see who among these players can maintain or improve their pace or see if there are any other players who can rise to the top and knock out a top player! 


Next week we’ll try and look at a couple other awards! Are there any others you’d like to see? Any names we missed? Let us know! We’d love to hear your opinions on the season so far!


(Media graders please split pay between Grapehead and Myself)

Pls don't use GR in awards, please Coop

Game rating is based on roles. Like trips said. It’s something you shouldn’t usez but also great write up outside of it.

We don't usually use game ratings but will occasionally use DGR to help find out certain players playing well defensively. It's definitely not a leaned-on stat but it does sometimes help find some diamonds in the rough!

We had a large conversation on the game ratings early last week actually and how they don't really apply to stats given that that users role could change every sim for all we know so it would be impossible to track accurately.

This is the kind of transparency we need from the awards committee! I missed applying to the open position recently but this is something I would have certainly suggested so I'm happy to see it.

GR aside, this really helps give us some idea of what the committee considers important when nominating players for each award. Keep it up!

I would like to offer up Jay O'Neil as a worthy Stevens candidate. He's matching pretty much every number all the other candidates are putting up, but on a bottom 5 team.

Thanks for doing this Coop! Lots of Texas players, love it!

Keep up the good work, fun to see at midpoint who are in the lead.

Awesome to be mentioned, great article

You misspelled my name every single time.

Conspiracy!!

Since I have the highest DGR of the players mentioned, I think it's an excellent metric to judge the best players in the league.

08-27-2024, 07:12 AMCapnCooper Wrote: [ -> ]We don't usually use game ratings but will occasionally use DGR to help find out certain players playing well defensively. It's definitely not a leaned-on stat but it does sometimes help find some diamonds in the rough!

We had a large conversation on the game ratings early last week actually and how they don't really apply to stats given that that users role could change every sim for all we know so it would be impossible to track accurately.

Game Rating is determined based on how the Coach feels a player performed in their given role. Enforcers can have high GRs if they win a fight, Danglers can have high DGRs if they aren't a sieve in the defensive zone, etc. To use GR as a determining factor when comparing players across different teams, it would almost be better to flip a coin or ask a stranger to pick which player is better based off of their name. If you are comparing two Two-Way Forwards on the same team, that would be a better use of GR, but would still make the ultimate decision up to the arbitrary analysis of a Coach that we can't know the expectations of.

It is good to hear that GR was discussed and how it is impossible to track accurately, but you can't say that while also saying you sometimes use DGR to determine who played well defensively.

On a separate note, it is nice to see the committee putting emphasis on the goalie stat that truly matters: wins. No disrespect to Time or Dionne, but being on good teams with sub-.900 save percentage shouldn't get you on a nominee shortlist because you happen to be in net when the team wins. I know you wanted to keep things short for each player on the list, but look at the save percentage list. Hell, include backups here, too. Grzegorz leads all goalies, not just starters, in save percentage currently with a 0.925. You have to go back to S73 to find the last goalie to lead all goalies in save percentage when Karsikko did it with a 0.918, and you have to go back to S65 to find the last time a goalie finished above 0.920 in save percentage when both Antonescu (0.926) and Jobin (0.924) did it for their respective teams, which also happens to be the last season of FHM6. In that same timeframe, the largest save percentage gap between starters was 0.009 in S68 when Petrov finished with a 0.919 and Montagne finished with a 0.910. I know the season still has time to go, but a save percentage lead of 0.013 that Zerg has over the next closest starter is unheard of. His save percentage is also unheard of in the FHM8 era, and imo should get himself into the MVP conversation if the second half of the season is as good as the first for him.

Speaking of, though, the second rated starter in terms of save percentage didn't even make the shortlist for the McBride here despite, idk, having a 0.016 and 0.014 save percentage lead over two goalies that were mentioned while playing on a substantially worse team. Sieve is second to Zerg in the categories that matter. Look at GSAA for a moment. "But Fuzz, GSAA is volume based, you can't take it into account because the goalie on the worse team is going to have higher GSAA." Okay, let's look at GSAA per shot faced (the metric can actually get really small with the numbers because of how many shots get taken). Time and Dionne save 0.0004 and 0.0038 per shot faced, while Sieve saves 0.0179. It is incredible how much better Sieve is actually performing relative to the two goalies on two of the top Western teams.

Oh, and for reference, Grzegorz saves 0.0309 per shot faced.

Stop using wins as a goalie metric. It is not and will never be a goalie metric. It is a team statistic, period.

08-28-2024, 12:33 PMFuzzSHL Wrote: [ -> ]Stop using wins as a goalie metric. It is not and will never be a goalie metric. It is a team statistic, period.

I agree, except in cases where similar goalies on the same team have notable win discrepancies.

I can't speak for the rest of the committee, but I don't personally use wins as a metric. There's lots of other stats to look at. We just added them to the little stat line,

08-29-2024, 12:28 PMBy-Tor Wrote: [ -> ]I agree, except in cases where similar goalies on the same team have notable win discrepancies.

Disagree here, honestly, unless you're talking a situation where both goalies get 33 starts and one has 20 more wins than the other. Wins are a team stat, period, regardless of the situation. When I was on the committee I tried to stay away from using wins as a talking point because there shouldn't be any value whatsoever in wins and losses. Shutouts, yes, absolutely. But wins and losses? No. Goalies can only control so much, and the one thing they can't control is their own team's offense. A goalie can only play well and hope for the rest to fall into place, and we need to stop looking at goalies having seasons like Justin Time and saying "this is a good goalie." No, San Francisco is a good team, and yes, Time has a good build, but he's not playing particularly well this season despite the wins. The team in front of him is dominating, and Time is benefiting from that by skyrocketing up the all-time wins leaderboard. The fact that we're seeing him on this list is, quite honestly, an absolute shame to the committee in showing what they value in a goalie.

Sorry for the rant. Got off track from your original point.

08-29-2024, 12:52 PMCapnCooper Wrote: [ -> ]I can't speak for the rest of the committee, but I don't personally use wins as a metric. There's lots of other stats to look at. We just added them to the little stat line,

I know you personally don't. But you can't look at the goalies in the league and tell me that Time and Dionne are having two of the five best individual seasons right now. They straight up aren't, and the only thing they have going for them over goalies not on this list are the one stat you don't take into account: wins.

You might not take it into account, but I'm assuming these lists weren't done by you alone.

EDIT: Yes, Time is the second starting goalie to have a sub-3.00 GAA this season. But just as much as high-GAA can be attributed to volume, so can low-GAA.