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+---- Thread: Julian Flörsch & Cal Labovitch – Comparing the apprentice to the master (/showthread.php?tid=139027)
Julian Flörsch & Cal Labovitch – Comparing the apprentice to the master - Mutedfaith - 09-27-2024
With Julian Flörsch’s career catching up to his home hero Cal Labovitch in terms of games played (708 for Julian, versus the 712 SHL games on Cal’s record), it is time for a comparison of their careers.
I’ll compare them on different aspects of their gameplay, based on their statistics and will provide my comments to any differences or similarities worth talking about. The stats are compiled of regular and post-season stats, over their SHL career. Pre-season, international (IIHF, or WJC) hockey and their time spent playing in the SMJHL have not been included in the statistics.
During his SHL career so far, Julian played 708 games over 10 full seasons, making it into the playoffs in 8 of those seasons. He’s played his entire career so far for the Minnesota Monarchs, from season 69, through 78. During these seasons, he has played 48 playoff games.
Cal Labovitch has played slightly more games, but also needed more seasons for it because of him only making it into the playoffs 4 times, for a total of 18 games. He’s played 10 seasons for the Minnesota Monarchs (red: his first season was under the Minnesota Chiefs branding), and spent his last season with the Baltimore Platoon. Cal Labovitch played a total of 712 games. Note that his two first seasons in the SHL were pre-expansion and teams only played 50 games.
Cal and Julian have both been nominated for a Ryan Jesster Trophy for best SHL rookie, after their first SHL season. Cal has also been awarded with a Jay McDonald trophy, and was nominated for the Ron Mexico Trophy in season 61. Julian Flörsch was selected into the S69 SHL Rookie All Star team.
Points, Goals and Assists
Cal Labovitch: 276 goals and 312 assists for a total of 588 points.
Julian Flörsch: 179 goals and 317 assists for a total of 496 points
We have our first real difference here, right at the start. And it is not a difference I expected, despite Julian starting his career as a defenseman. The Monarchs team Julian is playing for is significantly better than the team Cal Labovitch was a part of, racking up more wins in both the regular and post season. However, Cal had been scoring decent amounts of points from a young age, which is also visible from his (shared) Jay McDonalds trophy in season 61. That season was Cal’s highest points scoring season, with a total of 75 points (43 goals and 32 assists). Julian’s highest scoring season was season 77, in which he scored 41 goals and gave 53 assists for a total of 94 points.
At the pace Julian is going the last few seasons, he will need at least 3 to 4 more seasons to beat Cal in total goals. But if we look at total points, he could be there in S80 already, provided Julian can keep up the assists.
Special teams points
Cal Labovitch: 50 power play goals and 60 power play assists for a total of 110 power play points.
Julian Flörsch: 43 power play goals and 67 power play assists for a total of 110 power play points
Cal Labovitch: 2 shorthanded goals and 3 shorthanded assists for a total of 5 shorthanded points.
Julian Flörsch: 8 shorthanded goals and 17 shorthanded assists for a total of 25 shorthanded points.
Even with the team not being great, Cal Labovitch has always contributed significantly to his teams power play efforts. As a goal scorer, he wasn’t particularly involved in the penalty killing side of the game though, which shows in his statistics. As a defender, and the Monarchs top defender for a few seasons, Julian Flörsch was already very involved in the special teams, although for his first few seasons his contributions in points production on the special teams was limited to the power play. One he turned forward, he also started to pick up points on the penalty kill, exploiting his 2-way style of hockey.
It's funny to see Cal and Julian have the same number of power play points, and how their play style and original position makes for a bit of difference in distribution between goals and assists.
Overall, no real surprises in this category. Flörsch was used on the penalty killing squads a lot more than Labovitch, so it makes sense to see more points for him there. And both have their own power play qualities.
Plus/Minus
Cal Labovitch: Minus 98
Julian Flörsch: Minus 153
I didn’t quite expect this difference, to be fair. Although the numbers are skewed due to the taking of the Minnesota Monarchs in the 69-71 seasons. That’s where Julian Flörsch picked up 133 of the negative points that made him sink this low. Both players only had a handful of positive seasons on this stat, with Flörsch doing well in season 77 to get a plus 38.
Penalty Minutes
Cal Labovitch: 233 PIM
Julian Flörsch: 367 PIM
An even 600 combined, and distributed as you would expect between a defenseman and a forward. Julian isn’t the cleanest player (despite his low aggression) and consistently racks up 30+ PIM per season, while Cal managed to keep it relatively clean and even had 2 seasons with fewer than 10 (6 and 8) penalty minutes.
Shots & Shot percentage
Cal Labovitch: 2,198 shots, and a 12.56 %
Julian Flörsch: 1,839 shots, and a 9.73%
Cal Labovitch’s higher scoring seems to be a combination of more shots and better aim. Racking up 359 more shots in 4 more games, Cal had on average a little over 3 shots per game. Julian only managed to get to a little over 2 and a half shots per game. The statistics show that Julian was particularly struggling to get shots on net in his period as a defenseman, significantly improving on this part of the game after his transition to a forward. That’s also clearly visible in his shot percentages, as they jumped up from the single digits to double digits in season 75. Meanwhile, Cal has never struggled with shots or percentages, consistently shooting over at a rate of 3 shots or more after his 3rd season in the SHL. Julian only managed to record these numbers for the 3 most recent seasons.
Giveaways & Takeaways
Cal Labovitch: 489 giveaways, versus 342 takeaways
Julian Flörsch: 362 giveaways, versus 591 takeaways
It’s clearly visible that Cal’s strength wasn’t holding on to the puck, but his numbers are also not dramatic. Especially in his peak years (seasons 60 through 62), he had a decent GA/TA distribution for a forward.
Julian’s statistics in this end are a lot better though, which is super logical considering his position at the start of his career. As defenseman, you better not lose the puck. From season 69 to season 75, Julian consistently had far more takeaways than giveaways. With only season 75 as an anomaly (only 53% of takeaways versus giveaways), as even in his two most recent seasons there is not much of a gap between his giveaways and takeaways.
Fights
Cal Labovitch: 1 fight, 1 win
Julian Flörsch: 0 fights
Both players are not much of a fighter, and rely on skill more than aggression. However, Cal managed to win the one fight he got involved in. Rumours are, the other guy is still looking for his teeth.
Face-offs
Cal Labovitch: 0 face-offs taken
Julian Flörsch: 691 face-offs taken, 297 won
Both players were not natural born centers. Julian started taking some face-offs when needed after his transition to forward, but Cal always opted to let someone else handle that part of the game.
Blocks and Hits
Cal Labovitch: 899 blocks, 349 hits
Julian Flörsch: 831 blocks, 873 hits
Playing for a Minnesota Monarchs team that faced a lot of shots has made both players rack up a nice amount of blocks. The number of blocks per season has been decreasing for Julian after he transitioned to be a forward, but given the amounts per season I’m pretty confident he’ll pull ahead of Cal after the upcoming season.
From the number of hits, it is clearly visible that Julian was brought up to be a more physical player than Cal. Julian has registered four seasons with over 100 hits, while Cal’s highest hitting season was a 57 hits season in his final season with the Baltimore Platoon. Actually, Julian’s worst season in terms of hits was 44 hits, in season 72. And that’s equal to the best season in hits with the Minnesota franchise for Cal Labovitch (S62 and S64). So Julian’s two-way game could give Cal a run for his money if they had ever played each other.
Conclusion?
Cal was a fantastic player, in a scoring sense. And I’m sure he could’ve shown more of that if he had played on significantly better teams during his career. However, even as a Minnesotan he managed to win the Jay McDonald and get nominated for a Ron Mexico award. He’s had as great a career as one could expect from one of the faces of the Minnesota Monarchs franchise.
Julian hasn’t been doing as well on the scoring front, but has been keeping pace with Cal on assists. And for most of the other stats, Julian has either scored better or equal than Cal. But he was also on the time during a better period, which can be seen from the amount of playoff experience Julian has been able to get, compared to his idol. It would be great to be able to add an award of trophy to his career, for some recognition. However given the current state of the player and the Minnesota Monarchs that may not be realistic.
The future
Following Julian’s retirement (which I can probably still stretch by a few seasons, even if it means having to push out nerdy media like this), there’ll be a new player. Not quite sure where I want to go with them yet, although I can 100% say it will not be a goalie.
Until that time, I hope Julian keeps up the current pace. I’m quite enjoying his career, and am curious to see how it evolves in his final few seasons.