So I sort of took the idea for the media piece I did a while back trying to measure the effectiveness of a players hitting from the base stats given by the sim. No sorry I did not go back and check PbP's and see which hit caused a loss of puck control, but I still think this method of meausre can be sort of looked at when considering what a good 'checking' build entails.

(970 words + Spread sheet)

Spread sheet link

So the main stats we are going to work with here are….

Penalty Minutes
Hits
Hits Taken
Hits – Hits Taken = Hit Differential
Minutes Played
MP vs PIM – More or less the amount of PIM taken vs the time on ice for that player over the last five seasons.

I didn’t cover everyone in the league. I sort of cherry picked who I saw as being some of the top checkers on teams scoring sheets as the season went along. I also tossed in Randy Randleman as a comparison to see as he used to be one of the big Hit’s leaders but since regression has started has taken that out of his game. On my spread sheet as well (when I link it further down) you will see the listed Checking and discipline of each player as well heading into this season as a way to sort of see any trends.

So lets dive into some ‘leader’ boards first.

Top 10 PIM
1) Danny Foster - 610
2) Mia Landvik - 386
3) Vatislav Orlov - 363
4) Brett Kennedy - 358
5) Adam Kaiser - 332
6) Maximilian Wachter - 331
7) Big Manious - 320
8) Lord Vader - 302
9) Brynjar Tusk – 293
10) Johnathan Lundberg - 284


Top 10 Hits
1) Maximilian Wachter - 1014
2) Johnathan Lunberg - 981
3) Danny Foster - 873
4) Lord Vader - 302
5) Brett Kennedy - 817
6) Kelly Rivet - 761
7) Mike Izzy - 750
8) Vasily Horvat - 747
9) Vatislav Orlov - 732
10) Adam Kaiser – 728

Top 10 HTT
1) Ace Redding - 719
2) Lord Pretty Flacko - 671
3) Randy Randleman - 650
4) Bretty Kennedy - 610
5) Chris York - 598
6) Sebastian Strange - 595
7) Johnathan Lundberg - 574
8) Zach Evans - 556
9) Kelly Rivet - 543
10) Miko Linna – 538

Top 10 Hit Differential
1) Danny Foster - 636
2) Maximilian Wachter - 587
3) Mike Izzy - 528
4) Adam Kaiser - 463
5) Mia Landvik - 447
6) Vatislav Orlov - 436
7) Lord Vader - 426
8) Johnathan Lundberg - 407
9) Big Manious - 347
10) Maria Maximova – 337

Top 10 Minutes Played
1) Lord Vader - 6624
2) Corey Bearss - 6395
3) Lord Pretty Flacko - 6281
4) Ace Redding - 6176
5) Randy Randleman - 6047
6) Brynjar Tusk - 6045
7) Johnathan Lundberg - 6032
8) Mikko Linna - 6019
9) Zach Evans - 6010
10) Adam Kaiser - 5992

So with all of that out of the way lets not sort of absorb it all in and break this down a bit more with the MP vs PIM. First Lets have a look at the top 10 checking players who while hitting are still able to stay on the ice while throwing the body around.

1) Randy Randleman – 1.93%
2) Cory Knouse – 2.41%
3) Miko Linna – 2.49%
4) Alex Light – 2.68%
5) Corey Bearss – 2.71%
6) Patrikov Bure – 2.82%
7) Brennan Kennedy – 2.87%
8) Ace Redding – 2.93%
9) Dani Forsberg – 2.96%
10) Zach Evans – 3.16%

So does this mean these are your most effective checkers overall? Not necessarily. These just those who throw some checks (minus Randleman being our sort of Placebo here) and manage to stay out of the box with the best efficiency in relation to the minutes they play. I feel like we need to pair this with the Hit Differential to really sort of pair it up to make a final list, which I will do below, before we do that, lets look at the worst PP vs MP 1st.

1) Danny Foster – 12.70%
2) Mia Landvik – 6.97%
3) Brett Kennedy – 6.93%
4) Clint Eastwood – 6.28%
5) Vasily Horvat – 6.16%
6) Vatislav Orlov – 6.15%
7) Maximilian Wachter - 5.64%
8) Big Manious – 5.59%
T-9) Adam Kaiser – 5.54%
T-9) Mike Izzy – 5.54%
10) Teddy Cuddles – 5.34%

So this shouldn’t come as too large of a surprise that the enforcer tops the list, but dear lord does Foster put himself in a league of his own nearly doubling the next closest on the list. These players are the ones who in relation to their playing time they receive, are in the box the most per Minute played.

So if my arm was twisted and I HAD to create a list of who I thought was the best checkers in the last 5 seasons. It would probably go something like this (based on PP vs MP + Hit Differential)

1) Patrikov Bure
2) Brennan Kennedy
3) Corey Bearss
4) Ace Redding
5) Dani Forsberg
6) Chris York
7) Sebastian Strange
8) Kelly Rivet
9) Pietra Volkova
10) Colton Hagan
HM) Lord Vader