This is really interesting. I always love when people dive into the numbers like this.

Like you noted, assists are one indicator of teamwork, but there are other factors that can skew the analysis a bit, such as the team's overall offensive output. Better teams tend to score more goals, which creates more opportunities for assists, which may or may not say something about the quality of the team play vs. the lethality of the team's goal scorers (or in other cases, how lucky the team is getting).

One thing we have learned through recent analysis is this: more possession of the puck equals more chances to generate shots on goal, which means more chances to score goals, meaning more chances for assists. It's for this reason that puck possession has become the basis for advanced statistical analysis in hockey. We can try to infer some of the same things in our league by looking at a team's shot attempts, shots blocked, and puck control time (PC) in the offensive zone. These are all tracked in the sim - though unfortunately, individual giveaways and takeaways are not.

Here's a pretty good summary of the basics of statistical analysis in the modern game. If you're interested in data science and new to the sport, I hope you'll find it interesting:
http://www.corsica.hockey/blog/2016/03/2...analytics/

Welcome to the league! Looking forward to your next article.