Hello and welcome to my second deep dive. I hope you read my first one as I thought that was an interesting topic. Today I will look at the Shot Blocking attribute (furthermore abbreviated to SB) on forwards, and if there is a correlation with this attribute and shot blocks in games.

Shot blocking for forwards is capped at 12, when making the attribute scale SHL HO felt it was unfairly balanced when forwards had a higher SB than 12.
Here are the top 5 shot blocking forwards on the season:

Hubert Andrews plays for the Anaheim Outlaws, and has 117 SBs. He is capped at 425 tpe with a SB attribute of 9.

Eero Makinen Jr. plays for the Colorado Raptors, and has 108 SBs. He is also capped at 425 tpe with a SB attribute of 11.

Hunter Sharpe plays for the St. Louis Scarecrows, and has just under 100 SBs at 92. He is capped at 350 tpe with a SB attribute of 10.

Kev Kevens plays for the Quebec City Citadelles and has 88 SBs. He is capped at 425 tpe with a SB attribute of 9.

Lastly, Miguel Hefeweizen plays for the Maine Timber and has 87 SBs. He is only at 264 tpe and has a SB attribute of 8.

There are some glaring similarities and outliers on this top 5 list. For most, we see 3 425 players, and one 350. These are seen as top players in the SMJHL as compared to rookies with under 300 tpe, or inactives that weren't able to reach that mark. In my eyes being a 300+ tpe player is when you start to really see the results of your hard work, and 425 is an elite SMJHLer. Though with these bigger and more active classes we are seeing quite a few 425ers, the results speak for themselves and these guys sim great.

Since the scale of SB for forward ranges from 5-12, 9 and above is the higher range for the SB stat when thinking about it. I still think for the top 5, 8 and 9 is a little low for beating out defenseman who play in the slot at SBs but that is how it played out.

So Eero Makinen Jr. is someone who I would entirely expect to be top 5 in SBs. 11 SB stat, 425 tpe so lots of ice time, this guy is a defensive beast laying it all on the line. Hunter Sharpe is like a mini-version of that, with a 350 build and 10 SB, he is primed to take on that kind of role in the coming seasons for his club.

Hubert Andrews and Kev Kevens are confusing to me as yes they are 425 players, but they only sport a 9 in the SB attribute. They have put some tpe in that stat no doubt, but aren't really gunning to be top shot blockers, yet here they are.

Miguel Hefeweizen is a rookie, his shot blocks are impressive because he lacks the tpe and SB attribute that these other top players have.

Overall, my conclusion is the SB attribute matters less than the number of shots your team lets up each game. It doesn't matter if your SB is 5 or 12, if your team is getting shelled, something is probably going to hit you on the way to the net. Pt 2 would likely be looking at each player's shots against per game and see how those stack up, but I'm not doing a pt. 2 so get fucked.

Approved! +5 TPE @SlashACM