Login

jumpSeat · 08-03-2022, 06:11 AM

I felt kind of bad about only doing one conference for the goalies last time, so I thought I'd make amends by putting together a little something for the entire league. As always, thanks for reading and/or commenting below. Cheers! Cheers

*******

In a world full of unique individuals, where no two people are exactly alike, it comes as no surprise that different GM's have contrasting philosophies on how to build a winning team. Some may think goaltending is the most important position, while others believe it takes a solid six man D-core to succeed. Still others would say you need rugged wingers to control the boards, or perhaps gifted centers to distribute the puck. The beauty of this debate, is no matter which school of thought you subscribe to, there is no definitive right or wrong. It all comes down to shades of gray.

Another way of looking at it, is to imagine every GM as being a little bit correct and a little bit off the mark. In reality, you need certain amounts of all of the above to be a championship team. Goals, assists and points certainly look sexy, but without the other elements of the game, they become way too one-dimensional. As you know, hockey isn't just a track meet, it's also about taking away opportunities, grinding it out AND putting up sexy stats. So it's a question of finding the right balance, and in this media piece I'd like to sing the praises of the oft unsung heroes who contribute just as much to a big win as the player who nets the hat trick, just in their own unique way!

[Image: Colorado-min.png]

With that in mind, and considering it's relatively easy to tell who's got the points, I want to dig deeper in hopes of finding the bigger picture. This piece is dedicated to the defensive elite, the muckers and grinders, the players who get it done when the chips are down, without which no team can succeed. These are the players who usually don't get much time in the spotlight, despite working incredibly hard and clearly deserving it. The hard work they do is often a thankless job, but tonight we want to redress that situation and give them their just due.

How will we go about it you may ask? Well simply by highlighting one of my favorite areas in any hockey game. Namely the percentage of time you're chasing the puck versus time controlling the puck. To me, this is an often overlooked and very important part of the game. It's also one of the main reasons why you need to be strong down the middle. And when I say 'strong,' I'm not referring to brute strength, like going all "Hodor" on somebody's a**, but rather 'strong' in the sense of gaining and retaining control of the puck.

To quantify what this means, we should begin with faceoff percentage. FHM (in it's ultimate wisdom), classifies FO% as a defensive stat, in the sense of having the ability to take or keep the puck away from the opposition. That said, you and I both know in real life, FO% is much more of a two-way stat, such as when a great faceoff man takes a powerplay draw in the attacking zone. Nevertheless, FHM is what it is, and the current engine classifies FO% as a defensive stat.

[Image: Vancouver-min.png]

Next up, we'll expand our scope to include Takeaways (TA), and Giveaways (GA), as two other primary factors in determining whether you're spending more time chasing or controlling the puck. Needless to say, the ability to maintain or regain possession are both critical for the purposes of this evaluation. So that brings us up to three key factors. Next is Defensive Game Rating or DGR. The FHM engine uses the DGR attribute to model multiple intangibles in the game. Among which are, being in the right place at the right time, blocking passing lanes, winning the race to recover a loose puck, intercepting passes and/or out-muscling opponents to gain possession.

Which brings us to factor five. The fifth and final entry for our consideration is Hits. Now I know some may be thinking, well Hits can also be an offensive factor such as when an aggressive physical forecheck creates a turnover, and you'd be quite right. It's just that much like FO%, the FHM engine only currently categorizes Hits as a defensive stat. The reason being, that the sim considers a successful 'Hit' to be the equivalent of separating the puck from the puck carrier. Hence Hits and Takeaways actually have a lot in common in the FHM universe. (In terms of being modeled and implemented in a similar fashion).

[Image: Carolina-min.png]

All of which leads us to the fun part! That's right, it's Magical formula time!

So fully compiled our final metric looks something like this: (1*(FO%+TA+HT+DGR)-GA) = PPPR/1. Which in plain English translates to: Faceoff Percentage added to Takeaways plus Hits increased by Defensive Game Rating minus Giveaways equals Puck Possession Power Rating. For this metric we've intentionally kept all the numbers whole with no factoring, which gives every category an equal input into forming the final grade. (Which just so happens to be the primary reason I'm so fond of it).

So now the plan is to compare all the Centers in the SMJHL to see how they stack up in terms of puck possession rating. We'll perform all the necessary calculations to give each player a current grade in order to determine the true kings of the puck. You know, the kind of player who'd win a golden glove in baseball, or the one you'd most love to have out there against the other team's top line!

[Image: Regina-min.png]

Based on this algorithm, the best puck possession center in the league is: Koty Kochan of the Colorado Raptors! Koty weighs in with an astonishing power rating of 207.5, which is all the more impressive since Koty is the only player to shatter the lofty 200 point plateau! Other all-star caliber players include Meta Knight and Aleksandr Iskandrov of the Vancouver Whalers, who lock up positions two and three with incredibly close scores of 196.4 and 196.2 respectively. Rounding out the top five are Julian Eaglesong of the Carolina Kraken (194.4), and Oleksandr Olli O'Koivu of the Regina Elk (191.9).

To be honest, I'd be thrilled to have any of these players on my team! Full league wide results are as follows:

[Image: PPPR-1.png]

The top 16 are all doing yeoman's work and getting great grades in the realm of puck possession. If you happen to find yourself in the top group, you should be very proud!!

[Image: PPPR-2.png]

The middle group are certainly not slouches in this department, but there is still room for upping their game. Which after all is the ultimate goal for everyone in the league!

[Image: PPPR-3.png]

To be fair, the bottom group probably specializes in other areas, so no criticism is either implied or intended. Theses players might well rank very high under a different set of criteria!

- - -

Please Note: No numbers were harmed in the making of this analysis. Statistics used up to and including December 18, 2032.