S97 defense part 2: forwards

[VattghernCZ 1,127]

The second and final part of my S97 defense analysis is here. This time, the spotlight is on forwards.

 

The zeroth part, where I give you an introduction and talk about the stats I'm tracking is available here:

 

 

The first part looking into defenders is here:

 

 

 

 

Now for forwards. For each stat, I will be highlighting top 9 - not because I was picking 6 defenders and I want to make it nice, but because 6 defenders means 3 lines, which means 9 forwards, so it seems fair. Plus I find multiples of 3 weirdly satisfying.

 

Just like with defenders, I will rank the top defensive forwards based on the weighted rankings in all tracked stats, but I will assign different weight to each stat than I did for defenders, because I think some plays are more significant than others based on the position.

 

Puck Retrievals (PR)

Weight: 35%

Just like with defenders, puck possession is the key. Constantly winning puck battles in the offensive zone and in the neutral zone keeps the puck in your team's possession and as far away from your own net as possible.

 

1. Maverick Goncalves  @leandrofg 885 PR

2. Gustav Mattias  @Berocka 844 PR

3. Kimi Raikkonen  @mattyIceman 825 PR

4. Wally Lose @youloser1337 797 PR

5. Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish  @hylands 774 PR

6. George Richmond  @badcolethetitan 766 PR

7. Axle Gunner  @Steve 737 PR

8. Harry Callahan  @dstevensonjr 734 PR

9. Bryce Woodworth  @SirRupertBarnes 733 PR

 

Pass Interceptions (PI)

Weight: 30%

Intercepting breakout passes helps keeping the puck as far from your net as possible, and intercepting neutral zone passes can directly lead to a counterattack.

 

1. Gustav Mattias @Berocka 1182 PI

2. Wally Lose @youloser1337 1133 PI

3. Behrens Minion  @UnknownMinion 993 PI

4. Bryce Woodworth  @SirRupertBarnes 938 PI

5. Maverick Goncalves  @leandrofg 897 PI

6. Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish  @hylands 861 PI

7. Kimi Raikkonen  @mattyIceman 859 PI

8. George Richmond  @badcolethetitan 855 PI

9. Steve French  @Seabass 849 PI

 

Successful Hits (SH)

Weight: 20%

Aggressive forechecking can lead to turnovers, which extends your team's puck possession and keeps the puck away from your net. But hitting for the sake of hitting is not always a good defensive play.

 

1. Toby Kadachi  @ROOKIE745 215 SH

2. Grimgor Ironhide  @FrostBeard 187 SH

3. Maverick Goncalves  @leandrofg 157 SH

4. Savaisk Tzesar  @comrade cat 153 SH

5. Axle Gunner  @Steve 152 SH

6. Antonia Bucatini  @CowboyinAmerica 149 SH

7. Catia Goncalves  @cLoWn 146 SH

8. Spanish Moon Moth @Renomitsu 137 SH

9. Maple Dogwood  @dogwoodmaple 131 SH

 

Shots Blocked (SB)

Weight: 15%

While blocking shots is an important part of penalty killing, for forwards it's really a "speciality" stat. Plus as I've said in the article on defenders, I don't think it's a great defensive stat, because blocking a shot is by default a reactive play rather than a proactive play.

 

T-1. Wally Lose @youloser1337 108 SB

T-1. Gustav Mattias @Berocka 108 SB

3. Behrens Minion  @UnknownMinion 100 SB

4. Taylor Swift @lilchrist 75 SB

5. Maple Dogwood  @dogwoodmaple 65 SB

6. Stefan Nikolaev  @Is_thatok 64 SB

7. Brandon Petan Jr  @sadie 62 SB

8. Kyle Toms @Ktoms22 57 SB

9. Bryce Woodworth  @SirRupertBarnes 56 SB

 

Weighted ranking 

 

1. Maverick Goncalves  @leandrofg 4.40 rank

2. Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish  @hylands 8.40 rank

3. Wally Lose @youloser1337 8.95 rank

4. George Richmond  @badcolethetitan 9.00 rank

5. Kimi Raikkonen  @mattyIceman 10.15 rank

6. Bryce Woodworth  @SirRupertBarnes 12.90 rank

7. Axle Gunner  @Steve 13.20 rank

T-8. Gustav Mattias @Berocka 14.30 rank

T-8. Grimgor Ironhide  @FrostBeard 14.30 rank

 

Maverick Gonvalves was highlighted in every category apart from the one with the lowest weight in my ranking, no surprise that he ranked the highest overall. An interesting case was Gustav Mattias, who was 1st or 2nd in everything but successful hits - he ranked 65th out of 87 in these, bringing his overall ranking down to a 2-way tie for 8th.

 

Forgot to add the file with all stats: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rT4mFnOTNJ9yi_Yb3vgYql6ifCoBMbyw2mgKwHaKjH8/edit?usp=drivesdk

 

Edited Saturday at 12:36 PM by VattghernCZ

[youloser1337 1,128]

Wow, so my player is decent?! who knew?

[Nykonax 1,605]

i just read through the entire stats series you've put out. love whenever someone dives deeper into the stats, I think it's so much more interesting compared to other articles, shame you don't really get extra credit for writing code or anything like that.

anyways, my point is I feel like PIM's should also be a consideration. From what I've seen higher hits correlates to more PIM's. When voting on things like defensive defenseman or two-way forward awards I've been looking at a simple PIMs/Hits ratio. From what I can tell, your script doesn't really take this into account? I think it's an important consideration as penalties are really bad defensive play and need to be considered. Not sure how you'd do implement this though.

This isn't to take away from your article at all, I think the stats are really interesting and things I haven't even thought about as stats, and I'd love to have this available every season as part of awards consideration tbh because I think it adds a lot more depth and realism.