Claimed:Villeneuve's A Top Defenseman [FINAL 6/6]

[Phil 5,119]

Villeneuve's A Top Defenseman 

 

 

Rarely do I actually write a Media Spot that involves me talking about my own player. This is primarily because no one but me actually gives a hoot about what is going on in the life of Villeneuve and thus would be way less inclined to read it. I generally try to write about other players or a group of players. Does anyone remember my short series on entertaining team building activities that Riga players do? (Here they are for reference). However, today I would like to point out some things about the Riga lifer and bring it to the attention of... I suppose... the only person who'll end up reading this: the grader!

 

Phil Villeneuve has been in the VHL for 6 seasons now. He was drafted by Riga and has stayed in Riga. Up until half way through his 5th season, I really was not very active. I would pop by every now and again and say 'hi' in the lockeroom, or post a random Media Spot here and there, but it was pretty clear (and I did say so myself) that Villeneuve was going to be a decent depth defenseman at best. I would be very surprised if I reached 500TPE with him. I will now support my argument as to why Villeneuve has transcended this.

 

 

If you look at his first 5 seasons in the VHL (his first after he was drafted was spend in the minors) you would whole-heartedly again with my original statement about him being no more than a depth defenseman. Let's look at his Season 40 stats for instance: Had the second least points on the team, the third worst +/-, and spent the most time in the penalty box. That to me is looking pretty below-average. But what makes up for that is the fact the Villeneuve 50 more hits than any other defensemen on Riga and the second most shots blocked. He also had the best hits-to-hits taken ratio on Riga. This implies that he took the puck away more and gave the puck away less than any other Riga player - an important contribution for them to go on and win the Cup but by no means anywhere close to being considered for the Labatte Trophy.

 

This Season, although he'll almost definitely not be considered for the Top Defenseman, he has proven to be a top-line pairing. Despite him playing the first 42 games of the season without being updated from the off-season, he managed to accumulate a career-high of 68 points. He had the best plus/minus on the team, the most hits by a defenseman with 185 and only 84 hits taken (the best by far from the top 5 Riga players) he also tied all-star Fjorsstrom for shots blocked with 121. Even though Fjorsstrom had 17 more points than Villeneuve, it is tough to say if he was the better defenseman this year for Riga. Villeneuve played 115 minutes less than him (that's 2 games on the bench) yet blocked just as many shots, had 80 more hits (takeaways), and most shockingly of all, had a plus/minus rating of +28 better than Fjorsstrom (+47 vs +19). Fjosstrom also took more penalties than Villeneuve this season (92 vs 78).

 

 

Looking that this, I would say without bias that Phil Villeneuve has become Riga's most valuable defenseman. It would be interesting to see how much better Villeneuve's stats would be had he been updated at the start of the season and not almost half-way through it. It is unclear whether Villeneuve will be staying in Riga past this year but after 6 years he has finally shown the VHL that he can be a top defender and that, to me, is more than I ever expected out of Villeneuve.

 

[Mike 708]

I read this

[DollarAndADream 3,356]

Content: 3/3 - More than enough words and an interesting read to say the least. I agree with you that people have less incentive to read if it's about your own player. I can easily argue that for myself since my Boychuk articles barely get close to the views everyone else has.

 

Grammar: 2/2 - A few things to note. Nothing deductible because it wasn't distracting at all from the read, and 4 minor errors isn't too much.

"(his first after he was drafted was spend in the minors)" - spent, not spend

"you would whole-heartedly again with my original statement about him being no more than a depth defenseman" - agree, not again

"But what makes up for that is the fact the Villeneuve 50 more hits than any other defensemen" - the fact that Villeneuve has 50 more hits

"Looking that this, I would say without bias " - Looking at this

 

Appearance: 1/1 - Layout and pictures are great. Easy to read and looks nice.

 

Overall: 6/6

[Kesler 1,514]

Claimed