Crosby vs McWolf (vs Owens)

[McWolf 3,111]

The last draft was one for the ages that saw a ton of impact players join good teams, that hope they can help them reach glory, and bad teams, that will need them for their whole 8-season career. Two of the players drafted near the top of the board are having very similar start to their season. Joseph McWolf (2nd overall, New York) and Sidney Crosby (4th overall, Helsinki) are both solid defensive defensemen that will inevitably work to round their two way game in future seasons. Despite their skillset suggesting they should be having a bigger defensive impact on their respective teams, both rookie defensemen are currently enjoying their time as their teams' blueline leader. While McWolf is paired with Bourdon on the first Americans pair, Crosby actually has to share the ice most of his shifts with HSK D1 (and HSK D2, and HSK D3, he's the only real dman on the team). In both cases, this means they have a whole lot of opporunities to perform and rack stats.

 

Sidney Crosby (HSK). 17 GP, 0 G, 13 A, 13 PTS, -15, 73 HIT, 75 SB.

Joseph McWolf (NYA). 16 GP, 1 G, 11 A, 12 PTS, -22, 72 HIT, 63 SB.

 

These stats place both in the top 10 in rookie scoring (Crosby is 4th, McWolf is 6th), in hits (Crosby is 6th, McWolf is 7th) and, most of all, in shots blocked (Crosby is 1st, McWolf is 2nd). Saying both are getting a nice amount of shots blocked is an understatement. Actually, saying both are leading the shots blocked leaderboards would also be an understatement. To put it in perspective, the player with the 3rd most blocked shots, Joseph Bassolino, has 45 so far. 30 behind Crosby and 18 behind McWolf. To put it in another perspective, Crosby is in pace for 317 on the season, while McWolf is in pace for 283, which would ranked them 2nd and 5th on the all-time list. If their teams continue to do fairly bad and they continue to be strong presences in their defensive zone, they could both have a shot at beating Tyler Owens record of 325 shots blocked, set in the 37th season. Crosby and I Everyone is excited to see how this will end for the two young stars, both promised to a bright future.

 

@SidTheKid87

Edited October 29, 2018 by McWolf