ecn ECN Special edition "Fighters, time and minuses"

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ECN Special edition

"Fighters, time and minuses"

 

This time ECN will be looking at interesting stats and generally things that players around the league have managed to achieve or do this season! As always, if you have any questions or ideas that you believe would help ECN content, be sure to tell us! And now, without further ado, let’s get into our post.

 

Fighters, is punching and being pounded helping on ice-performance?

 

This season we have witnessed quite a few players dropping gloves and going head to head with their opposition, that being said, some of those players are just better at that than others. If you look at Gerb B Frobe /Playing for Prague Phantoms/ and his efficiency at fighting compared to a guy like Jordan Tonn /Playing for Helsinki Titans/ you will see what I mean by being better than others. Forbe has fought 2 times and both time shave won were as Tonn has fought in the same amount of fights, but has managed to embarrass himself both times. We could go through list and check every one of the players, but for me the most important question is about their ability and willingness to fight and their on-ice skill. Two truly great examples of the ability to score and hold his own ground can be seen from Rauno Palo and Kronos Bailey who both have fought at least 3 times and are well about point-per-game. It is the true art of hockey when a player is able to be offensively and defensively dominant and defend his teammates. It is interesting that Rauno Palo who has played lights out this season was traded away from Vancouver. It should be noted that players like Rauno Palo and Kronos Bailey are hard to find so keep your eyes on them if they become available on free-agent market.

 

Overplaying forwards or rising their value?

 

We are used to seeing defencemen playing huge amount of minutes for their respectful teams but it is quite unusual to see 2 forwards on the same team lead the league in that category. DC Dragons, have been playing Mikko Aaltonen, one of the best young snipers in VHL, and Kaspars Claude, their first line centre and top prospect, over 30 minutes per game. It should be noted that they both are not being extremely productive considering they both are under point-per-game. It could be argued that rising their stock value and playing them high minutes could help DC if they would decide to trade either one of them. DC, the same as Prague, have a very bright future ahead of them, however it will all evolve around the ability of their GM ability to attract key free-agents and trade assets for wins.

 

Plus/minus or should we just stay with minus?

 

It should not come as a surprise that both of the expansion teams are taking up all Top 20 positions in VHL plus/minus category, considering how shallow their roster is, but looking at both teams you would not expect them have players with -50 rating just before the trade deadline. Is that really just an issue of a weak roster or is it the on-ice ability of these players?  Surely, they are making their own legacy on an expansion team and that could justify taking this step back from personal achievements. We can all hope that at some point in their careers, these players will achieve the ultimate goal and be rewarded for their struggles at the start of their careers!

 

And that will be all for this special edition of ECN’s weekly posts! Tune in at the end of the week for your weekly VHL Now! Until then, take care and see you around! Brought to you by Frostbeard Entertainment