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Top 20 Defensive Zone Starters
by PuckStopsHere on 07/25/10 at 07:01 PM ET
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Following up my sabermetrics and hockey post on the top offensive zone starters, today I will present the top 20 defensive zone starters.
This is calculated by observing which players are on the ice at faceoffs by zone. The players ranked here have the largest difference between their faceoff starts in the defensive zone and those in the offensive zone. For this study, neutral zone starts are ignored. The players here played tough defensive roles with their respective teams. This will hurt them in both their offensive numbers and in their puck possession stats (+/- ratings and Corsi). Thus it is necessary to take their zone starts into account when trying to rank players properly by any of those metrics.
Here are the top 20 defensive zone starters in the 2009/10 season:
Rank | Player | Team | Defensive Zone Starts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sami Pahlsson | CBJ | 212 |
| 2 | Nate Thompson | TBL | 210 |
| 2 | Richard Park | NYI | 210 |
| 4 | Roman Polak | StL | 197 |
| 5 | John Madden | Chi | 155 |
| 6 | Greg Zanon | Min | 152 |
| 7 | Marcel Goc | Nas | 151 |
| 7 | Jerred Smithson | Nas | 151 |
| 9 | Todd Marchant | Ana | 149 |
| 10 | Chris Drury | NYR | 146 |
| 11 | Ron Hainsey | Atl | 141 |
| 12 | Barret Jackman | StL | 140 |
| 12 | Keith Ballard | Flo | 140 |
| 14 | Zenon Konopka | TBL | 138 |
| 15 | Kyle Brodziak | Min | 133 |
| 16 | Radek Dvorak | Flo | 124 |
| 17 | Bryan Allen | Flo | 119 |
| 18 | Colin White | NJD | 118 |
| 19 | Jay McClement | StL | 117 |
| 20 | David Legwand | Nas | 116 |
In general, this is a list of hard working under appreciated players on weak teams. Only five qualified for the playoffs in 2009/10. These were the Nashville trio of Marcel Goc, Jerred Smithson and David Legwand, John Madden from the Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks and Colin White of New Jersey. There are more defensive zone starts available on bad teams, so it is easier to make this list when you play on one. That makes John Madden’s presence interesting. It must have been quite the effort from Joel Quenneville, the Chicago coach, to keep him out for as many defensive faceoffs as he was.
Leading this list is Sami Pahlsson of Columbus. He plays a tough overlooked role for the Blue Jackets. It is a few years from the days he was considered a Selke Trophy candidate in Anaheim, but his skills have not depreciated much. He is in a weaker market, both in terms of on ice results and media recognition. That and a drop in offensive numbers have dropped Pahlsson off of the Selke charts, despite continued strong defensive play.
Many of the players on this list are players with low Corsi ratings. We see that their defensive roles are significant parts of players such as Keith Ballard, Richard Park, Nate Thompson and Todd Marchant’s low Corsi ratings. Players who appear on this list and have more solid Corsi ratings are some of more successful defensive players in the NHL.
Defensive starts are a useful metric to determine which players play the toughest defensive roles in the NHL. This fact should be taken into account when adjusting most other statistics they may put up because it will affect their numbers. These are often players who played well, but usually do not have overall numbers to show it.
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It would interesting to see how many faceoffs in the defensive zone are the result of an icing and therefore the coach had no choice but let those players start in that zone. I am not sure if this stat is available at all.
Posted by Kel on 07/26/10 at 12:46 AM ET