Non Stat(us) Quo

First of all, I want to thank Chris Young over at JABS for picking up on a passing comment I made about Wellwood's ability to draw penalties, and expanding on that thought. Leave it to a pro to show a novice how it's done. Following up on this, I tracked the game on Saturday (as did ESPN apparently. I really have to give ESPN another chance since I wrote them off for dropping the NHL), but the numbers weren't too telling; both Poni and Tucker drew two calls.

I think some interesting names will fill out the top of the penalties drawn leader board on the Leafs and the League. As Tom Benjamin notes, perhaps the League doesn't want these stats made public. Tom also wants to know whether the ensuing powerplay results in a goal. This would fill in the picture of the infractor; quantifying the concept of 'costly penalties'.

Along the same lines, an article in the Denver Post suggests new Wild director of hockey operations, and luckiest young sports fan in the world Chris Snow, intends to track ten new statistics to determine their value. In particular, he is interested in tracking first and second assists.

Maybe there is a player who, say, has 85 points, but 50 of them were second assists, and vice versa," Snow said. "Did that player really have much impact with the goal that scored, or did he just touch the puck and the guy with the first assist did all the work?

GM Risebrough somehow wants to apply quality to the hits stat.

That's one stat, for example, I've been frustrated by," Risebrough said. "I don't think that stat has been very accurate. You'll see some guy credited with a lot of hits, who you know isn't a very physical player. So maybe the question should be: What kind of a hit was it? Did it have a big impact at a particular time of the game? Those are the kinds of things, in hockey, that are harder to quantify but maybe with more analysis, we can gain something from it.

I'm curious to see what other stats Snow will be tracking, and if penalties drawn is one of them. For my money, that definitely illustrates an individual's value to the team.

[via]

UPDATE - Eric McErlain's first effort at NBCSports.com picks up on this idea of stats that can reveal individual player value beyond the status quo.

UPDATE 2 - I know I'm not the first person to realize the value of penalties drawn, but it felt pretty good to be at the root of posts from three of my favorite bloggers.
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And I wanted to brag on the Leafs for their Shots Per Game average leading the League so far this season with 38.8%.