Triumph Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 (edited) If we are going to play like that, over the course of 2 seasons these sabremetrics still don't have the sample size to conclude anything. These numbers are the same as concluding anything with Comeau's statistics or Fayne's statistics to date. They are small sample sizes. Brassard has played 170 even strength minutes this year. Among forwards who've played 10 or more games this year, his zone start ranks 64th out of 386 ranked forwards, and it's 2nd on his team. A few shifts against very high level players can skew a Corsi Rel QoC greatly for someone who's played as few minutes as Brassard has. Zajac is our only experienced quality center. Elias is a natural wing and while Henrique is doing well he is still a rookie. Having Zajac and Brassard gives us a huge upgrade on the first two lines. I guess you haven't seen Elias say that he wants to remain a center, or that he's done fantastically well there so far this year, or that the Devils already have plenty of left wings, so... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3dUfykR-_g Edited December 2, 2011 by Triumph Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lateralous Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 Zajac is our only experienced quality center. Elias is a natural wing and while Henrique is doing well he is still a rookie. Having Zajac and Brassard gives us a huge upgrade on the first two lines. Just because he's a natural left wing doesn't mean Elias isn't a quality center. Now that he's gotten pretty good with the face offs he's actually our best center. At this point, I think it's safe to say he's got experience at the position as well since it's been a few years since he was at LW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MantaRay Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 I guess you haven't seen Elias say that he wants to remain a center, or that he's done fantastically well there so far this year, or that the Devils already have plenty of left wings, so... Elias will always do what the team wants. He is one of the last remaining pillars in the organization. Elias is still clearly our best all around player, but I would rather have a natural center who can win more that 42% of his face-offs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewarkDevil5 Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 Elias will always do what the team wants. He is one of the last remaining pillars in the organization. Elias is still clearly our best all around player, but I would rather have a natural center who can win more that 42% of his face-offs. I'd rather a guy who plays better at the position than a guy who takes faceoffs really well. Technically Petr Sykora leads the team in FO% with 62.5%, do you want him playing center? Brad Mills has a 57.3% win rate, should he take Patty's place on that line? As long as Patty's not getting massacred at the dot (which 42% isn't really that terrible), keep the lines together that play well together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triumph Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 Elias is a natural center. That's the position he played before he reached the NHL. The question is, does Elias's poor faceoff ability outweigh everything else he does at the center position, and the answer is clearly no. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MantaRay Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 I'd rather a guy who plays better at the position than a guy who takes faceoffs really well. Technically Petr Sykora leads the team in FO% with 62.5%, do you want him playing center? Brad Mills has a 57.3% win rate, should he take Patty's place on that line? As long as Patty's not getting massacred at the dot (which 42% isn't really that terrible), keep the lines together that play well together. Don't play the BS % game. Again, This is not a slight on Elias, he is the only superstar we have, he makes everyone on his line play better. I would just rather have someone who could improve our possession time in the offensive zone with better faceoff's. If he improves fine, but it could hurt to get a natural center, which Elias isn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewarkDevil5 Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 Don't play the BS % game. Again, This is not a slight on Elias, he is the only superstar we have, he makes everyone on his line play better. I would just rather have someone who could improve our possession time in the offensive zone with better faceoff's. If he improves fine, but it could hurt to get a natural center, which Elias isn't. You're the one who first brought up percentages, not me. My point is that the line has been effective with Elias centering it and I'd prefer that it stay that way. It's the only consistent line we've had this season. I agree that faceoff % is a BS statistic, but you brought up Patty's 42% line way before I mentioned anyone else's statistics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MantaRay Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 (edited) You're the one who first brought up percentages, not me. My point is that the line has been effective with Elias centering it and I'd prefer that it stay that way. It's the only consistent line we've had this season. I agree that faceoff % is a BS statistic, but you brought up Patty's 42% line way before I mentioned anyone else's statistics. I did bring it up in the course of serious discussion, comparing: Elias who has taken 468 faceoff's vs Sykora's 8? CMON MAN Edited December 5, 2011 by MantaRay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devils26 Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 Does anyone have Elias' faceoff numbers by zone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewarkDevil5 Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 I did bring it up in the course of serious discussion, comparing: Elias who has taken 468 faceoff's vs Sykora's 8? CMON MAN Ok, let's take Elias's 468 faceoffs through 25 games. He's won 42.5% of them, which translates into 199 faceoffs or 7.96 faceoff wins per game. What if he had been a better faceoff man and won 50%? Is that a good enough percentage for a decent center to win? That would have meant winning 234 faceoffs over 25 games which translates into 9.36 faceoff wins per game. Would you really be able to tell the difference in possession because of that additional 1.4 faceoff wins per game? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewarkDevil5 Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Oh, and while we're on the subject of the faceoff % statistic as it relates to "natural centers", Derrick Brassard, the guy this thread is about, has a 42.3% faceoff win percentage. That's right, he's actually 0.02% worse at it than Patrik Elias the "natural left wing." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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