Voros19

i agree! he does not back check worth a damn...
atlanta needs to trade him and get more colby armstrong type players and then they will be on the right path to success!

I can't tell if this is a joke.

Atlanta needs to trade their 50 goal scorer and bring in more 30-40 point third line wingers? That's the path to success?

Have you watched televised games from Atlanta??? He doesn't make a difference. Trade him, as he is lazy and one-dimensional, get some picks and actually build a winner.

There's no way you actually believe what you post.

I think it can't be the ONLY indicator. But I stated my case that it's damning for Kovalchuk to have no plus seasons with Atlanta when Hossa had two of them in the plus-15 range. Even Marc Savard managed a plus-7 season. Plus, I go with what my eyes tell me. He's a floater when his team doesn't have the puck. He's not worth $10 million for a team that wants to win. He's only worth $10 million because some misguided team will give him the money.

That proves absolutely nothing.

Plus minus measures productivity, not defensive acumen. It has a ton of noise since +/- is affected by teammates, quality of competition, and goaltending (this variable should not matter much over a large enough sample, although a season's worth isn't big enough in my opinion). Kovalchuk and Hossa did not have identical linemates and opponents, so you're argument is useless. In addition Triumph already stated that Hossa's presence on the penalty kill would artificially inflate his +/- compared to Kovalchuk's. Finally, wingers do not have a tremendous effect on preventing goals from being scored. That responsibility lies with defensemen and centers, so don't immediately suspect that differences in +/- among two wingers will be because of their defensive ability.

And another thing. Hossa is known as an extremely good defensive player, so it's logical that he would have a higher +/- than Kovalchuk (ignoring all the points above). The fact that he has a lower +/- doesn't automatically characterize Kovalchuk as bad defensively, or a floater. Most Atlanta fans recognize the fact that he has matured as a hockey player over the last several years and is fairly responsible in all facets of the game. You're touting a stereotype from 2004.

Kovalchuk is worth $10M. A top five talent in the NHL, capable of scoring 50 consistently. You can make that claim for one, maybe two other players.

Anyone who uses +/- to assess defensively ability is moronic.