well let's see just how much all these "forward thinking" genius analytic guys getting into management positions at the NHL actually hold any weight in decisions.
i'd imagine almost every single fighter in the league (heavy weight, heck, even the middle weights) have just horrid possession numbers, as well as almost any other metric used to quantify actual hockey play quality/value.
fighters, which hold an almost completely isolated value for the "traditionalists", should quickly disappear if GMs are actually putting weight on what the analytics are going to show.
i'm all for fighting in hockey, as a means of policing dirty play and hits. However, guys who are only there to play 5 mins and then stage a fight just seem meaningless to me.
I think we're going to see a trend of the big fighters go away (ie. heavy weights). Guys like chris neil, will stay in the NHL, however, they become your 4th liners, as i think we're seeing more and more teams going with 3 scoring lines, and 1 gritty/checking line, with guys like chris neil, bouma, komarov, clutterbuck, etc (guys who can play regular shifts, but bring an edge).
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