Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheerio
That is an interesting take on why Engelland was rightly or wrongly paid 3MM a year. Ice time isn't a fair evualator for comparing the two players though, because as we saw all year, Hartley preferred to give ice time to the players who had spent the year in his system (see Drew Shore).
He is a good 5, look at his possession numbers, they're borderline top pair according to his HERO chart. Look at his and Engelland's WOWY (with or without you). Schlemko made his line mates better, Engelland made them worse, most notably TJ Brodie whose possession numbers dropped by more than 10% when he was playing with Engelland. Corsi isn't the be all end all stat but it shows possession better than anything else. In my opinion Schlemko was a much better player just by watching as well due to his great 1st pass ability. Why do believe Engelland is so much better? Schlemko seems gritty and like he has intangibles as well.
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While you're saying that statistical numbers aren't the end all be all, placing Schlemko as a #5 guy using the basis of those possession numbers shows the opposite.
Backlund is one of our best possession drivers yet didn't reach the 4M cap hit some reporters in the media estimated he would based on that attribute. That's because despite his overall fantastic play, he hadn't produced consistently enough (mostly on PP) to warranty payment beyond that.
With Schlemko in 44 games, 4 points as a #7 show little confidence. It's one thing to be carrying those intangibles like an Engelland who could potentially the pine when not needed but being waived by multiple teams show that his value isn't quite there. Sure he got picked up twice because teams wanted him but they wanted the #7 defenseman, not a borderline #4 contract .
Schlemko's possession numbers come as a result of reduced ice team, against weaker competition. If those possession numbers were so valuable to the point of suggestion even a 3M per year contract, Hartley certainly didn't immediately put his value that way. He had the likes of Wideman, Brodie and Russell double shifting when Giordano went down, with Engelland stepping up to the plate.
Schlemko and his 'borderline top pairing possession' numbers didn't exactly get called on a whole lot when the team needed more from the entire defense.