Quote:
Originally Posted by Nelson
I say he is struggling because he is playing against way below average opposition, getting 51.13% OZS%, playing with a defenceman more talented than himself (Kulak) and he has a strong negative effect on the team's control of shot attempts and an even stronger negative effect on the team's goals for percentage.
Moreover, he is paid $3.5 million dollars per season to play on the bottom pair. In 2017-2018, the average salary for a 3rd pair defenceman was $1.8 million so he is almost double that while not providing the Flames with good play.
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Stone was not a problem in the games I watched. He's getting paid like a borderline top 4 guy because he's a borderline top 4 guy. He can play top 4 if anybody gets injured. We got relatively lucky with injuries on the defense last year. Sometimes having good depth means having 5-6 guys who can play top 4 defense and sometimes you have to pay them accordingly.
As for stats I feel like defensive defensemen often get underrated by the fancy stats. GranteedEV and others bashed Engelland over and over for his fancy stats while he was here but his play was good and obviously he contributed a heck of a lot to the Golden Knights and their Stanley Cup run. So you really have to wonder if those fancy stats really tell you as much as they should about physical defensive defensemen.
Where do the fancy stats take into account that Stone was one of our best dmen at angling and rubbing guys out into the boards? That he was one of the meanest and toughest in front of the net and by the boards? You need 1 or 2 of those guys that will make forwards pay to price to go to the hard areas if you wanna be a hard team to play against. If all your defensemen are soft puck movers then those areas aren't hard for the opposition to go to and you give an easy time to their forwards.
Fancy stats IMO are complete garbage for evaluating defensive defensemen. The game isn't all about getting weak shots on net. Part of the game is big, physical defensive defensemen making it hard on the opposition to win board battles and get to the front of the net. The best scoring chances are screens, deflections and rebounds. So you don't wanna make it easy for the opposition to set up in front of your goalie and get easy screens, deflections and rebounds. Defensive defensemen have a very valuable role in that regard that doesn't seem to currently be captured by fancy stats.
Fancy stats do not tell the whole story about whats going on the ice. They tell a very biased tale that emphasizes certain things and completely fails to emphasize other valuable things.