Quote:
Originally Posted by New Era
What data? Sure, Brodie scores more points, but at what cost? Brodie plays a high risk game and finds himself the leader in defensive blunders, by a large margin. Brodie's giveaways are the highest of any defender at 100. Hamonic comes in 4th among defensemen at 62. In stats that look at what goes on in our end of the ice I think Hamonic is better. In hits, Hamonic is more than doubles Brodie, 44 to 21. Stone had more hits than Brodie did last season, and Stone only played 14 games. In blocked shots, it isn't even a discussion. Hamonic's 167 is again almost double Brodie's 86. Brodie has Hamonic in points, but beyond that I like the underlying data to Hamonic's game more so than Brodie's. The thing about Hamonic is that he has proven he can be the guy on a defensive pairing. Brodie has shown he can only be effective with Mark Giordano riding shot gun with him. Either of them could be dealt, but I would prefer it be Brodie as I see him totally replaceable by players in the system. We do not have another Travis Hamonic waiting in the wings.
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What data?
- Points, which matter because of the obvious.
- Plus minus. You want to be on the ice for more goals for than against
- Shots for and against. Hamonic in the playoffs, being in the 30 percent neighbourhood means for every shot your team gets, the other team gets 2.
The stats that matter
Giveaways? Big deal. You have to have the puck to give it away. Hamonic can’t give away what he can’t get, and is more of a low event player.
- Gaudreau had 127 giveaways, and 58 takeaways
- the next 3 players above Brodie in the NHL were also D. Muzzin, Yandle and Doughty all had 102-110 giveaways. Well you know what else? They had 20-27 takeaways. Brodie had 68. Comparatively not too shabby, wouldn’t you say?
Look, these players play different games. You know this. Brodie is a high skill player whose skating is his greatest asset. Hamonic plays a different game, he isn’t great at puck retrieval and pays the price he has to pay in order to be effective. Different styles lead to different stats.
Hits? Why hit a guy when you have the puck? Brodie isn’t Eric Lindros.
I would like if you knock off the ‘can only be effective with Gio’ narrative. That is not proven by anything other than your feelings.
Brodie proved he could be effective with Derek Engelland as well, in case you have forgotten. Won more playoff games and series with him than with anyone.
With Gio, they are only, you know, pretty much the top pairing in the league.
Incidentally, I would take Engelland over Hamonic, but he wanted to live in Vegas
* Fun fact. Smith and Rittich had 71 and 65 giveaways, respectively