Quote:
Originally Posted by Jore
Ok, he's closer to a 3rd D than a 4th D going solely by his goal impacts. He still has the worst results on the team during that span. What does that tell you?
Also, goal share is not the same as how many points a dman scores. Tanev is hardly a scorer but he has by far the best goal share on the Flames.
And on the Flames he's 4th again among regulars.
I guess it depends on how much you weigh team success vs. quality of competition. One could say he's been placed in a Sutter system that has seen good results for all defenders, with him still being one of the weaker defenders on the team. Alternately one could say that he's on the lower end because he's taking on harder competition so a guy like Gudbranson can have better performances. But even then we clearly see the difference in quality between him and Tanev, who takes on the hardest draws.
Here's where microstats may help in analysis, and the publicly available ones I've seen do not suggest that he's the one taking control of games or driving play. The microstats paint him as about average in every way among playoff team defenders.
I'd be a lot more bullish about Hanifin's low on-ice save % and his GA/60 during the playoffs if the microstats indicated a good process, or if he doesn't have a record of being weak in the playoffs before.
|
Not specifically picking on you but I'm more jumping off this statement because I have seen it elsewhere on the site. For years on this site (I hovered before I contributed) many looked at this team and said there are good players here but the subpar coaching is getting in the way. Now, we have superior coaching and some look at that as a reason to discount the players still with the Flames. Again, not looking specifically at your statement but just an impression.
I'm not sure it's fair to substract from a player's performance because they are receiving good coaching. Every team should aim to have good coaching and expect that a player thrive in that environment. When I look at some comments about Matthew or Johnny taking a step back because they aren't with Sutter any more - that doesn't speak to Matthew's or Johnny's talent or ability but is an indictment of Florida or Columbus as organizations to create an environment where those players can succeed.
If Hanifin has good results within this team environment, then he's capable of good results. He's not great at anything but he's decent at most. That has value to this team. Comparing him to Tanev, who is criminally underrated as a defensive-defenceman, for defensive results will always go for Tanev but ignores that Hanifin has other areas of the game that he does better than Tanev. We do need six quality defencemen on this team, particularly with how much star players play in this division.