I looked at the Corsica ratings today to determine the value on one number and one number alone. Just for reference, these are the top 30 players after last season as per their ratings which are 80 points and above (*McDavid the highest at 89.02):
1 McDavid
2 Crosby
3 Bergeron
4 Marchand
5 Ovechkin
6 Kucherov
7 Hall
8 MacKinnon
9 Malkin
10 Tarasenko
11 Pastrnak
12 Kuznetsov
13 F. Forsberg
14 Scheifele
15 B. Burns
16 Laine
17 Marchessault
18 Panarin
19 Wheeler
20 A. Matthews
21 Letang
22 Kopitar
23 John Gibson
24 Guentzel
25 E. Karlsson
26 Seguin
27 Byfuglien
28 PK Subban
29 Doughty
30 Hedman
https://www.corsicahockey.com/nhl/pl...tings-rankings
These are Game Score values weighted by time on ice and and recency of data, so that you aren't skewed by small sample sizes and old numbers that don't apply any longer. For those that don't know, Game Score has the following formula:
Player Game Score = (0.75 * G) + (0.7 * A1) + (0.55 * A2) + (0.075 * SOG) + (0.05 * BLK) + (0.15 * PD) – (0.15 * PT) + (0.01 * FOW) – (0.01 * FOL) + (0.05 * CF) – (0.05 * CA) + (0.15 * GF) – (0.15* GA)
As you can see, the list above is pretty much a who's who of the best players in the league last year. When you get to the section of 20-30, the differences between players become much smaller, so it's a little bit interchangeable, but they're all considered to be players that have a very strong positive impact on the game.
So what about the Flames of last year and our new players? Well, let's start with the guys we let go:
Dougie Hamilton provided the team with the most objective value with a rating of 78.89, but he was only a few points above his partner Giordano at 78.76. That probably comes down to Hamilton's goal scoring ability above all else, which is weighted fairly high in this metric. It may not mean much, but Dougie is ranked as the 13th best right handed d-man, while Giordano is ranked as the 4th best left handed d-man.
Micheal Ferland is another story. His rating is just 71.43, which was near the bottom of the Flames roster and puts him in a 3rd/4th tier of players in the league. Listed as a left winger, Ferland has the 85th best rating at that position. This reinforces the idea that he's a 3rd liner, even when playing with 1st line players.
Ok, so what about the guys we brought in?
James Neal adds a lot of value with a 74.29 rating, and the 34th best right winger in the league. Obviously, his ability to score goals is a big part of his rating, but scoring goals is hard to do in the NHL again, so it should have a very high value. At any rate, he's right on the cusp of being an unquestioned 1st line winger still.
Derek Ryan again is the next best of the bunch. He comes in with a 74.09 rating, ranking him 55th among centers. That's in the entire NHL, BTW. He might be the most underrated pick up we had this year.
Noah Hanifin is next with a very solid 73.68 for such a young defenseman. This confirms that he is indeed a step down from Hamilton, but probably mostly for goal scoring reasons as mentioned above. But, Hanifin is ranked 32nd amongst left handed defensemen, meaning he's already a legitimate 2nd pairing defenseman, and is on the cusp of being a bonafide top pairing defenseman.
Next is Elias Lindholm with a 73.09 rating, ranking him 52nd amongst centers. This puts him firmly in that 2nd tier of centers in the NHL, but still a very solid player overall.
Austin Czarnik is actually already a solid NHLer by these ratings (remember, sample size is already taken into account). He has a 71.72 rating and is listed as a center, so his ranking is a little lower at 108, but still NHL quality.
So, what does this mean for the Flames roster? Well all of these players add positively to the club in terms of game score. Now this doesn't take into account quality of competition, but it does take into account ice time and the last 120 games of play as major weighting factors. Looking at the Flames team for this upcoming year, the player ratings and rank at their position in parentheses is listed below. Draw your own conclusions
:
LD Mark Giordano: 78.76 (4)
C Sean Monahan: 78.63 (23)
LD T.J. Brodie: 77.61 (9)
LW Johnny Gaudreau: 77.73 (14)
LW Matthew Tkachuk: 77.30 (16)
RW James Neal: 74.29 (34)
C Derek Ryan: 74.09 (55)
LD Noah Hanifin: 73.68 (32)
C Mikael Backlund: 73.63 (62)
C Elias Lindholm: 73.09 (52)
RD Rasmus Andersson: 71.84 (68)
RW Michael Frolik: 71.77 (78)
C Austin Czarnik: 71.72 (108)
RD Travis Hamonic: 71.47 (78)
C Sam Bennett: 70.94 (129)
C Mark Jankowski: 70.80 (133)
RD Michael Stone: 70.39 (92)
RW Curtis Lazar: 69.21 (128)
RW Garnet Hathaway: 69.19 (122)
LD Matt Bartkowski: 69.06 (114)
LD Brett Kulak: 68.72 (119) *Remember, it's over the last 120 games, and Kulak wasn't great to begin his career.
RW Troy Brouwer: 68.96 (125)
The big complaint with the Flames last year was that they were good on the top 1 or 2 lines, but it fell off sharply after that. The numbers seem to bear that out. So I look at the bolded and what I take from that is that we essentially stuffed the second tier of our lineup with quality players that can be difference makers in a game. Yeah, we lost Dougie, and perceived rhetoric aside, he clearly had major value, but to give up just him and get back 2 quality second tier players who are young makes a ton of sense. The free agents we signed were shrewd, and fit exactly what we needed.
Not to mention that 3 of the players we acquired this year played under our coach last year and had that level of success above. It's fair to think they will repeat that or maybe be a little bit better. What will be interesting to see is how the Flames improve under Peters this year. I think it's clear that some players struggled mightily under Gulutzan and might have bounce back years under Peters.
All in all, I think the Flames will be a vastly improved team this year, and that's not just me drinking the kool-aid. The holes are largely filled. As long as Smith stays healthy, this is a playoff team.
