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 I’ve spent the last month or so working on a new way to measure hockey players. I call it the Heavy Lifter Index (HLI). I didn’t invent the term heavy lifter for hockey players, I just added the index part. I’m pretty sure my contribution to the name is much more important than the rest. For [...]  With the news that Mikael Backlund was being sent to the Abbotsford Heat of the AHL, here was my review of his rookie performance so far this season. The article is posted on Matchsticks & Gasoline here. Below is an excerpt. “With 4 goals and 4 assists in 32 games, Backlund hasn’t exactly been lighting up the traditional [...]  Here’s a article I wrote on the merits and detriments of the contracts handed out to the Blues David Backes and the Flyers Jeff Carter for Hockey Prospectus. I also have a post coming up on HP soon where I unveil the Heavy Lifter Index to profile some of the NHL’s best players against the other [...]  Based on a few comments on the Illegal Curve radio show, I put up a post on Matchsticks & Gasoline yesterday about the Flames potential to trade Regehr and why it’s time to do so. The article is posted here. Below is an excerpt from the article. “Now before everyone gets their guard up and says Regehr is [...] There are two new articles up at Matchsticks & Gasoline. The first, is my analysis of Mark Giordano’s new contract with the Flames. Definitely go read and comment if you get the chance. In the meantime, here is an excerpt of the article. “Potential. It’s the buzz-word that gets every fan pumped about their favorite player and [...] I had to give myself some time before I commented on the big fan interaction problem infecting the NHL right now. I’m not talking about the whole “Rick Rypien fan-grab” controversy, mainly because it’s not a controversy. Let me break it down for you: Dude is fired up from a hockey fight. Fan says something to [...] My latest weekly column on Matchsticks and Gasoline included the regular Flames stat roundup as well as some interesting insight into Shot Quality. Here’s an excerpt, the whole article can be found here. “Much was made of the Avalanche’s “luck” last season, as evidenced by high PDO for many players and a solid record despite negative Corsi rates. [...]  Here is a study that I did for Hockey Prospectus on NHL Team Architecture. Obviously since I posted it on HP, I believe they have a great site, so definitely take a look at some of the material from their other great writers too. Front Office Focus – NHL Team Architecture What is the best way to [...]  In case some of my readers don’t regularly frequent Matchsticks & Gasoline, I thought I’d link a few new articles I wrote over there. The first is a response article to the issue of having either a clear cut #1 goalie or two decent goalies and which situation is better. You can find that article here. The second [...] While many teams have wrapped up prospect camps and have started into training camps, there was an interesting contract handed out this week that got lost in the mix. The New York Rangers locked up their young shut-down defenseman, Marc Staal, in a 5-year deal worth just under $4 million per year. Much like we did [...]  This is a story I posted on Matchsticks & Gasoline as part of our player preview series. Come take a look at some of the other articles if you’re interested. Sometimes things just don’t work out like we thought. Items bought on eBay looked better in the picture than when they arrive in the mail, your [...]  With news that Cristobal Huet is headed to Switzerland to play for HC Fribourg-Gotteron, the Huet Haters are becoming more vocal than Don Cherry and Pierre McGuire combined. While it’s easy to say that he didn’t live up to expectations in Chicago the past two seasons, the question remains as to how good Huet really is [...]  an article I posted at Matchsticks & Gasoline this week Last week I proposed a few trades the Flames could potentially make in order to get both under the cap and to add a prospect. All trades aside, I am ridiculously curious to see what the line combinations will be for the Flames this year. There are a [...]  This article was posted originally on Matchsticks & Gasoline. I have signed on as an author at this fantastic Flames’ blog, so come on by and check it out. I’m obsessed with the behavior of GMs and how they handle the salary cap. It’s amazing how many teams are run by men who can only see [...]  For those of us that believe outshooting the opponent is the most surefire way to victory in the NHL, the LA Kings signing of Alexei Ponikarovsky should set off fireworks. In his book, Moneyball, Michael Lewis referred to Kevin Youkilis’ as “The Greek God of Walks”. For NHL GMs, Ponikarovsky could be Ukrainian for “Net-peppering Ninja”. I [...]  Exactly one year ago, I decided to start the Sports Opinionated blog over on Blogger.com. The goal was to give myself a creative outlet to express my many views on sports, whether misguided or fact-based. My goal when I started was to write 2-3 posts per week on anything that I was passionate about and to [...]  A review of Kovalchuk’s contract that I wrote for Puck Prospectus on Wednesday. I was away for a few days so didn’t have time to share it here until now. Front Office Focus – Is the NHL doing the Devils a Favor with the Kovalchuk contract? All H-E-double-hockey-sticks has broken loose with the NHL rejecting Ilya Kovalchuk’s [...]  Yesterday over at Behind the Net, Gabe made a post about Mikko Koivu’s contract extension with the Wild. In the comments, there was some great debate about how the contract compared to those signed by Tomas Plekanec and Nicklas Backstrom. Given that I’d written up reviews of both contracts here and here, I figured it [...]  Here is the story as published on Puck Prospectus today. Front Office Focus – The Flames Free Agent Moves Free agency frequently brings a variety of deals that range from astute to downright absurd. This year’s free agency period was no different. While there are a variety of teams that have appeared to alter their talent level significantly [...]  We’re almost a week into Free Agency at this point and there is no way to declare who has won or lost, just like we should never declare the winner of the NHL draft two days after it’s happened. That said, we can definitely evaluate the dollars spent at various positions and the deals that seem [...] |
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