Why what?
In my model, each individual player is compared to their self, not to others.
What is the expectation of Player A relative to expectations placed upon Player A?
Think of an individual player as a group. The measurement occurs within the group, not across groups.
About seven or eight years ago, a former moderator of this board, Irish Blues, argued against my assertion that we (fans, management etc) demonstrate an "expectation bias" toward an individual player relative to the round in which they were drafted.
He argued that it doesn't matter after the fact (the draft) and I argued that the round in which a player was drafted does matter in terms of relative expectations of that player, with the acknowledgment that late-round draftees can enjoy a high degree of success (Datsyuk and Zetterberg come to mind).
I just think it would be cool if there was a mechanism by which to measure a player's production relative to their perceived expectations, whether those expectations are valid or not. After all, what expectations are actually realistic?
The entire NHLdom expected Patrik Stefan to be awesome because he was the #1 overall draft pick in his draft year.
Did we actually expect 7th-rounder, Henrik Zetterberg, to be a near ppg player?
No.
Measuring production/success/whatever relative to salary cap hit is pretty cool and is in line with the sentiment of my idea expressed above. Player A's production is being measured relative to his own salary, not Player B's. It is a within-group measurement.
To take that point further, the highly-paid Player A is highly paid because he has produced at a level to warrant and justify his high salary relative to the cap.
If he fails to produce at the higher cap hit (Ville Leino), then we can say that this player has not performed at a level commensurate to his cap hit.
But the player is measured against himself, his cap hit, his skating ability, his shot accuracy, his draft status, his vision, his passing ability etc etc.....
Fun discussion.
