Vlad The Impaler said:
It's impressive but several WHL Ds are at a point per game (roughly) this year. Including 2004 4th rounder Clayton Stoner.
Year after year, there are between 2 and 10 blueliners with that kind of PPG average. There was even a D with over 2 PPG in 2000, if I am not mistaken.
However something does stand out in Dion's stats this year when you compare them to the rest of the WHL defensemen...
1 Kris Russell Medicine Hat Tigers 47 20 27 47 26
2 Mike Green Saskatoon Blades 47 11 35 46 81
3 Dustin Byfuglien Prince George Cougars 41 16 24 40 117
4 Steven Later Brandon Wheat Kings 44 6 31 37 139
5 Brent Seabrook Lethbridge Hurricanes 40 7 27 34 71
6 Cam Barker Medicine Hat Tigers 31 7 26 33 58
7 Clayton Stoner Tri-City Americans 33 7 25 32 44
8 Dustin Kohn Calgary Hitmen 48 6 26 32 34
9 Dion Phaneuf Red Deer Rebels 31 14 17 31 47
10 Raymond Macias Kamloops Blazers 47 6 24 30 8
11 Shawn Belle Tri-City Americans 39 9 20 29 50
12 Shea Weber Kelowna Rockets 38 10 18 28 68
13 Braydon Coburn Portland Winter Hawks 39 6 22 28 90
14 * Andrej Meszaros Vancouver Giants 36 7 20 27 60
Dion appears to have the highest goals per game ratio at almost a goal every other game (14 goals in 31 games.) Russel with 20 goals in 47 games and Byfuglien with 16 in 41 are really the only two that are comparable on that front.
I find the goals per game pace to be much more intriguing than the points per game pace. Phaneuf already has a better point shot than anyone on the Flames. Those that think he's a stay at home defensemen may have underrated his ability to shoot the puck. And it's not as if this is the first year he's been scoring, he had 19 goals in the regular season last year and 16 goals in the regular season as a 17 year old.