Regular season adjusted stats for post-1967 defencemen
Career Stats
Player | Start | End | GP | EV% | R-ON | R-OFF | $ESP | PPP | PP% | TmPP+ | SH% | TmSH+
Serge Savard | 1968 | 1983 | 1038 | 43% | 1.44 | 1.52 | 25 | 9 | 24% | 1.32 | 58% | 0.82
Guy Lapointe | 1969 | 1984 | 884 | 42% | 1.41 | 1.66 | 31 | 28 | 64% | 1.29 | 52% | 0.76
Borje Salming | 1974 | 1990 | 1148 | 43% | 1.14 | 0.82 | 31 | 22 | 62% | 0.98 | 55% | 1.09
Mark Howe | 1980 | 1995 | 929 | 38% | 1.48 | 0.97 | 35 | 21 | 58% | 0.99 | 41% | 0.87
Rod Langway | 1979 | 1993 | 994 | 35% | 1.29 | 1.20 | 20 | 3 | 10% | 1.02 | 53% | 0.83
Brian Leetch | 1988 | 2006 | 1205 | 45% | 1.06 | 0.97 | 36 | 39 | 87% | 1.12 | 50% | 1.03
Scott Niedermayer | 1992 | 2010 | 1263 | 39% | 1.25 | 1.22 | 31 | 26 | 64% | 1.04 | 40% | 0.94
Prime Stats
Player | Start | End | GP | EV% | R-ON | R-OFF | $ESP | PPP | PP% | TmPP+ | SH% | TmSH+
Serge Savard | 1970 | 1979 | 651 | 45% | 1.72 | 1.67 | 28 | 13 | 34% | 1.33 | 65% | 0.76
Guy Lapointe | 1973 | 1979 | 499 | 46% | 1.67 | 1.88 | 40 | 34 | 75% | 1.32 | 68% | 0.74
Borje Salming | 1976 | 1982 | 527 | 46% | 1.26 | 0.83 | 41 | 32 | 81% | 1.07 | 58% | 1.04
Mark Howe | 1980 | 1988 | 654 | 42% | 1.47 | 0.94 | 39 | 22 | 64% | 0.96 | 44% | 0.86
Rod Langway | 1981 | 1989 | 673 | 38% | 1.35 | 1.21 | 22 | 4 | 14% | 0.99 | 57% | 0.85
Brian Leetch | 1989 | 1997 | 632 | 45% | 1.20 | 1.06 | 40 | 41 | 91% | 1.18 | 51% | 0.95
Scott Niedermayer | 2004 | 2007 | 242 | 39% | 1.27 | 1.22 | 37 | 33 | 79% | 1.13 | 47% | 0.90
Stats Glossary
EV%: The percentage of the team’s even-strength goals the player was on the ice for, on a per-game basis.
R-ON: The team’s GF/GA ratio while the player is on the ice at even strength.
R-OFF: The team’s GF/GA ratio while the player is off the ice at even strength.
$ESP/S: Even strength points per season, adjusted to a 200 ESG per team-season scoring level.
$PPP/S: Power play points per season, adjusted to a 70 PPG per team-season scoring level and a league-average number of power play opportunities.
PP%: The percentage of the team’s power play goals for which the player was on the ice.
TmPP+: The strength of the player’s team on the power play. 1.00 is average, higher is better.
SH%: The percentage of the team’s power play goals against for which the player was on the ice.
TmSH+: The strength of the player’s team on the penalty kill. 1.00 is average, lower is better.
What does it all mean?
Recycled comments on returning players, modified Leetch's a bit.
A note on the team-based stats - the lack of parity in the 1970s NHL made it easier to put up high numbers in these stats.
Serge Savard is an interesting contrast with Borje Salming, in terms of team situation. Really, it's very difficult to compare them based on these numbers. Savard played on a dominant, all-time great team, and Salming played on probably the weakest teams of any candidate yet.
At even strength, Savard played big minutes and played the toughest defensive assignments. His team had outstanding results whether he was on or off the ice. He had a minor role on the power play, usually on the second unit (he was never on the ice for as many as half of his team's power play goals.) He was a great penalty killer, playing a major role on a great Montreal unit.
Guy Lapointe was a major contributor in all situations to a great Montreal team. He's the first defenceman available who's team was better with him off the ice than on the ice at even strength, but that's partly because he was on the second pairing behind Savard and Robinson for much of his prime. On the power play and penalty kill, he was second to nobody on Montreal, playing a major role on both units. His prime was relatively short, at least when measured in regular season games.
Borje Salming played on a weak team, but had excellent plus-minus numbers relative to his team. I wonder to what degree he and Ian Turnbull played the tough assignments, or if they were in more of an offensive role. Salming played a lot of minutes in all situations during his prime. His team results were below-average on both special teams, but it's hard to penalize him too much for that.
Savard and Salming's numbers both dropped off around 1980. This is more understandable for Savard, as he was 33 years old, had played a lot of playoff games, and had major knee injuries during his career. What about Salming? Other posters here have suggested it was an accumulation of injuries, which is very possible. Salming ended up playing until the age of 38, which was unusual at the time and is to his credit.
Note on Salming's prime years: I left out 1974 and 1975 because he played fewer minutes in those seasons (EV% of 39%, PP% of 46%, SH% of 57%.) But he was voted a second-team all-star in 1975, and was +38 in 1974, so you might choose to include those seasons in his prime.
Mark Howe had extremely good plus-minus numbers at even strength right from the start to the end of his NHL career. His best results came while paired with Brad McCrimmon from 84/85 to 86/87. I'm not sure to what degree he was used in an offensive/defensive role, which would have implications for his plus-minus, but his record of +400 in the regular season and +54 in the playoffs is very impressive.
He played on both the power play and the penalty kill, but not huge minutes on either one. It's a little puzzling to me why he didn't play more on the power play, given his offensive skills. Was it because he relied on a wrist shot instead of a slap shot? Because his coaches (Keenan and others) preferred to spread the minutes around?
Rod Langway was a pure defensive defenceman. Rarely played on the power play, played huge minutes on the penalty kill.
His even-strength plus-minus record is a good illustration of the effect role and strength of opposition can play in plus-minus, IMO. His last two seasons in Montreal playing second pairing behind Robinson, he was +53 and +66. In his first two seasons in Washington as the top shutdown option, he was even and +14 - and won the Norris trophy both seasons.
Washington's power play goals against in the two seasons before Langway - 83, 67.
Washington's power play goals against in Langway's first two seasons - 53, 39.
It's hard to match the impact of the other defenceman here as a pure defensive defenceman. But if anyone could, it was Langway.
Brian Leetch was the best offensive defenceman available for voting (by a lot, at this point.) His plus-minus numbers weren't particularly good especially in the second half of his career. In his defence, he was probably asked to do more than he should have in New York, playing huge minutes in all situations without a lot of help on the back end. He's one of the group of players you could make a case for as the second best defenceman on the PP in history (behind Orr). Played big minutes on the penalty kill, with poor team results. Again, probably a case of being pushed into a bigger role than he was suited for, in my opinion. He entered an NHL that was a good fit for his game, but the Eastern conference in the dead puck era was a tough fit for an offensive defenceman.
Scott Niedermayer spent most of his career as a second pairing defenceman on an excellent team, and finally became an elite defenceman in his 30s. An all-around contributor. He wasn't elite on the PP or the PK - for much of his career in New Jersey he played on the second unit for both. At even strength, he carried the offence for the second pairing against second-tier matchups in New Jersey. In Anaheim he was paired with a strong defender on the top pairing and played the toughest matchups.
His prime was hard to isolate, as he didn't really step forward until after Scott Stevens retired, and then wasn't really the same after he took half a year off in 2007. I listed his 03/04 through 06/07 seasons as his prime, as they were an easily identified high point in his career.
