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+
Jacques Laperriere | 1968 | 1973 | 435 | 47% | 1.53 | 1.31 | 26 | 9 | 35% | 1.22 | 73% | 0.84
J.C. Tremblay | 1968 | 1972 | 358 | 45% | 1.37 | 1.33 | 32 | 22 | 69% | 1.31 | 64% | 0.85
Guy Lapointe | 1969 | 1984 | 884 | 42% | 1.41 | 1.66 | 31 | 28 | 64% | 1.29 | 52% | 0.76
Rod Langway | 1979 | 1993 | 994 | 35% | 1.29 | 1.20 | 20 | 3 | 10% | 1.02 | 53% | 0.83
Larry Murphy | 1981 | 2001 | 1615 | 39% | 1.20 | 1.02 | 34 | 25 | 65% | 1.05 | 32% | 0.92
Rob Blake | 1990 | 2010 | 1270 | 37% | 1.03 | 1.03 | 30 | 26 | 66% | 1.04 | 50% | 1.00
Scott Niedermayer | 1992 | 2010 | 1263 | 39% | 1.25 | 1.22 | 31 | 26 | 64% | 1.04 | 40% | 0.94
Zdeno Chara | 1998 | 2011 | 928 | 40% | 1.16 | 1.04 | 24 | 17 | 42% | 1.05 | 52% | 0.95
Prime Stats
Player | Start | End | GP | EV% | R-ON | R-OFF | $ESP | $PPP | PP% | TmPP+ | SH% | TmSH+
Jacques Laperriere | 1968 | 1973 | 393 | 47% | 1.56 | 1.31 | 26 | 9 | 36% | 1.23 | 75% | 0.83
J.C. Tremblay | 1968 | 1972 | 358 | 45% | 1.37 | 1.33 | 32 | 22 | 69% | 1.31 | 64% | 0.85
Guy Lapointe | 1973 | 1979 | 499 | 46% | 1.67 | 1.88 | 40 | 34 | 75% | 1.32 | 68% | 0.74
Rod Langway | 1981 | 1989 | 673 | 38% | 1.35 | 1.21 | 22 | 4 | 14% | 0.99 | 57% | 0.85
Larry Murphy | 1992 | 1995 | 292 | 45% | 1.38 | 1.05 | 45 | 28 | 80% | 1.11 | 45% | 0.94
Rob Blake | 1998 | 2002| 362 | 43% | 1.11 | 1.08 | 40 | 32 | 79% | 0.99 | 54% | 0.99
Scott Niedermayer | 2004 | 2007 | 242 | 39% | 1.27 | 1.22 | 37 | 33 | 79% | 1.13 | 47% | 0.90
Zdeno Chara | 2003 | 2011 | 622 | 41% | 1.38 | 1.13 | 30 | 25 | 60% | 1.05 | 53% | 0.89
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?
Added numbers and comments for Murphy, Blake, and Chara. The rest are repeats.
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. EV% tended to be higher pre-1980, when teams went to 6 defencemen.
Jacques Laperriere and
Jean-Claude Tremblay both starred before the NHL expanded in 1967-68, so these numbers don't capture their full careers or primes.
Based on what we have, Laperriere's numbers were slightly better than Tremblay's at even strength. Much of that comes from his 1972-73 season, when he posted a +78. (I assume he played with Savard, who was +70.) Both Laperriere and Tremblay played on the penalty kill, but Laperriere played more. In fact, Laperriere played a ton on the penalty kill. Keep in mind that was a little more common in the 1970s as compared to 1980 or later.
On the power play, Laperriere was on the second unit, and Tremblay played on the first unit and was more effective.
Tremblay broke out offensively in 1970-71 at age 32. The progression of his power play numbers are interesting.
Year|PPP
1960-61 | 1
1961-62 | 1
1962-63 | 1
1963-64 | 3
1964-65 | 4
1965-66 | 10
1966-67 | 15
1967-68 | 12
1968-69 | 10
1969-70 | 12
1970-71 | 33
1971-72 | 28
He didn't play big minutes on the power play until 1970-71. And what happened when he finally did? Montreal went 24.8% and 27.1% on the power play in those seasons.
Season | Tremblay PPP | Montreal PP
1968-69 | 10 | 17.7%
1969-70 | 12 | 20.3%
1970-71 | 33 | 24.8%
1971-72 | 28 | 27.1%
1972-73 | 0 | 21.8%
1973-74 | 0 | 20.1%
Since I've done all this analysis on Tremblay's power play performance, I should also note that Montreal's penalty kill really dropped off in performance during Laperriere's injury-plagued final season, and also the following season after he retired.
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.
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 Larry 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. I have included those two final Montreal years in his "prime" stats above, so those are a mix of second-pairing minutes and first-pairing shutdown minutes.
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.
Larry Murphy was a good to very good defenceman for a very long time.
I've used his four years in Pittsburgh as his prime, because he played his biggest minutes there, on the first unit penalty kill and at even strength, and scored the most points there. Could be a combination of team situation and peak performance. But he was a star defender outside of those years too - picked for Canada Cups, all-star games, etc.
Murphy was typically a first-unit power play defenceman, but not a top-tier power play quarterback in usage or production. He played on the second unit penalty kill, or not on the PK at all. His plus-minus numbers relative to team were consistently good over his career. But it doesn't look like he was playing big minutes, and I suspect he wasn't playing the toughest minutes either. The exception would be with Detroit, when he was paired with Nicklas Lidstrom at the end of his career.
Rob Blake was a #1 defenceman for most of his long career. He was strong both offensively and defensively.
Blake's plus-minus numbers are unimpressive. There were mitigating circumstances, as he spent most of his career playing against the other team's top lines. But part of it was probably because his strengths lay in the offensive and defensive zones, not in transition.
On the power play, he was more of a shooter than a playmaker, scoring a lot of power play goals over his career. He was also a strong contributor on the penalty kill, putting his strength, physicality, and defensive skills to good use.
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. Like Mark Howe, he wasn't elite on the PP or the PK. In fact, 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. During those Anaheim years, he was among the best defencemen in the league and a perennial Norris trophy candidate.
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.
Zdeno Chara had a unique development path. He started off as a big slug on the bottom pairing of a terrible team. After a couple of years, he developed into a good penalty killer and defender who could use his size, but with no offensive touch. After being traded to the Senators, he quickly became a top-pairing defenceman, developed his offensive game, and became one of the best shutdown defenceman in the league. And after going to Boston, he became a Norris trophy winner, perennial contender, captain of a Cup-winning team, and is currently arguably the best defenceman in the league.
Over the last decade, he has consistently played the toughest minutes on his teams at even strength, against top lines and starting in the defensive zone a lot. His teams still come out ahead in those situations, as his plus-minus numbers have been very good.
He has been a solid contributor on the power play, whether using his shot from the point or his size in front of the net. But, as Boston fans have seen, he is not an offensive catalyst or quarterback on the PP, more of a supporting piece.
He has been among the best penalty killers in the league, playing big minutes on consistently strong units.
