Bias Analysis
Out of the 41 voters who submitted ballots for the positional categories, 20 identified themselves as fans of an Eastern Conference team and 19 resp. 20 as fans of a Western Conference team. (One did for a Western Conference team, but without submitting a ballot for his team.) Another voter was unaffiliated. In order to figure out which players got more points from Eastern voters and which more from Western voters, I tallied the ballots from Eastern Conference fans separately now. (I could also have used the Western Conference ballots instead, it makes no difference.)
Eastern Conference forwards...
- ...who benefit from Eastern ballots (resp. are hurt by Western ballots):
Sidney Crosby
Points from Eastern ballots: 150 (64%)
Points from other ballots: 83 (36%)
The biggest gainer from Eastern ballots in absolute terms. Based on Eastern ballots points alone, Crosby would overtake three other forwards to finish 9th instead of 12th.
Brayden Point
Points from Eastern ballots: 172 (59%)
Points from other ballots: 121 (41%)
Based on Eastern ballots, Point would still be 8th, but instead of trailing Auston Matthews by 37 points, he would be just one single point behind him.
Aleksander Barkov
Points from Eastern ballots: 29 (100%)
Points from other ballots: 0 (0%)
Barkov got points from Eastern ballots only, but the sample size is tiny.
- ...who are hurt by Eastern ballots (resp. benefit from Western ballots):
Jack Eichel
Points from Eastern ballots: 100 (39%)
Points from other ballots: 154 (61%)
Eichel (East) got a big share of his points from fans of the other Conference. Without Eastern ballots, Eichel would be 8th or 9th (tied with Patrick Kane) instead of 11th.
Artemi Panarin
Points from Eastern ballots: 243 (42%)
Points from other ballots: 331 (58%)
Another player who wowed fans from the other Conference more.
David Pastrňák
Points from Eastern ballots: 208 (43%)
Points from other ballots: 274 (57%)
Similkar to Panarin.
Brad Marchand
Points from Eastern ballots: 118 (43%)
Points from other ballots: 158 (57%)
Without Eastern ballots, Marchand would edge out Matthews, Eichel and Kane and rank 7th instead of 11th.
Mika Zibanejad
Points from Eastern ballots: 12 (17%)
Points from other ballots: 59 (83%) -
Very little support from Eastern voters, but several Western votes liked this player from the other Conference.
Western Conference forwards...
- ...who benefit from Eastern ballots (resp. who are hurt by Western ballots):
Mark Stone
Points from Eastern ballots: 65 (75%)
Points from other ballots: 12 (25%)
This Western Conference got an even bigger share of his points from Eastern voters than Crosby. Based on Eastern ballots, Stone would still be 15th, but instead of trailing Yevgeni Malkin (14th) by 40 points he would be tied with im in points.
Elias Pettersson
Points from Eastern ballots: 40 (63%)
Points from other ballots: 23 (37%)
Note the tiny sample size.
Ryan O'Reilly
Points from Eastern ballots: 29 (67%)
Points from other ballots: 14 (33%)
Again, tiny sample size.
- ...who are hurt by Eastern ballots (resp. who benefit from Western ballots):
Patrick Kane
Points from Eastern ballots: 125 (45%)
Points from other ballots: 154 (55%)
Without Eastern ballots, Kane would overtake Brayden Point and almost catch up with Auston Matthews. But at the same time, he would be edged out by Brad Marchand and tied by Jack Eichel.
Leon Draisaitl
Points from Eastern ballots: 323 (46%)
Points from other ballots: 383 (54%)
Just like Kane, Draisaitl got a bigger share of his points from fans of his own Conference. Without Eastern ballots, he would rank closer to Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon.
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Other positions to follow.