Back it up with any statistics you can find. Barkov has been touted as a top 5 two way center for years. Now all of a sudden he isn’t good, you people are ridiculous.
FYI Selke voting placing for Barkov the last two years he’s gotten #4 and #5 on a team that doesn’t get coverage. As well in the NHLPA unofficial voting he is quoted by many the leagues best defensive forward.
Talk all you want about offensive talent or playstyles but if pettersson ever wins a selke before Barkov nevertheless in his life I’ll eat my f***in hat
Over the last three seasons, the Panthers give up slightly more shots, goals, expected goals and high danger scoring chances with Barkov on the ice than off:
Player Season Totals - Natural Stat Trick
He was good as a young player and really good in 16-17, but none of his underlying numbers have been good since them and his RAPM, which uses regression to try to isolate player impact, suggests he was slightly below average in terms of corsi and bad in terms of xGA this year:
And over the last three years, he was slightly better but not by much:
As for in comparison to Pettersson, here's how they look side by side this season:
| Barkov | Pettersson |
CA/60 | 54.37 | 52.4 |
relCA/60 | -1.66 | -10.74 |
FA/60 | 43.06 | 38.21 |
relFA/60 | 2.1 | -8.37 |
SA/60 | 32.52 | 28.84 |
relSA/60 | 2.58 | -5.82 |
GA/60 | 2.64 | 2.34 |
relGA/60 | -0.18 | -0.47 |
xGA/60 | 2.53 | 2.21 |
relxGA/60 | 0.18 | -0.45 |
HDCA/60 | 10.73 | 8.72 |
relHDCA/60 | -0.58 | -3.17 |
On-ice SV% | 91.9 | 91.87 |
Def ZS/60 | 6.68 | 3.91 |
OFF ZS% | 63.76 | 81.07 |
FO% | 54.3 | 41.8 |
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Pettersson also has the much better RAPM chart for this year:
Now, Barkov makes a lot of defensive plays. Trap Jesus made a post that was singling out things like stick checks and loose puck recoveries that Barkov tended to score high on. It's likely this that causes people to overrate Barkov's defense. He's clearly capable of making all the plays defensively, but overall he's not doing enough to actively change his teams defensive fortunes. That could be because he's pressing for offense too much or being lazy on the back heck at times, it's hard to say. But he's built up a reputation from his early years that he no longer deserves. I think he's probably a bit better than his numbers, but there isn't anything to suggest that his defense should get any particular consideration when comparing him to another player. He can get back to being that guy, but right now we can't assume he is.
Now, Pettersson has his flaws defensively. He can get pushed around still and can struggle to get the puck back against a heavy cycle. He also doesn't PK or play heavy defensive minutes. His numbers probably look a little better due to deployment (though not enough to call Barkov better). But there seems to be this weird pushback from people who are unwilling to accept that he actually does really well in terms of limiting chances against when he's on the ice. I guess there's this idea that he's some flashy offensive player who falls down a lot, and those guys tend to not be good defensively, but Pettersson's compete level is off the charts. He falls down and gets right back up into the play. When he loses the puck he fights even harder to get it back. He backchecks as hard as probably any other top line center. He's a very good stick checker, and has great anticipation at breaking up plays in the zone. I don't know if he's going to win a Selke, but dismissing the possibility is foolish. His playstyle screams Datsyuk when he's on that ice, and that goes for his defensive game as well.