Decided to take a look and see if the stats bear, what I am seeing with my eyes, that Deharnais is one of our worse top 9 forwards.
On the hockeyanalysis dot com site I looked at Montreal forwards Goal For% playing more than 275 minutes even strength this year. The resulting lists 9 Habs forwards (see attached).
The Top GF% habs are Prust, the two Gallys and Eller.
The Bottom GF% habs are Gionta, Ryder and dead last by a good margin..... Desharnais!
And for this type of performance he gets rewarded with a 4 year contract by MB?
View attachment 62233
I don't think you know how to attach.
Btw, I once ran numbers like this(fairly simple) a few years ago. Pouliot was our highest GPG player. Not #2, not #3, he was #1. Clearly the habs made a mistake and pouliot is a superstar.
If we're arguing snipers like Ryder and Gionta are less effective offensive players than Prust then I don't know what to say. Granted, prust has shown some nice playmaking skills and been a great addition for us so nothing against him but I guess our 4th line should be Ryder-Desharnais-Gionta. 1st line should have prust, guy needs about 25 mil per game.
It sounds ridiculous doesn't it? Because it is. Statistical 'proof' is highly subjective and not objective.
I don't like when people use stats because they are very easy to play around with and misinterpreted.
By same token, I have also admitted Desharnais superior career FO% rather to Eller may just be chance or randomness.
In addition, a lot of people like to bring up advanced stats. Great. They are still raw statistics. I hope people know that. People use them as 'evidence' when in fact they should be used for 'guidance'
For instance, we've heard Desharnais gets high offensive start % and low Quality of competition.
Sounds a lot like this:
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1378779
Ya but it's malkin, here 'evidence stats' don't count! Again, stats should be used as guidance, not the law. It's a pet peeve of mine because they are so easily manipulated. Somehow everyone's a statistician now and a sports analyst.
I ask people draw the line and be open to discussion rather than pull out a stat like it's do or die.
In my post just above this, I use stats and know they aren't perfect. I use them as guidance, not as all telling resource.
Problem is I keep seeing Desharnais lagging behind on the against goals on RDS (not that the RDS crew ever mentions it of course). The stats say that DD gets scored on more than any other top 9 minutes forward Habs player. To say DD is doing fine 5on5 is not evidenced by the stats in the least bit.
True, even if we did TOI/GA I still believe DD would be the highest GA on ES frequency. So I can't deny that, he is undersized and not a defensive guru. Still, if I look at stats from last year he'd be one of the best performers in the aspect. So IMO, he could definitely doing better as far as the stats say but I'm not too concerned. I feel he has more to offer and people are overreacting over a small sample.
For example, I think Desharnais was nearly PPG in last half of the season last year. I have no concerns about his play down the stretch. He's scored vs big teams like boston and I have faith in him.
Can he be better? Absolutely. I just disagree with buyout notions and all that. It's extreme and not even close to the reality.
