Confirmed with Link: Lightning sign Anton Stralman (5 years, $4.5 million AAV, NTC)

[CarpeNoctem]

I like Stralman well enough, and the contract isn't so bad... But I don't think we should view him as more than a #4, really.

 

[The Macho King]

Numbering defensemen is often arbitrary beyond #1 (and see NJD - it's often arbitrary even then). Not every team can have a Weber-Suter/Keith-Seabrook top pairing. The idea is you get a players that compliment each other. Stralman can handle a heavy defensive role, which means he can pair with Hedman against top competition.

 

[Rschmitz]

Pretty risky pickup actually. He was originally an offensive defenseman, with already one 34 point season under his belt. He still has the shot, wasn't given any PP time. Last season that disappeared in favor of a more refined defensive game, but he still has the smallish frame.

So Stralman can blow up offensively turning this into a massive steal, or fall apart defensively turning this into a massive mistake. I'm thinking they'll pair him with Hedman because of his lack of size and leave Garrison on the second pairing.

Brewer comes off the books next season just in time for Koekkoek to replace him.

 

[Kramerica Industries]

I like how he says that Marc Staal helped Anton Stralman, While it's the other way around. lol http://savebyrichter.com/just-how-good-is-anton-stralman-spoiler-really-good/

Tyler Dellow also penned this piece a little over a month ago about Anton Stralman.

http://www.mc79hockey.com/2014/05/anton-stralman-secret-star/

I'm quite glad the Lightning seemed to heed this advice.

 

[Rschmitz]

I see a lot of people throw out the corsi numbers. corsi is like a Pejorative Slured version of +/- though, some of the worst players in the league have good corsi and some of the best have poor corsi. I like Stralman but I just really wish people would use a different stat, or use it as a complimentary stat and not a critical piece of information.

 

[The Macho King]

I see a lot of people throw out the corsi numbers. corsi is like a Pejorative Slured version of +/- though, some of the worst players in the league have good corsi and some of the best have poor corsi. I like Stralman but I just really wish people would use a different stat, or use it as a complimentary stat and not a critical piece of information.

Normally when bad players have good corsi you can explain it either through inflated offensive zone starts, poor competition, low time on ice (and therefore more subject to wide variance), or a combination of the three. That's going to be less of an issue with top 4 Dmen that get a lot of minutes and decent zone starts. This explains Purcell's super high Corsi, btw.

Although generally, it is a flawed stat when viewed in a vacuum, just like +/-.

 

[IdealisticSniper]

I see a lot of people throw out the corsi numbers. corsi is like a Pejorative Slured version of +/- though, some of the worst players in the league have good corsi and some of the best have poor corsi. I like Stralman but I just really wish people would use a different stat, or use it as a complimentary stat and not a critical piece of information.

Not really true. And you look at Corsi for relative. That tells a pretty good story.

It's an extremely critical piece of information.

A few people in here not giving Stralman near enough credit. The guy is a beast.

 

[DFC]

Pretty risky pickup actually. He was originally an offensive defenseman, with already one 34 point season under his belt. He still has the shot, wasn't given any PP time. Last season that disappeared in favor of a more refined defensive game, but he still has the smallish frame.

So Stralman can blow up offensively turning this into a massive steal, or fall apart defensively turning this into a massive mistake. I'm thinking they'll pair him with Hedman because of his lack of size and leave Garrison on the second pairing.

Brewer comes off the books next season just in time for Koekkoek to replace him.

The story on Stralman coming into today was he made a conscious effort to reshape his game a couple of years ago and became a more steady, D-first defenseman. And it worked. His lack of size doesn't seem to be an issue.

 

[Kramerica Industries]

There were people who viewed Stralman as the top D on the market; at worst, the #2 D behind Matty Niskanen, and while I know I've said that I see a relative dearth of top-pairing D's relative to top-pairing positions, Stralman checks out as pretty friggen legit. If you see Hedman-Stralman as a D pairing, you're going to see a lot of puck possession in the offensive zone.

 

[nhljohnson]

I see a lot of people throw out the corsi numbers. corsi is like a Pejorative Slured version of +/- though, some of the worst players in the league have good corsi and some of the best have poor corsi. I like Stralman but I just really wish people would use a different stat, or use it as a complimentary stat and not a critical piece of information.

First off, you had your initial dismissal backwards: goals are much rarer events than shot attempts so goal differentials are really the stat that gives the most-skewed perception of players because you're drawing inferences from a much smaller sample size.

Yes, there are good players on poor teams (see: Kessel, Phil) whose raw possession-metrics are going to pale in comparison to lesser players on good teams (see: Desjardins, Andrew). It's hard to make off-the-cuff comparisons of players across the league; you really need to account for a variety of factors to establish context.

What everybody wants to know is who drives the bus (primarily establishes and maintains "possession") and who is more of a passenger when on the ice. If you're not completely sure that you are bias-free, that your eyes are always trustworthy and that you have the capacity to memorize the goings-on all over the ice throughout the entirety of every game, then your best bet is to turn to data and see if what's there confirms or challenges the impressions you've gained from viewings. This is the purpose that Fenwick (unblocked shot attempts) and Corsi (total shot attempts) metrics serve. They are indicators, though, and not catch-all statistics. This is why additional information is required to figure out why the data either is or isn't supporting what you concluded via "the eyeball test".

 

[Rschmitz]

Not really true. And you look at Corsi for relative. That tells a pretty good story.

It's an extremely critical piece of information.

A few people in here not giving Stralman near enough credit. The guy is a beast.

Just because I hate the Corsi stat doesn't mean I hate Stralman.

Weber and Sekera had some of the worst Corsi in the league, definitely cannot look at it in a vacuum. If some stat was invented which factored in offensive vs defensive zone time too, I'd be much more interested.

 

[Kramerica Industries]

Well, yeah, you can't compare straight Corsis across the league. I remember one clown did this to try and denigrate Taylor Hall by bringing up a chart that included Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews and, like, what the hell do you expect, exactly?*

Corsi relative is the real way to go with that. All 12 regular forward skaters for Los Angeles had a higher Corsi than Tampa's highest Corsi forward (Kucherov), but I'm not about to say Jarrett fricken' Stoll is a better player or, at least, the more talented player, because that's asinine (Justin Williams is completely legit, however).

Anton Stralman's Corsi relative with New York was outstanding in the past couple seasons. Marc Staal gets more attention than Stralman, but Stralman is clearly the better possession D of the two.

--

*it actually wasn't quite what I thought, but the basic idea remains the same. #fancystats-informed people had appropriate responses to that rubbish.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

 

[YoSoyLalo]

This guy is awesome. He's more than his ridiculous advanced stats. Having had the privilege of watching him play the past few years, he is as heady and steady as they come (excuse the rhyme). He's essentially useless in the offensive zone, but elite in the other two.

Put him with Hedman and you will have a MONSTER pairing, IMO.

 

[Kramerica Industries]

Not sure why, but hearing Pierre McGuire burst out "be careful of Tampa; Tampa's gonna have a real good team" just, I dunno, excites the hell out of me. I'm not used to this feeling.

--

Who was watching TSN, and who was watching Rogers'? I was only able to find Rogers', which was disappointing if TSN was openly available in the States. TSN is better in every possible way compared to Rogers'.

 

[Matte99]

Another big reason why Strålman started to get better was because he finally found a doctor who could help him with his inability to stay healthy. Strålman is/were sensitive towards infections and since he came to New York and got help he has been relatively healthy. With health and some tough love from Torts he became a seriously good defensive D.

This is most likely a very good deal for Tampa and a sizable blow to the Rangers. Strålman was possibly their best D in the playoffs... and such players arent that easy to find for 4.5 m / year.

 

[ThunderAlleyNomad]

Not sure why, but hearing Pierre McGuire burst out "be careful of Tampa; Tampa's gonna have a real good team" just, I dunno, excites the hell out of me. I'm not used to this feeling.

--

Who was watching TSN, and who was watching Rogers'? I was only able to find Rogers', which was disappointing if TSN was openly available in the States. TSN is better in every possible way compared to Rogers'.

Pierre hasn't always been the biggest fan of the moves TB has made in the past. And whatever else you say about him, the man knows hockey. Made me a bit giddy as well.

 

[LightningStrikes]

So we'll have Stralman and Gudas throw devastating open ice hits and hip checks come October. Love it.

 

[The Underboss]

Nice signing by SY.

 

[DFC]

This guy is awesome. He's more than his ridiculous advanced stats. Having had the privilege of watching him play the past few years, he is as heady and steady as they come (excuse the rhyme). He's essentially useless in the offensive zone, but elite in the other two.

Put him with Hedman and you will have a MONSTER pairing, IMO.

That's the plan, I think. We'll see how it plays out on the ice, but it's hard not to be excited right now. Seems like we'll be improved at F, D, and G this year.

 

[Raspewtin]

Loved Stralman, you guys will too. One of the most quietly solid defensemen in the league.

Though it's a bit of a reach to expect him to play with Hedman or on the top pair. He's never played top pairing minutes in his career, and he got more sheltered minutes than all of Staal, Girardi, and McDonagh.

But there's nothing negative to say about the guy. Loved him his whole Ranger career. Wish him and our other old boys luck.

 

[Raspewtin]

How do you think it makes Midgy feel that three of his former Ranger teammates essentially took less and/or chose to play for us because we "have something really good going."

I would feel like an idiot.

Stralman and Callahan didn't get contracts from the Rangers because they wanted NTC's, which Sather has been really reluctant to give out as of late.

Just sayin.

 

[IdealisticSniper]

Stralman and Callahan didn't get contracts from the Rangers because they wanted NTC's, which Sather has been really reluctant to give out as of late.

Just sayin.

Stralman didn't get a NTC.

 

[MrClutch86]

Stralman didn't get a NTC.

Yeah he did

 

[IdealisticSniper]

Yeah he did

Sorry you're correct he got a modified NTC.

Missed it earlier.