17A vs 6A on a much worse offensive team... yeah I would say thats more than just his "secondary assists" at work as you downplay it. Gimme a break. Dumb comment.
The question is who is better now, and just the gap in that stat alone puts him ahead right now. Defensively, sure Ill give it Hedman, but Heiskanen has been great in his own end as well these playoffs. Also been better at transition and carrying the puck out of the zone. His skating is elite level, everyone knows that.
To top it off hes doing it on team with not nearly as much star power as TB. Even their best player, Seguin, has been exceptionally bad offensively. But its all just his secondary assists, right?
No that's the dumb comment. Comparing points by defensemen in small samples is about the worst way to possibly compare them.
Here's how they stack up 5v5 in the playoffs:
| Hedman | Heiskanen |
GP | 18 | 20 |
G | 5 | 3 |
A1 | 2 | 4 |
A2 | 1 | 6 |
PTS | 8 | 13 |
PTS1 | 7 | 7 |
CF% | 58.1 | 50.6 |
GF% | 83.3 | 61.3 |
xGF% | 59.8 | 55.2 |
HDCF% | 60.5 | 53.5 |
relCF% | 4.44 | 4.54 |
relGF% | 33.2 | 19.6 |
relXGF% | 4.3 | 10.4 |
relHDCF% | 4.2 | 7.6 |
GF | 20 | 19 |
IPP | 40.0 | 68.5 |
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Hedman has better raw underlying numbers, while Heiskanen has better relative metrics, though it's much harder to stand out in relative metrics on a good team.
They have the same amount of primary points with Hedman playing 2 fewer games. Heiskanen has 6 secondary assists 5v5 in 20 games which matches his total for the entire regular season. He also has a nearly 70% IPP, which means he's getting an unusually high number of points on the goals that Dallas scores. This can sometimes be seen as a player being more responsible for the goals when he's on the ice, but no defenseman can sustain that. Karlsson led the league with 59% this year and Heiskanen was under 50%.
This trend can also be seen for all situations, where 10 of Heiskanen's 17 assists are secondary and he has a 70% IPP overall. Hedman has clearly been unlucky with only 2 of his 6 assists being secondary. The two are tied in total primary points with 12.
As for Dallas' scoring, it's come throughout the lineup, so it's irrelevant what Seguin has done. Tampa only has 4 more goals than Dallas in these playoffs, and Heiskanen has been on the ice for 1 more goal for.
Even if you do think Heiskanen has been better these playoffs, suggesting a player is better "now" because of a few weeks of slightly better play is extremely flawed. "Now" has no real definable concept. All the playoff games we're discussing happened in the past as well, so how far back we go is completely subjective. Hedman has 5 points in 5 games against the Islanders to 4 in 5 games for Heiskanen against the Knights. Is that a better reflection of "now". When we talk about "now", it needs to be about trying to determine what a player is likely to perform as in the near future. With Hedman, we have both an excellent playoffs and a track record of Norris-level play to suggest that this is sustainable. With Heiskanen we only have these playoffs. It would be one thing to put him above a player who has never performed similarly in any stretch of time, but that's not the case here.