Sportsnet's top 20 right wingers

Bjornar Moxnes

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I'm kind of surprised Eberle is that high. Was he getting that much credit while he was in Edmonton? I know we liked him, but were told he didn't bring a lot of intangibles.

Then when he wasn't producing the way we liked and traded people start giving him credit?

Eberle always got more flack than he deserved same goes for Hall.
 
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joestevens29

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Apr 30, 2009
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Eberle always got more flack than he deserved same goes for Hall.
Hall should never have gotten any. Eberle I can see, as the past 2 years in Edmonton he did quit cutting to the net and avoided contact.

Hall had never been a guy to avoid anything or look for a short cut. Only issue in Edmonton was the guy fell a lot for no real reason other than his own fault
 

Wasted Talent

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Do Wild fans view Niederreiter to be better or more important than Granlund?

I think most would agree on Granlund being more important. Nino has always been a Corsi god so it's not surprising to see him ranked high on a list based solely on advanced stats.
 

triggrman

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The title clearly says "over three seasons". Kessel was 19th and 48th in scoring in those previous seasons, with no games missed. And he's not bringing much aside from offence.
Smith was 22nd last year, 48th and 38th to previous 2 years. So I really don't understand how Smith could make any of these list, he's not some selke level winger. And I'm a Preds fan
 
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Cellee

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Dec 20, 2014
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I don't think Winnipeg fans will be too upset, maybe extreme homers and the delusional Finnish people but the article is objective and does praise Laine for his ability to shoot. I think most objective fans agree that his game is one-dimensional right now but he's young and that can change. For example someone like Marner the article notes increased his defensive work in his own zone by a significant amount after his rookie year which just requires hard work. If young players like Nylander and even moreso Marner can be effective defensively there's a chance that Laine gets there one day.

I think it made great points about Gally and think his ranking is pretty accurate.
Sure. Just make sure Ovechkin does not show up in the top 20 LW and we are good
 

SympathyForTheDevils

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Feb 22, 2010
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Smith was 22nd last year, 48th and 38th to previous 2 years. So I really don't understand how Smith could make any of these list, he's not some selke level winger. And I'm a Preds fan

True. Smith seems to be mostly there because of his offence and transition score. My guess is that the metrics used in those categories overly benefit safe, low-turnover, possession oriented wingers at the expense of more high-risk/ high-reward players like Kessel.

I wish the article showed how the metrics in each category were weighted.
 

CantLoseWithMatthews

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honestly, it's a pretty good approach. I know people like to think that anything that isn't perfect is automatically garbage, but that's not the case. he's taking a lot into account including offensive, transition, and defensive ability while trying to apply context in the form of difficulty of minutes. and he was looking at all kinds of things for each of those 3 branches. The thing is, the list still looks wrong, and he even admits it. that's because there's still quite a bit that can't be quantified so easily, such as the impact of systems, teammates, and individual physical attributes. So to me it's not that he's using too much irrelevant data and it's all garbage, but that he's not quite using enough.

I also think people are putting way too much faith in a player's reputation and automatically disregard any evidence to the contrary, no matter how strong it is. I know people still think that points are the purist form of talent evaluation and looking at anything else dilutes it, but I think the opposite is true. The more data you can look at, the better
 

Jeti

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After seeing their ridiculous list of centers I expected they'd continue to bend over backwards to kiss the ass of Leafs fans no matter how stupid they looked. Marner AND Nylander ahead of Laine? Sportsnet is the Fox news of hockey coverage.
 

Aladyyn

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honestly, it's a pretty good approach. I know people like to think that anything that isn't perfect is automatically garbage, but that's not the case. he's taking a lot into account including offensive, transition, and defensive ability while trying to apply context in the form of difficulty of minutes. and he was looking at all kinds of things for each of those 3 branches. The thing is, the list still looks wrong, and he even admits it. that's because there's still quite a bit that can't be quantified so easily, such as the impact of systems, teammates, and individual physical attributes. So to me it's not that he's using too much irrelevant data and it's all garbage, but that he's not quite using enough.

I also think people are putting way too much faith in a player's reputation and automatically disregard any evidence to the contrary, no matter how strong it is. I know people still think that points are the purist form of talent evaluation and looking at anything else dilutes it, but I think the opposite is true. The more data you can look at, the better
Does the list look wrong? I think the lists have been pretty on-point, though there will always be outliers.
 

The List Of Jericho

Judas effect
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Nylander at 9 ahead of Gally and Laine, suuuure
Marner ahead of Laine Suuuure.
Pasta behind Stone and Vlad.... Yeah sure.
Kessel not on the list.
CRAIG ****ING SMITH ?

The only thing they got right is the top two.

You do realize that Gallagher hasn't had one better season than Nylander's last two right? He hasn't even cracked 60 points yet lol
 
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Cotton

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After seeing their ridiculous list of centers I expected they'd continue to bend over backwards to kiss the ass of Leafs fans no matter how stupid they looked. Marner AND Nylander ahead of Laine? Sportsnet is the Fox news of hockey coverage.

You should write the author a strongly worded letter.

For what it's worth I would take Laine over Nylander.
 

Mitchy

#HFOutcasts
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After seeing their ridiculous list of centers I expected they'd continue to bend over backwards to kiss the ass of Leafs fans no matter how stupid they looked. Marner AND Nylander ahead of Laine? Sportsnet is the Fox news of hockey coverage.

Yeah, I'm sure Berkshire, the Habs fan, is going to kiss Leaf fans' ass. Stop with the inferiority complex.
 

Bjornar Moxnes

Stem Rødt og Felix Unger Sörum
Oct 16, 2016
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Smith was 22nd last year, 48th and 38th to previous 2 years. So I really don't understand how Smith could make any of these list, he's not some selke level winger. And I'm a Preds fan

What I find really weird is how Smith is ranked better than Forsberg in defense and transition when Forsberg is definitely the Preds best winger in both (Well maybe not necessarily pure defense in the Dzone, but definitely transition player).
 
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LeafsNation75

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After seeing their ridiculous list of centers I expected they'd continue to bend over backwards to kiss the ass of Leafs fans no matter how stupid they looked. Marner AND Nylander ahead of Laine? Sportsnet is the Fox news of hockey coverage.
I said this before and I will say it again. Using the example of the times Phil Kessel scored 80 and 82 points for the Leafs tell me why did TSN rank him #43 and #37 when they did their top 50 players list? So the claim that Sportsnet is trying to suck up to Leafs fans is complete crap.
 

CantLoseWithMatthews

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Sep 28, 2015
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I think people get too caught up in the specific rankings. If we disregard the order the model got what, 18/20 "right"? That seems pretty good to me.
good point as well, although I do think getting the order right still has some importance. overall his approach isn't bad just because it doesn't tell people what they already think
 

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