Is there a difference between Reinhart and Reed Larson?
A few that I can see:
-********* Larson didn’t have a problem staying healthy
-********* Larson had MUCH more of a physical edge to his game
-********* Larson did not play a lot of forward that inflated his TOI numbers (like Reinhart)
-********* Although he played on lesser teams, he earned a lot more TOI than Reinhart did, which I think transcends the team effect.
-********* Larson’s offensive numbers are much less PP-dependent. Exactly half of Reinhart’s points came from the PP – and from his exceptionally heavy PP usage in particular. Larson’s at a more reasonable 39%.
-********* Larson’s also pretty rare as far as defensemen go, in that he could really score goals. 1/3 of his points were goals, as opposed to just under ¼ for Reinhart. Finding a defenseman who can score goals like Larson is hard. Finding a defenseman who can put up assists like Reinhart… not as hard.
-********* Reinhart’s playoff record is obviously far superior though, FWIW.
The main reason I took Shero besides loving his absent minded professor / hockey innovator genius schtick was that he explicitly gave his star players a little bit of latitude within his system.
He criticized the Russians for being too strict in that regard and keeping the reins too tight.
When you have guys like Jagr and Stewart I figured they would appreciate the flexibility as a way to help them buy in and play within a team concept at the same time.
Yeah, definitely not criticizing it or anything… I’m a big Shero fan, he won me my title. And I realize that the order coaches are selected isn’t going to follow an exact list of how “good†they were, it will be much more about team needs than you’d see with players.
Plus, the degree of variance in the opinions about them is much higher than for players.
Good pick, only thing I want to say about it is that the TOI stats are a little favourable to Bergman because of the fact he was earning those minutes on mediocre to bad teams.
A good reason to wait to pick a second line C is because people like this are available....
Absolutely… steal of the draft.
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Plus, they did a better job surrounding him than I did. Iginla/Hay > Cashman/Adams, even with league size taken into account (32 team draft vs. 40). In this particular case Turgeon doesn’t even have to be the best player on his line (which he absolutely could do)
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Sum of best 6 percentage scores for offensively-oriented NHL centers taken since pick #100, as well as where the next two undrafteds sit:
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Cowley 585
Stastny 577
Thornton 572
Oates 565
Hawerchuk 563
Ratelle 558
Savard 558
Barry 545
Stewart 544
Lindros 535
Perreault 512 (or 527 after 3% small arena credit)
Turgeon 520
Roenick 511
Lafontaine 509
Sundin 509
Modano 509
Sittler 506
Sedin 500
Malkin 498
(undrafted) 496
Datsyuk 485
Federko 484
Lemaire 482
Richards 478
Weiland 478
Damphousse 476
(undrafted) 475
Mahovlich 465
Primeau 465
Spezza 464
Staal 452
MacLeish 449
Nieuwendyk 447
McKenney 433
Stamkos 321
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Other notes:
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-********* This is based on my own file which uses different benchmarks in a few seasons, which is of course not meant to benefit any one player, and helps 1970-1975 and 1980-1995 players the most (as in making sure they don’t get punished unfairly). It also accounts for war years in a “common sense†way – crediting the player, just not disproportionately so. I understand there are a few incarnations going around, but I doubt employing any of them would cause this list to really look materially different.
-********* The majority of these guys, being centers, are pretty heavy on the assists compared to goals. Turgeon is much more balanced offensively than most of these guys, which is added offensive value.
-********* Most of these players, including a few not very far ahead of Turgeon, had far superior linemates. Ratelle, Savard, Stewart, Lindros and Perreault stand out immediately. With a Gilbert/Larmer/LeClair/Siebert/Martin as a longtime linemate, what would Turgeon’s best 6 scores look like?
-********* This only counts 6 best seasons, but Turgeon had 13 consecutive noteworthy seasons from 1989-2001. Speaking strictly in terms of 7th-10th best seasons, Turgeon would only be behind Hawerchuk, Stewart and Oates on this list. This is a testament to his excellent season-to-season consistency.
-********* Lastly, what could perhaps be termed as Turgeon’s 112 most dominant games of all were played in the 1998 and 2000 seasons, which, due to GP totals of 52 and 60, do not rank among his best 6 seasons by percentage score. The type of system I employed above is absolutely unforgiving to that, but that doesn’t mean we should be. That’s still 112 games (about a season and a half) played at a 93-104% level. I realize some of these guys had injury problems, but Turgeon is much more unique in this case, being injured in his two best per-game seasons (and it’s not like ¾ of a season is a small sample size, either) As a result, he’s lacking the gaudy totals in those two seasons but it is not a stretch to say that he was a 30-game injury in 1999-00 away from being in the HHOF. All he needed in those 30 games was 31 points (his pace indicated that 38 was more likely) and he’d have an Art Ross, and there’s no way they leave out an Art Ross winner with 1300+ games and points.
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He’s a healthier, much less visually dazzling and ultimately more effective version of Pat Lafontaine, who was taken 150 picks ago. People talk about Lafontaine like he could have been top-3 in scoring every season but just kept getting injured, but in reality he only has three top-10s in PPG – 2nd, 3rd, 5th. Turgeon put up five of those – 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th. 9th. In their best seasons, does playing with Mogilny (instead of Derek King) make up the 16 point edge Lafontaine had? Good question!