TheStatican
Registered User
- Mar 14, 2012
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In an attempt to be as accurate as possible in regards to another matter I decided to take a look at how much more total ice time star players might get in seasons where there are a greater number of powerplay minutes and opportunities. I had always presumed there was at least a little bit of a bump to the top players total ice time so the results were surprising to say the least. All data was taken from QuantHockey
This table shows the total TOI of the top 20 forwards by ice time for each season since the NHL began tracking the stat in 1997-98;
The outliner season of 2005-06(#8 below) becomes very apparent right away where there was an extremely high number of powerplay opportunities and minutes. And yet overall ice times were within a half a percent of the 25 year average and in fact slightly lower than in adjacent years. The only noticeable thread was the overall decrease in total ice time which bottomed out in 2014-15, since then the thread as slightly reversed.
That's a lot of numbers... I'm sure we ALL agree this information would be much better conveyed in an chart.
Total Ice Time
% change year by year for each game-time situation
There is the possibility that the data is being skewed by a couple players so I took a look at the TOI stats for the top 50 forwards by ice time as well. I included fewer seasons here to reduced the deluge of numbers being thrown out.
Once again, average total ice time is not seen to be influence by powerplay minutes. Perhaps there might be some difference if we look at the top point scorers rather than the top TOI players.
Top 50 point scorers;
And what aobut the best of the best, will we see a difference there?
Top 10 point scorers;
There's a little more deviation here, which is to be expected with the smaller sample size but in does not change the ultimate conclusion.
Turns out there is absolutely zero correlation between higher powerplay minutes and total minutes. In seasons where more powerplays are being called as expected there is an increase in the powerplay and shorthanded ice times for the top players(either by total points or highest ice time). But in turn there is a corresponding and almost identical decrease in their even strength ice time which equalized total ice times to a very narrow range.
This table shows the total TOI of the top 20 forwards by ice time for each season since the NHL began tracking the stat in 1997-98;
Season | PPO per gm | TOI | EV TOI | PP TOI | SH TOI | Total TOI | EV TOI | PP TOI | PPO's | SH TOI |
1997-98 | 4.10 | 444:57:00 | 315:34:00 | 92:28:00 | 36:36:00 | 98.4% | 92.7% | 83.9% | 70.1% | 78.3% |
1998-99 | 4.64 | 452:17:00 | 310:10:00 | 95:02:00 | 46:43:00 | 100.0% | 91.1% | 86.3% | 79.3% | 100.0% |
1999-00 | 4.03 | 445:56:00 | 320:41:00 | 91:27:00 | 33:26:00 | 98.6% | 94.2% | 83.0% | 68.9% | 71.6% |
2000-01 | 4.59 | 448:09:00 | 304:58:00 | 101:24:00 | 41:26:00 | 99.1% | 89.6% | 92.0% | 78.5% | 88.7% |
2001-02 | 4.13 | 438:53:00 | 312:33:00 | 90:08:00 | 35:52:00 | 97.0% | 91.8% | 81.8% | 70.6% | 76.8% |
2002-03 | 4.42 | 435:08:00 | 304:03:00 | 92:18:00 | 38:30:00 | 96.2% | 89.3% | 83.8% | 75.6% | 82.4% |
2003-04 | 4.24 | 429:45:00 | 306:11:00 | 88:32:00 | 34:42:00 | 95.0% | 89.9% | 80.4% | 72.5% | 74.3% |
2005-06 | 5.85 | 428:46:00 | 274:13:00 | 110:09:00 | 44:07:00 | 94.8% | 80.5% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 94.4% |
2006-07 | 4.85 | 433:54:00 | 296:53:00 | 96:27:00 | 40:17:00 | 95.9% | 87.2% | 87.6% | 82.9% | 86.2% |
2007-08 | 4.28 | 439:19:00 | 315:33:00 | 86:44:00 | 36:36:00 | 97.1% | 92.7% | 78.7% | 73.2% | 78.3% |
2008-09 | 4.16 | 428:17:00 | 304:32:00 | 86:33:00 | 36:55:00 | 94.7% | 89.5% | 78.6% | 71.1% | 79.0% |
2009-10 | 3.71 | 423:15:00 | 318:37:00 | 82:26:00 | 21:54:00 | 93.6% | 93.6% | 74.8% | 63.4% | 46.9% |
2010-11 | 3.54 | 422:26:00 | 319:11:00 | 77:04:00 | 25:52:00 | 93.4% | 93.8% | 70.0% | 60.5% | 55.4% |
2011-12 | 3.31 | 425:56:00 | 328:46:00 | 71:23:00 | 25:25:00 | 94.2% | 96.6% | 64.8% | 56.6% | 54.4% |
2012-13 | 3.32 | 420:55:00 | 325:02:00 | 69:37:00 | 25:57:00 | 93.1% | 95.5% | 63.2% | 56.8% | 55.5% |
2013-14 | 3.27 | 416:40:00 | 324:11:00 | 70:55:00 | 21:10:00 | 92.1% | 95.2% | 64.4% | 55.9% | 45.3% |
2014-15 | 3.06 | 399:48:00 | 311:52:00 | 66:23:00 | 21:14:00 | 88.4% | 91.6% | 60.3% | 52.3% | 45.5% |
2015-16 | 3.11 | 404:46:00 | 315:47:00 | 64:17:00 | 24:22:00 | 89.5% | 92.8% | 58.4% | 53.2% | 52.2% |
2016-17 | 2.99 | 406:00:00 | 321:15:00 | 59:18:00 | 24:51:00 | 89.8% | 94.4% | 53.8% | 51.1% | 53.2% |
2017-18 | 3.04 | 415:05:00 | 327:32:00 | 66:03:00 | 21:06:00 | 91.8% | 96.2% | 60.0% | 52.0% | 45.2% |
2018-19 | 2.92 | 430:19:00 | 340:26:00 | 68:14:00 | 21:23:00 | 95.1% | 100.0% | 61.9% | 49.9% | 45.8% |
2019-20 | 2.97 | 422:16:00 | 335:27:00 | 69:29:00 | 17:01:00 | 93.4% | 98.5% | 63.1% | 50.8% | 36.4% |
2020-21 | 2.89 | 418:42:00 | 331:07:00 | 70:12:00 | 17:06:00 | 92.6% | 97.3% | 63.7% | 49.4% | 36.6% |
2021-22 | 2.89 | 418:27:00 | 328:32:00 | 70:06:00 | 19:33:00 | 92.5% | 96.5% | 63.6% | 49.4% | 41.8% |
2022-23 | 3.13 | 422:29:00 | 325:54:00 | 75:23:00 | 20:52:00 | 93.4% | 95.7% | 68.4% | 53.5% | 44.7% |
Averages | 3.74 | 426:53:48 | 316:45:36 | 80:28:53 | 29:19:02 | | | | | |
The outliner season of 2005-06(#8 below) becomes very apparent right away where there was an extremely high number of powerplay opportunities and minutes. And yet overall ice times were within a half a percent of the 25 year average and in fact slightly lower than in adjacent years. The only noticeable thread was the overall decrease in total ice time which bottomed out in 2014-15, since then the thread as slightly reversed.
That's a lot of numbers... I'm sure we ALL agree this information would be much better conveyed in an chart.
Total Ice Time
% change year by year for each game-time situation
There is the possibility that the data is being skewed by a couple players so I took a look at the TOI stats for the top 50 forwards by ice time as well. I included fewer seasons here to reduced the deluge of numbers being thrown out.
| | TOI | EV TOI | PP TOI | SH TOI | Total TOI % | EV TOI% | PP TOI% |
1997-98 | 4.10 | 1042:30:00 | 745:30:00 | 204:50:00 | 91:20:00 | 97.7% | 93.8% | 78.4% |
1998-99 | 4.64 | 1066:40:00 | 750:14:00 | 217:03:00 | 98:25:00 | 100.0% | 94.4% | 83.1% |
2002-03 | 4.42 | 1032:38:00 | 726:36:00 | 226:14:00 | 79:01:00 | 96.8% | 91.4% | 86.6% |
2003-04 | 4.24 | 1022:04:00 | 725:23:00 | 207:26:00 | 88:22:00 | 95.8% | 91.3% | 79.4% |
2005-06 | 5.85 | 1022:59:00 | 663:13:00 | 261:13:00 | 97:49:00 | 95.9% | 83.4% | 100.0% |
2006-07 | 4.85 | 1035:23:00 | 714:57:00 | 234:21:00 | 85:21:00 | 97.1% | 89.9% | 89.7% |
2009-10 | 3.71 | 1017:29:00 | 771:45:00 | 176:44:00 | 68:12:00 | 95.4% | 97.1% | 67.7% |
2010-11 | 3.54 | 1012:24:00 | 772:35:00 | 175:34:00 | 63:26:00 | 94.9% | 97.2% | 67.2% |
2011-12 | 3.31 | 1020:26:00 | 794:48:00 | 162:04:00 | 62:39:00 | 95.7% | 100.0% | 62.0% |
2021-22 | 2.89 | 1003:33:00 | 793:46:00 | 159:17:00 | 49:49:00 | 94.1% | 99.9% | 61.0% |
2022-23 | 3.13 | 1017:36:00 | 794:47:00 | 178:34:00 | 43:21:00 | 95.4% | 100.0% | 68.4% |
Once again, average total ice time is not seen to be influence by powerplay minutes. Perhaps there might be some difference if we look at the top point scorers rather than the top TOI players.
Top 50 point scorers;
| | TOI | EV TOI | PP TOI | SH TOI | Total TOI | EV TOI | PP TOI |
1997-98 | 4.10 | 992:33:00 | 726:34:00 | 205:06:00 | 60:01:00 | 98.2% | 93.3% | 79.2% |
1998-99 | 4.64 | 1010:38:00 | 728:01:00 | 211:37:00 | 70:00:00 | 100.0% | 93.5% | 81.7% |
2002-03 | 4.42 | 977:31:00 | 779:08:00 | 163:15:00 | 34:25:00 | 96.7% | 100.0% | 63.0% |
2003-04 | 4.24 | 953:21:00 | 709:26:00 | 192:30:00 | 50:34:00 | 94.3% | 91.1% | 74.3% |
2005-06 | 5.85 | 972:23:00 | 649:24:00 | 259:07:00 | 63:05:00 | 96.2% | 83.4% | 100.0% |
2006-07 | 4.85 | 990:27:00 | 703:43:00 | 237:39:00 | 48:23:00 | 98.0% | 90.3% | 91.7% |
2009-10 | 3.71 | 993:01:00 | 760:37:00 | 176:30:00 | 55:08:00 | 98.3% | 97.6% | 68.1% |
2011-12 | 3.31 | 997:31:00 | 779:08:00 | 163:15:00 | 34:25:00 | 98.7% | 100.0% | 63.0% |
2021-22 | 2.89 | 965:00:00 | 774:04:00 | 158:48:00 | 31:28:00 | 95.5% | 99.4% | 61.3% |
And what aobut the best of the best, will we see a difference there?
Top 10 point scorers;
| | TOI | EV TOI | PP TOI | SH TOI | Total TOI | EV TOI | PP TOI |
1997-98 | 4.10 | 215:32:00 | 158:50:00 | 44:16:00 | 12:14:00 | 94.1% | 97.6% | 73.1% |
1998-99 | 4.64 | 228:59:00 | 162:28:00 | 50:52:00 | 15:27:00 | 100.0% | 99.8% | 84.0% |
2002-03 | 4.42 | 211:05:00 | 154:55:00 | 48:56:00 | 07:02:00 | 92.2% | 95.2% | 80.8% |
2003-04 | 4.24 | 201:04:00 | 145:12:00 | 44:09:00 | 11:33:00 | 87.8% | 89.2% | 72.9% |
2005-06 | 5.85 | 210:14:00 | 138:07:00 | 60:32:00 | 11:26:00 | 91.8% | 84.9% | 100.0% |
2006-07 | 4.85 | 211:55:00 | 152:00:00 | 51:38:00 | 08:10:00 | 92.5% | 93.4% | 85.3% |
2009-10 | 3.71 | 207:19:00 | 157:34:00 | 41:59:00 | 07:37:00 | 90.5% | 96.8% | 69.4% |
2011-12 | 3.31 | 206:59:00 | 162:43:00 | 37:44:00 | 06:22:00 | 90.4% | 100.0% | 62.3% |
2021-22 | 2.89 | 200:21:00 | 159:06:00 | 33:33:00 | 07:33:00 | 87.5% | 97.8% | 55.4% |
There's a little more deviation here, which is to be expected with the smaller sample size but in does not change the ultimate conclusion.
Turns out there is absolutely zero correlation between higher powerplay minutes and total minutes. In seasons where more powerplays are being called as expected there is an increase in the powerplay and shorthanded ice times for the top players(either by total points or highest ice time). But in turn there is a corresponding and almost identical decrease in their even strength ice time which equalized total ice times to a very narrow range.
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