Matthew Tkachuk is the 2nd slowest forward in the league

[acor]

Marner being one of the fastest players when he’s undoubtedly slower than Mcmann and Nylander already just makes me not care about this list

LOL, this is not opinion thread, these are meassured numbers.
Im also surprised in what I see, in some cases severly surprised, but I'm not gonna literally disagree with math.

Stats aren't biased, eyes are.

 

[Laus723]

He just stays back looking for ways to be durty, I mean score.

 

[Machinehead]

There are no fewer than 15 forwards slower than Kevin Hayes?!? My world is all askew.

How are ther 25 slower skaters than Laine?

When you measure just skating, sometimes it doesn't align with all of the guys you see play very slow, which has a lot of other factors.

A thing for years on the Rangers board is how slow the team is and then this data came out a couple of years ago, and it turns out we're not that slow.

A further examination in light of this data revealed that the Rangers just play slow. They don't move the puck with urgency (they don't move the puck well at all), they don't react particularly well to the play unfolding, and they just don't push the pace because of deficiencies with puck movement and processing the game. That we don't play fast is kind of the new thing on the board now.

If you asked me before I saw this, I would have guessed that Lafreniere is on it, because he's certainly not fast! At the same time, I'm not terribly surprised he's not on it, because there are other reasons he takes an hour to do anything besides what's being measured here.

Having seen Kevin Hayes on the Rangers, and knowing him pretty well, I think he slows himself down with his style of play. He's really carry-heavy and he's been known to stop and turn his back towards defenders when he has the puck. He stops the flow of the game by choice. While he's certainly not fast, his bursts, when he has to use them, probably aren't at the bottom of the league.

Laine is just a moron. The underlying numbers have always indicated that he isn't particularly good at anything except taking wrist shots and those issues still exist. Unless they're a 4th line burner like a Tyler Motte, most guys that can't keep up with 5v5 play are going to look slow because they suck. Lafreniere says hello.

I think this data is interesting because it shows what goes into overall playing speed besides just moving fast.

 

[DaveG]

That's actually pretty crazy how Kupari can't be more effective with that kind of skating. Iirc he has solid hands as well.

Konstantin Koltsov syndrome

 

[Beyonder91]

Eye test confirms.
No surprise there. Speed has never been his game.

 

[Cup Or Bust]

I would rather a slow player that knows where to be and when to be there then a guy who skates fast and doesn't know where to be and when to be there. I am no fan of Tkachuk although he seems to be more mature then he used to be.

 

[SirPaste]

This chart tells me that there is 17 skaters in the league slower than Kevin Hayes. This I refuse to believe, science be damned!

 

[StrangeVision]

Terrible skater, but one of the smartest players in the league.

 

[TT1]

surprised that Armia isn't on this list

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

Can only narrowly beat Pat Maroon in a race. Not ideal.

 

[Ianturnedbull]

Snail-levels elite category:

The top 10 teams in the NHL with the slowest skater burst issues 24-25:

1. CHI
2. PIT
3. VAN
4. WPG
5. LAK
6. VGK
7. DAl
8. FLA
9. EDM
10. MIN

Analysis complete.

Next steps: more offseason speed burst training sessions.

End notes: CHI has almost 3 times the speed burst issues as the #2 team with speed burst issues.

 

[HarrySPlinkett]

I honestly had no idea. He might not be the best player to target on an 8 year deal when he's 30+



While we are at it, look at the top speed players. Stamkos at #5 ???

Lots of guys go to the wrong places quickly.

Chucky goes to the right places.

 

[jetsforever]

As a Jets fan I didn't know Kupari was that fast

 

[authentic]

I honestly had no idea. He might not be the best player to target on an 8 year deal when he's 30+



While we are at it, look at the top speed players. Stamkos at #5 ???

Had no idea Connor Bedard was that slow. Certainly seems like he’s closer to average speed than bottom 25 of the league.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Oh JFresh

It’s not really jfresh, he just took the info from NHL edge webpage.

 

[Chainshot]

It must be wind resistance to his binky/mouthguard sticking out of the side of his face.

 

[Golden_Jet]

To those reading this thread, and aren’t aware, the numbers for every player can be found here.

NHL EDGE Puck and Player Tracking Statistics - Home

NHL EDGE Puck and Player Tracking Statistics, including skating speed, skating distance, shot speed, shot and save location, and zone time for National Hockey League players and teams.

edge.nhl.com

 

[lettuceAA]

He can skate well enough to keep up. But he has high hockey IQ, wins puck battles, holds puck possession in the offensive end and good quick hands around the net.

 

[Brookbank]

The KHL brought in skater tracking in 2019. It would be interesting to compare the leagues

 

[CauZuki]

69 year old Corey Perry is outskating him lmao

Hey! That's not nice...

Corey Perry turns 69 next year!

 

[AlienWorkShop]

LOL, this is not opinion thread, these are meassured numbers.
Im also surprised in what I see, in some cases severly surprised, but I'm not gonna literally disagree with math.

Stats aren't biased, eyes are.

Just need to be careful in interpreting the three stats together. (Haven't read the whole thread, so I'm sure I'm not saying anything too original below!)

- Marner's capable of elite straight-ahead speed, hence 23.6 ranked 19th in highest speed recorded (interestingly, he only managed 21.7, 22.1, and 22.6 in previous years, the first two below 50th percentile, the latter 72th percentile; would be interesting to see the play he recorded 23.6!), but he's also 24th 'worst' in terms of 18+ MPH bursts per 60, which probably reflects his playing style: Often slowing things down to survey the play, has the puck a lot which will be slower than a player desperately backchecking (not sure if these stats control for puck possession!), looks for good/clever positioning rather than furiously chasing the puck, etc. He's 64th percentile in 22+ MPH bursts per 60 (with only 3, so pretty rare that players reach that speed!), so I'd bet Marner's got a sort of 'bimodal distribution' in terms of fast and slow skating.
- McMann's there in 22+ MPH bursts per 60, which reflects both that he has a relatively simple north-south game and he's a great straight-line skater (his top speed was 23.4 MPH, which is tied for 24th, he just missed the cut in the chart).
- Then there's guys like MacKinnon, an elite skater with a balls-to-the-wall style of play (and elite fitness too?), which is obvious whenever you watch him take a shift.
- Apologies if someone's already checked in this thread, but while Tkachuk's numbers possibly reflect his injury this year, as he's managed 21.8-21.9 in previous years, his top speeds and 'bursts' have always been below the 50th percentile (I'm not going to collect all the data to calculate that more precisely ). However, he's obviously an elite player, so he simply still manages to be elite despite (or because of!) his 'slow' playing style.
- Otherwise, you rarely hear arguments for Rasmus Kupari being the best player in the league...
- I recall seeing a video where the NHL posted the highest recorded speed of the year and it was just a generic rush by somebody where most comments were 'that's it?'. Not as exciting as the MLB posting the hardest hit or longest HR from its Statcast data!

NHL EDGE has some cool stuff, it's just a shame that it's pretty poorly set up for actually comparing players/benchmarking due to incompetent design, or most likely on purpose due to negotiations with the NHLPA that put the breaks on it (eg, players are only shown as being 'below 50th percentile' on the site!). Hence I think the original post comes from a guy merely putting in the hours to collect all the data by hand - I bet it's setup to prevent easy webscraping! - and normalise it to per 60min!

 

[Penguin Suited Up]

LOL, this is not opinion thread, these are meassured numbers.
Im also surprised in what I see, in some cases severly surprised, but I'm not gonna literally disagree with math.

Stats aren't biased, eyes are.

These are measured numbers that can create the wrong assumptions when ignoring the nuance of the circumstances under which these are obtained, or taken out of the context in which they are intended to be used.

The point of playing hockey isn’t to be the fastest player on the ice or have the most speed bursts/60.

These are largely useless stats to the general public. The NHL doesn’t even give us a recommendation on how to use them, unless I’ve just missed it somewhere.

 

[LuGBuG]

They should trade him to Anaheim

 

[Antropovsky]

Marner being one of the fastest players when he’s undoubtedly slower than Mcmann and Nylander already just makes me not care about this list

It's "top sustained speed"... which is a one time stat as far as I know. With enough time and runway, most players can generate alot of speed. The rest are per 60 and are more valuable information IMO.

 

[caymanmew]

He can skate well enough to keep up. But he has high hockey IQ, wins puck battles, holds puck possession in the offensive end and good quick hands around the net.

Exactly this, although the concern I'd have is that if at 27 he is defined as "fast enough to keep up", what is he at 32? 35? 38? For a lot of skilled players it is the legs that take them out, not an injury, or a lack of IQ or skill. At some point, players stop being fast enough to keep up and start to become too slow to keep up. That is where I worry about his longevity. Currently, this isn't an issue though.