TSN: Grading every teams left wing depth

[Sidney the Kidney]

? I was calling Dom and Yost nerds, not the people disagreeing with them.

My only point was that ascribing bias because it's TSN is misguided. Any writer who highly values the fancy stats will develop rankings that many find questionable. And TSN has plenty of personalities that are a lot more traditional in their evaluation methods, but this is their analytics guy.

That's the problem with these "analytics" rankings. A guy like Bunting is getting credit for his good analytics when it's clear as day that it was more to do with the other two guys on his line. Put Bunting on a line with two average players and I almost guarantee his analytics crater.

He also omitted Heinen from the Pens' list for some reason, even though Heinen played LW more often last year than McGinn did (McGinn played RW on the ZAR/Blueger line). Heinen's 18 goals would go a long way to adding to the perceived "lack of offense after Guentzel", as would his analytical xGF% of 56.8 versus McGinn's 49.48.

Bottom line: which four wingers would you rather have going into a season?

Guentzel/Zucker/Heinen/O'Connor
Or
Bunting/Kerfoot/Engvall/Simmonds

The depth pieces on lines 2 to 4 are pretty much a wash (assuming full health to Zucker), but the gap between Guentzel and Bunting is massive.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

This reads like an ESPN article.

A new low for TSN.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

That's the problem with these "analytics" rankings. A guy like Bunting is getting credit for his good analytics when it's clear as day that it was more to do with the other two guys on his line. Put Bunting on a line with two average players and I almost guarantee his analytics crater.

He also omitted Heinen from the Pens' list for some reason, even though Heinen played LW more often last year than McGinn did (McGinn played RW on the ZAR/Blueger line). Heinen's 18 goals would go a long way to adding to the perceived "lack of offense after Guentzel", as would his analytical xGF% of 56.8 versus McGinn's 49.48.

Bottom line: which four wingers would you rather have going into a season?

Guentzel/Zucker/Heinen/O'Connor
Or
Bunting/Kerfoot/Engvall/Simmonds

The depth pieces on lines 2 to 4 are pretty much a wash (assuming full health to Zucker), but the gap between Guentzel and Bunting is massive.

Also, the Pens' depth on LW will probably be something like Guentzel/Zucker/Heinen/McGinn. Depends whether Rakell sticks as RW or LW on the Malkin line, and what other moves happen between now and the start of the season. If Malkin's line ends up being Rakell/Malkin/Kapanen, then Zucker/Heinen will flank Carter on L3 and McGinn will be L4 with Blueger and Archibald/one of the youngsters.

 

[RememberTheName]

Hahahahahaha. Devils and Leafs at tier 2 over literally any tier 3 team sans like 2 is flat-out hilarious. Especially funny are them being ranked above the Rangers, Senators, Jets, Capitals, and I would say Bruins but apparently Marchand doesn't exist anymore.

 

[notbias]

Lol at Toronto ahead of Ottawa and Winnipeg….

Tkachuk + Debrincat
Connors + Ehlers

VS

Bunting + Kerfoot

What?!?!

Clearly, Toronto has the worst two on this list, but the funny thing is if you remove powerplay points, Toronto doesn't look bad.

Winnipeg >> Ottawa > Toronto

 

[SenzZen]

Did he pull the positions from Yahoo!?

 

[EdJovanovski]

Kravtsov
Panarin
Kreider
Lafreniere
Blais

“Average” lmao

 

[NewEraGM]

Clearly, Toronto has the worst two on this list, but the funny thing is if you remove powerplay points, Toronto doesn't look bad.

Winnipeg >> Ottawa > Toronto

Power play points?! What are you even talking about?

don’t complicate things. It’s clear that Ottawa and Winnipeg have far better LW.

Like you cannot even argue otherwise.

 

[notbias]

Power play points?! What are you even talking about?

don’t complicate things. It’s clear that Ottawa and Winnipeg have far better LW.

Like you cannot even argue otherwise.

Ya, Winnipeg blows Ottawa away and they both blow Toronto away.

Ottawa's forwards are becoming some of the most overrated.

Ranking based on certain forward positions is weird though, just rank based on lines or wingers/centers where Toronto is much better in the top 6

 

[Stephen]

Hahahahha. Ok TSN. Bunting, Kerfoot, Engvall, Simmons is no doubt the envy of most of the NHL. You've done it again. Certainly better than Marchand, Hall, Debrusk, Foligno/Frederic according to the best minds in sports.

And better than Ehlers, Connor, Barron and Harkins in Winnipeg too!!!! ahahahahahaha. You'd think they have to be trolling at this point but these homers really believe it.

You're outraged at Toronto when Seattle ranks elite?

It's nobody's fault that Michael Bunting somehow managed to outproduce Taylor Hall and Alex Kerfoot almost had as many points as DeBrusk and Foligno combined. That's going to skew numbers.

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

You should all feel bad for giving that article a click.

 

[BruinsBtn]

You're outraged at Toronto when Seattle ranks elite?

It's nobody's fault that Michael Bunting somehow managed to outproduce Taylor Hall and Alex Kerfoot almost had as many points as DeBrusk and Foligno combined. That's going to skew numbers.

Oh wow, this guy thinks the Leafs have better left wingers than Boston!

Hahahahhahaa

 

[AvatarAang]

Oh wow, this guy thinks the Leafs have better left wingers than Boston!

Hahahahhahaa

Oh wow, 4 pages later and this guy is still talking about Toronto

TSN isn’t going to change their clickbait articles when people like you get overly upset about rankings.

 

[BruinsBtn]

Oh wow, 4 pages later and this guy is still talking about Toronto

TSN isn’t going to change their clickbait articles when people like you get overly upset about rankings.

What! Hahahahha. He quoted me!

 

[Soundwave]

Evander Kane I don't think has played RW since like Atlanta had a franchise, he's a left shot LW who played LW the entire time with the Oilers ... and this site assigns him as RW ... because ... ?

lol. Alrighty then.

 

[Albus Dumbledore]

If the Leafs have a weakness other then there questionable goaltending it's there left side. Has been for a few years now.

 

[NewEraGM]

Ya, Winnipeg blows Ottawa away and they both blow Toronto away.

Ottawa's forwards are becoming some of the most overrated.

Ranking based on certain forward positions is weird though, just rank based on lines or wingers/centers where Toronto is much better in the top 6

I agree it’s weird but we are talking about LW and Toronto is by far the worst of the 3.

Debrincat is overrated?! Tkachuk??
How are they overrated?

 

[JD1]

Having read this article, I'm going to be pissed off if Dorion isn't talking to Dubas trying to trade DeBrincat and Tkachuk for Bunting and Kerfoot straight up...with salary retention of course to make the numbers work

 

[trentmccleary]

Right Wings

 

[DJJones]

Should have just down wingers in general

 

[Statto]

Kempe plays RW...

Plus they ignore Fiala and by any measure Iafallo is a good 3 LW as statistically he passes for a 2 LW plus he’s a relentless forechecking machine. The writer clear did zero research and doesn’t watch the Kings at all. The Kings rating is an absolute joke.

 

[krutovsdonut]

that's embarrassingly bad analysis, but decent clickbait i guess since i clicked on it.

 

[snag]

Evander Kane I don't think has played RW since like Atlanta had a franchise, he's a left shot LW who played LW the entire time with the Oilers ... and this site assigns him as RW ... because ... ?

lol. Alrighty then.

And Gaudreau and Tkachuk were on the "best line in hockey"....guess they played with a C and two LWs

 

[izzy]

he just did his RW one



I love that he even states jn the RW article that its more about the depth than just the top 2

So he proceeds to place CBJ in tier 4 and Toronto in tier 1

 

[Golden_Jet]

he just did his RW one



I love that he even states jn the RW article that its more about the depth than just the top 2

So he proceeds to place CBJ in tier 4 and Toronto in tier 1

He said yesterday bottom 6 account for 38% of the vote.