Toggle sidebar

Who do Ranger fans feel their top D-man is?

Let's compare the underlying statistics of our top 5 defencemen at ES:

TOI/60:
Staal - 19.94
McDonagh - 19.35
Girardi - 18.43
Del Zotto - 16.49
Strålman - 14.16

Corsi Rel QoC:
Girardi - 1.483
McDonagh - 1.224
Staal - 0.334
Strålman - -0.707
Del Zotto - -0.750

Girardi and McDonagh play similarly difficult minutes, Staal moderate minutes, Del Zotto and Strålman get the easy assignments. 0 is the team average in Corsi Rel.

Corsi Rel QoT:
Girardi - 2.291
Staal - 1.964
McDonagh - 1.819
Strålman - 0.225
Del Zotto - -0.097

Girardi, Staal, and McDonagh play with the best players according to Corsi Rel. Strålman and Del Zotto gets average support.

Most common partner:
Staal: Del Zotto (40.8%)
McDonagh: Girardi (54.9%)
Girardi: McDonagh (61.1%)
Del Zotto: Staal (55.2%)
Strålman: Staal (43.3%)

Most common forwards (Decending order):
Staal: Gaborik, Richards, Nash
McDonagh: Hagelin, Stepan, Pyatt
Girardi: Hagelin, Stepan, Pyatt
Del Zotto: Gaborik, Richards, Nash
Strålman: Pyatt, Hagelin, Stepan

Staal and Del Zotto actually gets the most time with the offensive talent, while the other three get the 2-way guys.

Off Zone Start %:
Del Zotto - 67.0
Staal - 58.3
Strålman - 56.2
Girardi - 46.0
McDonagh - 46.0

Girardi and McDonagh aren't only getting the hardest matchups, they are also starting the majority of their shifts in their own zones. Del Zotto gets vary favourable zone starts this year, last season he had 51.3%.

Off Zone Finish %:
Strålman - 54.3
Del Zotto - 51.6
Staal - 51.2
Girardi - 50.2
McDonagh - 50.0

McDonagh and Girardi improve on their numbers and more often than not get the puck to the other end. Del Zotto has the biggest discrepancy.

Corsi Relative:
Strålman - 16.0
McDonagh - 2.1
Girardi - -4.6
Del Zotto - -5.1
Staal - -6.7

The Rangers dominate when Strålman is on the ice, but he plays weak competition. Del Zotto plays in similar situations as Strålman, but doesn't get the job done at all. McDonahg and Girardi handle their minutes a lot better than Staal.

Shots for/60, Shots against/60:
Girardi - 31.4, 25.3
Strålman - 28.1, 20.7
McDonagh - 28.1, 23.3
Staal - 26.8, 27.4
Del Zotto - 26.5, 28.5

Simliar to Corsi, but this only counts shots on net. Girardi generates the most offence while playing the hardest minutes. Del Zotto has the least shots for and the most shots against despite playing the easiest minutes.

Points/60:
Girardi - 1.53
Staal - 1.27
Del Zotto - 1.07
McDonagh - 1.03
Strålman - 0.89

Girardi once again on top. Staal and Del Zotto finally show up with positive numbers. All of these numbers are quite excellent however, very high production for defencemen at ES. McDonagh's team leading rate last year was 1.02.

On-Ice Sh%:
Del Zotto - 10.79
Staal - 10.11
Strålman - 9.35
McDonagh - 7.91
Girardi - 5.75

So despite putting up the most points, Girardi's teammates can't score to save their lives while Del Zotto's and Staal's teammates seem to score at will. These percentages will likely end up in the 8-9 range, meaning that if Girardi keeps up his current play with an increase in SH% he would score at a greater ES rate than Karlsson did last year. However Girardi is unlikely to continue getting points on 80% of the goals scored when he is on the ice, so Karlssonesque numbers are still unlikely.

All in all my take is:

Girardi and McDonagh get the tough assignments and perform exquisitely.

Staal gets average assignments and does fine with it.

Strålman is put in an offensive role and performs admirably.

Del Zotto is carefully managed and put into a position to succeed at ES, but he just doesn't. Inflated shooting percentages pumps up his basic stats to levels where he escapes criticism.
 
McDonagh is still a developing player, we haven't seen his peak yet. He still makes some dumb mistakes and sometimes he hesitates just slightly enough to not make the right play. He's the future #1. Right now it's Staal, he's the most talented. Girardi is great but I don't really see him as that long-term #1 guy that you build a defense around. In my eyes he's one of if not the best #2 guy in the league.
 
They all are. Any combination of the 4 makes for a very good/great top pair.

Girardi - McD
Staal - DZ
Stralman - Sauer

would've been so perfect.
 
Their best defenseman this year is Staal. The most valuable of them all is McDonagh who is a few years younger but really, really close. Girardi is a half step down but being a right sider his value is almost measurable to the other two.

They're all different. Staal is the tallest with the longest reach. Very adept with his stick in his own end. Good physical player. His offense has been pretty good this year but one of the things he's not great at is stickhandling on offense and playmaking. He's not that good on the pwp. The other two are better at that.

One of the things I like best about Girardi is he plays a physical game--eats lots of minutes and doesn't take very many penalties. He is a warrior and very good positionally--makes quick and intelligent outlet passes. Blocks shots as well as any d-man in the league. Not the swiftest of skaters though. A heads up heart and soul player.

McDonagh is just a terrific skater--excellent speed and mobility. He can do almost anything forwards, backwards, laterally. Sound positionally and another guy that can eat up minutes and not spend very much time in the penalty box. On the occasions he gets caught up the ice--he more often than not catches up with the play at the other end before it becomes dangerous. Reminds me of Scott Niedermayer with that. His offense has improved quite a lot since his rookie pro season. He will become a big big star in the league if he continues to improve in this area.
 
eco's bones said:
Their best defenseman this year is Staal. The most valuable of them all is McDonagh who is a few years younger but really, really close. Girardi is a half step down but being a right sider his value is almost measurable to the other two.

They're all different. Staal is the tallest with the longest reach. Very adept with his stick in his own end. Good physical player. His offense has been pretty good this year but one of the things he's not great at is stickhandling on offense and playmaking. He's not that good on the pwp. The other two are better at that.

One of the things I like best about Girardi is he plays a physical game--eats lots of minutes and doesn't take very many penalties. He is a warrior and very good positionally--makes quick and intelligent outlet passes. Blocks shots as well as any d-man in the league. Not the swiftest of skaters though. A heads up heart and soul player.

McDonagh is just a terrific skater--excellent speed and mobility. He can do almost anything forwards, backwards, laterally. Sound positionally and another guy that can eat up minutes and not spend very much time in the penalty box. On the occasions he gets caught up the ice--he more often than not catches up with the play at the other end before it becomes dangerous. Reminds me of Scott Niedermayer with that. His offense has improved quite a lot since his rookie pro season. He will become a big big star in the league if he continues to improve in this area.
Click to expand...

Well done. All of the posts on this thread are excellent; very insightful.
Right now, I think it's a toss up between all 3 guys(Staal, McD, Girardi) but if I had to pick one guy going forward it would be McDonagh because I believe he has a slightly bigger upside.

The real issue here is that none of the 3 players are even remotely close to being game changers ala Chara, Karlsson, Weber, etcetera.
 
The way I see it is the Rangers have three 1B defenseman.

Staal, Girardi and McDonagh.

There aren't too many 1A's in the league, but the ones that are combine a dominant defensive game and offensive potential - ie Chara, Pronger, Weber

Then you have the 1AA's like Lidstrom and offensive freaks like Karlsson but its tough to quantify a guy like him in the realm of overall defending.

The 1B's are extremely solid defenseman (#1's on most teams) that sprinkle in some offense and the Rangers have 3 of those. Its tough to rank them because they all have different traits. They can all log 25+, they can all hit. McDonagh is by far the best skater (one of the best in NHL. Bar none.) Girardi is the toughest. Staal has an unbelievable stick and is rangy. They can all make good outlet passes. Staal may be the best rusher, but McDonagh isnt far behind.

If you put a gun to my head:
McDonagh
Staal
Girardi

But again, I see them all relatively equal with McDonagh having the most potential. I think if he can develop a sneaky Rafalski-esque wrister that can really get him some points he'll flirt with being a 1A d-man in this league.

Perfect analysis by Eco above.
 
Last edited:
Marc Staal IMO.

I just see a potential prescense on the ice that McD don't have yet. McD will get better and better and god knows where he will end up. But Staal got a way of just pwning situations and coming away with the puck that is pretty unique. The dot over the i isn't quite there, but it could come sooner than we think.
 
Staal has moments of absolute brilliance sometimes offset by moments of poor positioning/decision making. He'd be my pick simply based on what he can do. McDonagh's probably more consistent, but not having the same peak. They're both exceptional. Girardi's a warrior, but he just can't do the things (or move) like Staal and McD.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Top Bottom