Over the past couple of months or so, Dominic Galimini (@MimicoHero on Twitter) has become one of the best data visualization guys out there. He recently added a “Horizontal Bar Graph Player Evaluation Tool” to his website that allows us to see how forwards perform in of Corsi, points, and scoring chances in relation to the rest of the league. So, let’s take a look at the charts for the forwards for the Florida Panthers. (visualization tool can be found here, while the usage adjusted Corsi write up can be found here. The data stretches from 2012-now, or the past three seasons.)
Centers
Aleksander Barkov
In terms of usage adjusted Corsi, Barkov’s talent is apparent. Defensively, he’s at first line level, while overall, he’s just below that total. Though his goal production hasn’t been too impressive, his points/60 is over third line level. He’s due to see that number increase, too, as his current on ice shooting percentage is below the league average and stands at 6.3%. As that moves closer to 8-9%, we’ll see an increase in his production. Overall, it’s hard not to be thrilled with Barkov’s play. As a 19-year-old in his second NHL season, he’s in the top quarter of the league’s forwards defensively, and more offensive production is on the way. When he gets going, it’s going to be hard to stop him.
Nick Bjugstad
Bjugstad is almost the opposite of Barkov; though he doesn’t have much influence over Corsi, his production has been amazing so far, well over the second line level, and approaching first line level. His defensive play could use some work, but he’s offensively gifted, and his development over the next couple of seasons really should be something to watch.
Dave Bolland
Moving on.
Derek MacKenzie
MacKenzie is a serviceable fourth line center who has little offensive capabilities but chips in defensively. Not much to complain about here, except for the fact that it would be nice to see his overall Corsi impact be a little bit higher.
Vincent Trocheck
Here we see AHL player Vincent Trocheck, who is above third line level in everything except for goals, and above second line level in points and overall Corsi impact. You think he would be in the NHL, right?
Wingers
Jonathan Huberdeau
Jonathan Huberdeau is a solid second line player as a 21-year-old. There’s nothing about his game that should make fans upset, especially since he’s only going to get better as he develops.
Brad Boyes
Brad Boyes is an incredibly underrated and effective player. Having him on the first line may be a bit of a stretch, but on any other line, he’s nothing but a bonus for your team.
Jimmy Hayes
Goals are great, but they’re unfortunately the result of a 14.5% personal shooting percentage this season. Hayes is slightly above fourth line level on both offense and defense. He’s looked great this season, but I’m not too sold on him just yet. I would like to see some improvement in his numbers before fully committing to him.
Brandon Pirri
Offensively? Good. Defensively? Bad. The best spot for Pirri right now is in a sheltered offensive role where he can flourish. He’ll probably need a good defensive center to help cover for his lapses, but overall, I think the red-hot Pirri can be a useful player the rest of this season.
Jussi Jokinen
His production stats are slightly inflated from the time that he spent in Pittsburgh, but Jokinen is definitely a solid player. He may be the best free agent from this year’s spending binge, and though he is going to decline over the next couple of seasons, he looks to be an important piece of the puzzle for the rest of his time here.
Sean Bergenheim
Sean Bergenheim is pretty good. People don’t see this, for some reason. Unfortunately, he can not help the team if he is in the press box, or on Dave Bolland’s wing.
Tomas Fleischmann
Flash is not what he used to be, though he’s serviceable on the third or the fourth line.
Scottie Upshall
Though he takes questionable penalties and it sometimes looks like he hurts the team more than he helps, Upshall is an above average third line winger with some great shutdown abilities.
Tomas Kopecky
Kopecky is a slightly less productive version of Upshall. He also shows some good shutdown abilities, which explains why the line of Kopecky – MacKenzie – Upshall was so effective during their time together; all three were so efficient defensively that they consistently had the puck; even though they weren’t the best offensively, teams had so much trouble creating offense against them that they ended up with the puck, which led to offensive zone time.
Shawn Thornton
Thornton is barely a replacement level player at this point. His stats just aren’t there anymore, and while he’s one of the nicest guys off the ice and in the room, his play on the ice just doesn’t warrant giving him tons of ice time.
Dominic is working on charts like these for defenseman, which should be fun to take a look at. Hopefully we can get around to doing that when he gets it up, and I hope you all found these fun and useful visualizations. Be sure to follow Dominic on Twitter (@MimicoHero) for more cool stuff.