Roving Panda presents a statistical analysis of the best goal scorers in the NHL. Click on the thumbnails to view a larger version of each graph.
Alexander Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, and Dany Heatley have clearly been the best goal scorers in the NHL since the lockout, with Vincent Lecavalier not far behind. With the shoulder injury, however, Heatley more than likely won’t reach 50 goals for a third consecutive season. Marian Gaborik and Simon Gagne should also rank near the top based upon the rate at which they score goals, but injuries have limited them to far fewer games than the leaders. In fact, the pseudo-retired Teemu Selanne has nearly played as many games (162) as Gagne (164) and more than Gaborik (156) in spite of missing the 07-08 year so far.
Jonathan Cheechoo and Jaromir Jagr have both shown drastic drop-offs in their scoring, though for different reasons. Cheechoo led the league with 56 goals during the 05-06 campaign thanks in large part to setup man Joe Thornton. The pair were subsequently broken up, and Cheechoo now struggles near the bottom of San Jose’s depth chart. For Jagr, both age and the Rangers’ roster moves have contributed to his decline. Approaching his 36th birthday, Jagr’s best days are behind him. In addition, the loss of centerman Michael Nylander, with whom Jagr had developed excellent chemistry, and the adjustment to new acquisitions Chris Drury and Scott Gomez have been difficult changes to face for the future Hall-of-Famer.
In terms of shooting percentage, the graph clearly illustrates the negative relationship between shots and shooting percentage, that is, as a player’s number of shots increases, that player’s shooting percentage decreases. Kovalchuk and Heatley both shoot quite well for the number of shots taken. Interestingly, a group of four players, Ovechkin, Marian Hossa, Jagr, and Olli Jokinen fall somewhat below the others in terms of shooting percentage while taking a seemingly much greater number of shots. Perhaps Atlanta would be better served by having Kovalchuk take relatively more shots than Hossa as Hossa has shot nearly 4 percentage points below Kovalchuk while taking 12 more shots since the lockout.
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January 22, 2008 at 7:02 pm
[...] The Best Scorers in the NHL Roving Panda presents a statistical analysis of the best goal scorers in the NHL. Click on the thumbnails to view a […] [...]