The CHL's top prospects game took place in Calgary on January 15th, 2014. The game was won by Team Orr by a score of 4-3. Each graph included here shows the players from each team; with the top graph in each category showing Team Orr, and the bottom graph showing Team Cherry. Despite the loss, it was actually Team Cherry that produced the better even-strength team rating and ratio during the game.
Each player's scouting report is created through my data-generated scouting system. Data-generated scouting is performed by tracking every puck-possession play that occurs during a game. Most events are tracked as either successful or unsuccessful. Some of the events tracked include, passes, dekes, shots, dump-outs, blocked passes, blocked shots, dump-ins, dump-outs, etc. A full list of the events tracked for each game scouted can be seen here.
I have done scouting work for multiple teams; including teams at the NHL, AHL and Junior hockey levels. All told, I have developed this system over the last 4 years; tracking over 700 individual games over that span.
The data communicated here only represents these players' performances during this one game. As such, they are not meant as a reflection of their long-term potential.
EVEN-STRENGTH RATINGS
Each player's rating reflects how many more successful plays a player makes than failed plays per-minute played. Player's with higher ratings not only produce more successful plays than players with lower ratings, they are also more involved in the play.
Among defensemen, Aaron Ekblad, and Anthony DeAngelo produced the top ratings during the game. Among forwards, the top ratings belonged to Jake Virtanen, Joshua Ho-Sang, Brayden Point, Robbie Fabbri, Sam Reinhart, Nikita Scherbak, and Nikolay Goldobin.
EVEN-STRENGTH RATIOS
Unlike ratings, ratios do not take ice-time into account. Ratios simply show how many successful plays each player makes for every 1 failed play.
DEFENSIVE-ZONE RATIO
Ratios do a better job of reflecting a player's performance in the defensive-zone than ratings. This is because players with high ratings generally engage in more events than players with lower ratings. A high defensive-zone rating would require a player to spend substantial time in the defensive-zone; which is generally not a good thing.
PERCENTAGE OF OVERALL EVENTS TRACKED WITH POSSESSION OF THE PUCK IN THE OFFENSIVE-ZONE
Puck-management is about making the necessary plays in order to gain, and maintain puck-possession in the offensive-zone. This post will communicate how well each player performed managing the puck. The graph included displays the percentage of all events (defensive and offensive/ all zones) each player engaged in while in possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Those with a higher percentage spent more time with possession in the o-zone. Consequently, they spent less time defending in the defensive-zone.
PERCENTAGE OF OVERALL EVENTS DEFENDING IN THE DEFENSIVE-ZONE
Answering the question, how much "time" spent on the ice is spent defending in the defensive-zone?
This graph reflects the percentage of all events engaged in that occur while defending in the defensive-zone. In contrast to the above graph, this calculation divides the number of defensive-events in the defensive-zone by all events in all zones.
It can be used to help differentiate between offensive and defensive-players; particularly among defensemen. It can also help quantify whether a player could be considered a 200-foot player or not.
PUCK-POSSESSION SUCCESS-RATE
Puck-possession success-rate reflects how successful a player is when attempting a play with puck-possession. Events used in this calculation include; passes, dekes, shots, dump-ins, and dump-outs. Sub-categories within these events include; d-to-d passes, outlet passes, stretch passes, east/west passes in the neutral-zone, north/south passes in the neutral-zone, dump-outs, dump-outs off the wall, dump-ins, chip-ins, east/west passes in the offensive-zone, passes in the offensive-zone off of the rush, cycle passes, wall dekes, open-ice dekes, passes to the slot, and shots.
SCORING PLAYS PER-60
This graph reflects the number of successful scoring plays each player produced per-60 minute played. Scoring-plays used in this calculation include; offensive-zone loose-puck recoveries, shots, passes to the slot, and dekes. These successful events are described as scoring-plays because my research has shown that players who produce offense, also produced substantial amounts of successful plays within these categories.
SCORING-CHANCES PER-POSSESSION PLAY
The top offensive-players on any team create the most scoring-chances. The most efficient offensive-players create the most scoring-chances per-offensive-touch. An offensive-touch is defined as any play a player attempts while in possession of the puck. Plays used in this calculation include; passes, dekes, dump-ins, and shots. Scoring-chances included in this post reflect only those scoring-chances where the player indicated was directly involved in the creation of the chance; not just on the ice.
POSSESSION RATINGS
The graph included here is an attempt to rate each player's ability to create offense by multiplying the number of scoring-chances they create for every 1 attempted puck-possession play by the number of puck-possession plays they contribute per-minute of even-strength ice-time. In theory, the players who rate high using this system not only create more scoring-chances per-offensive-touch, they also engage in more puck-possession plays per-minute played.
This takes how efficient a player is and combines it with how often they have possession of the puck.
DEFENSIVE SUCCESS-RATES
Defensive success-rates reflect how successful a player is when attempting to remove puck-possession from the opposition. Only even-strength events are included here. Events used in this calculation include; stick-checks, body-checks, blocked shots, and blocked passes.
Please keep in mind, these are small sample sizes for each player. As such, they are only meant to reflect each player's performance during this specific game. They are not meant to reflect players' long-term potential.
