DEFENSEMEN
It was surprising to find that former Hab Jaroslav Spacek actually has the lowest success-rate in this category among all defensemen who have played with the Habs this season. Among current d-men, rookies Alexei Emelin and Raphael Diaz have the lowest success-rate. Other d-men with below average success-rates include Yannick Weber and Tomas Kaberle.
Josh Gorges has the top rating, followed in order by current Hamilton Bulldog Frederic St. Denis, former Hab Hal Gill, and current Canadiens Chris Campoli, and PK Subban.
FORWARDS
These numbers paint a much clearer picture of Scott Gomez's play in the defensive-zone. By not including plays where Gomez has possession of the puck, we actually see just how much he struggles in the defensive-zone. Number 11 has the lowest success-rate on the entire team for plays in the defensive-zone that require him to obtain or remove puck-possession from the opposition, and is the only player with a success-rate below 65%.
Other players with success-rates below 70% include, Michael Blunden, Aaron Palushaj, and Andreas Engqvist. The top success-rate among forwards belongs to Max Pacioretty (78.9%), followed closely by Mathieu Darche (78.8%). Lars Eller is the only other forward with success-rates above 75%.
The biggest challenge in Boucher Scouting's player tracking system has been, and will always be quantifying defensive-play. Hopefully, by focusing only on plays in the defensive-zone where players do not have possession of the puck we can paint part of the defensive-play picture.