I have tracked every puck-possession play by every Montreal Canadiens player this season
A total of 87,402 events.
An attacking player with the puck on his stick in the offensive-zone has 3 basic options. He can shoot the puck toward the net, he can pass the puck to a teammate, or he can beat an opposition player 1on1 with a deke. The graph below is a visual representation of every Montreal Canadiens skater's success-rate when faced with these 3 options in the offensive-zone. The calculation is a solid tool in quantifying each player's ability to create offense by either getting the puck to the net, or maintaining puck-possession for his team. The events used in this calculation include:
- Offensive-zone Passes
- Failed offensive-zone passes (loss of puck-possession)
- Offensive-zone dekes
- Failed offensive-zone dekes (loss of puck-possession)
- Shots on net
- Attempted shots that are blocked
- Attempted shots that miss the net
A player who completes 1 of 2 passes, gets 1 of 2 shots through to the net and succeeds with 1 of 2 dekes would have a success-rate (within this framework) of 50%.
These results are restricted to even-strength play.
Among forwards with substantial ice-time, David Desharnias was the Habs most successful creator of offense. When Desharnais had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone, he either maintained puck-possession or successfully got the puck through to the net with 61% of attempts; no other forward had a success-rate above 60%. He was successful with 65% of his offensive-zone pass-attempts, and 53% of his attempts to beat opponents 1on1 (dekes). He was also able to get 58% of his attempted shots through to the net.
Louis Leblanc, Lars Eller and Tomas Plekanec were the only other forwards with success-rates above 58%. Plekanec was successful with 59% of his passes, and 64% of his dekes, while Eller and Leblanc were both successful with 60% of their passes.
Scott Gomez had only the fourth-best puck-possession success-rate among centres, and the 10th-best success-rate overall. He was successful with 57% of his passes, and 70% of his dekes. But, was only able to get 48% of his shots through to the net.
Four forwards had o-zone puck-possession success-rates below 51%, and only two had success-rates below 50%. Brad Staubitz, and Petteri Nokelainen both sat just above the 50% mark, while Blake Geoffrion and Rene Bourque were the only forwards below 50%. Nokelainen was successful with only 41% of his attempted dekes, while Staubitz was only able to get 42% of his attempted shots on net. Geoffrion was only successful with 22% of his dekes, while Bourque was successful with a team-low 52% of his o-zone passes, 45% of his attempted dekes, and just 48% of his attempted shots.
The top success-rate among defensemen, as well as the top success-rate overall belonged to Tomas Kaberle. There is simply no denying Kaberle's strength as an offensive-defensemen. With possession of the puck in the offensive-zone, Kaberle was able to maintain puck-possession or get a shot through to the net with 66% of his attempts; no other player had a success-rate above 61%. He was successful with 69% of his passes, and 53% of his dekes. He was also able to get a defense-leading 57% of his attempted shots through to the net; a money-stat for any d-man.
As expected, PK Subban and Andrei Markov were the only other defensemen with o-zone puck-possession success-rates above 57%, as both players were successful with 61% of their offensive-zone events while in possession of the puck. Subban was successful with 65% of his passes, and 75% of his dekes, while Markov was successful with 66% of his passes, and 83% of his attempted dekes.
Yannick Weber and Alexei Emelin were the only d-men with success-rates below 50%. Both defensemen's ratings were destroyed by their inability to get shots through to the net, as Weber and Emelin were successful with only 32%, and 35% of their attempted shots, respectively.