Nothing more than the Montreal Canadiens best skater
PK Subban is easily among the top-6 defensemen in the NHL under the age of twenty-three. He plays huge minutes on a struggling team, yet has an even traditional plus/minus rating, and the second-highest point total among Montreal Canadiens defensemen. He leads all Habs in total ice-time, and ice-time per-game. He has third-most ice-time on the league's worst powerplay unit, yet also has the fifth most short-handed minutes-played per-game on the NHL's top penalty-killing unit.
Did I mention he was 22-years-old?
Too often the focus is on one mistake when it comes to Subban. Yes, one mistake can change a game. But what about 73 successful plays?
Not only does Subban have the most ice-time, he is also the most involved player on the Canadiens. He engages in 4.32 events per-minute of ice-time. If we multiply that by his ice-time this shows that Subban makes an average of 102 plays per-game that influence puck-possession. No other player on the Habs averages more than 84 events (or plays) per-game. Of those plays, Subban makes 73 plays that acquire or maintain puck-possession, and only 29 that fail to acquire or lose puck-possession.
The results of these statistics give Subban the highest risk/reward of any Montreal Canadiens player with more than 20 games played this season. His overall ratio of 2.51 successful plays for every 1 mistake or lost puck-battle is behind only Josh Gorges.
OFFENSIVE-ZONE
Subban has the second-highest offensive-zone risk/reward rating among Canadiens defensemen; behind only Tomas Kaberle. He's won 67% of his offensive-zone puck-battles, and completed 64% of his attempted passes. He's extended o-zone pressure by recovering 88 loose-pucks in the offensive-zone, and has been successful with 79% of his attempts to beat opposing players 1on1 (dekes). He's intercepted or blocked 66 opposition passes or dump-outs in the offensive-zone, while getting 49% of his attempted shots through to the net.
NEUTRAL-ZONE
Risk taker?
Subban has the highest neutral-zone risk/reward rating among Canadiens defensemen, while his neutral-zone ratio is an incredible 4.11 (yes 4.11!) successful plays for every 1 mistake or lost puck-battle. He's won only 49% of his neutral-zone puck-battles, but has completed 77% of his n-zone pass-attempts, and has a success-rate when attempting to dump the puck deep into the offensive-zone of 87%. He's found success with 93% of his attempts to beat opposing players 1on1 (dekes), and has intercepted 27 opposition passes in the neutral-zone.
DEFENSIVE-ZONE
Liability?
PK Subban has the best defensive-zone risk/reward rating on the Montreal Canadiens, and has a defensive-zone ratio of 2.37 successful plays for every 1 mistake or lost puck-battle. He's won only 46% of his defensive-zone puck-battles, but has completed 76% of his defensive-zone pass-attempts. Despite the focus on some ugly turnovers, Subban is successful with 75% of his attempts to safely dump the puck out of the defensive-zone; far-and-away the best success-rate of any Montreal player. He's also blocked 70 shots and intercepted 129 opposition passes.
PK Subban is not infallible. He is not the second coming. He is not superman. He is simply the most involved, most influential, and most successful skater on the current Montreal Canadiens roster.
Did I mention he was 22-years-old?
