Other defensive-zone puck-possession metrics such as d-to-d passes, dump-outs, and dekes were not used, as they do not push possession up-ice, nor do they automatically result in a team moving the puck out of the defensive-zone with control of the puck.
Only even-strength events were used in this post. The post includes data from every Montreal Canadiens 2013-14 regular season and 2014 playoff game. A list of all the events tracked within my system can be found here.
CONTROLLED ZONE-EXITS PER-60
As we can easily see, PK Subban is the Habs most active player when it comes to successfully moving the puck out of the defensive-zone with possession. Subban produced 36.7 successful zone-exits per-60. Andrei Markov produced 33.6 successful zone-exits per-60, while Nathan Beaulieu produced 33.02. Douglas Murray contributed the fewest controlled zone-exits among Habs d-men, as he averaged just 20.5 per-60; over 16-less per-60 than Subban.
Among forwards, Lars Eller averaged a forward-best 15.3 controlled zone-exits per-60, while Dale Weise averaged 14.8. Rene Bourque (6.6) actually produced fewer controlled zone-exits than George Parros (7.2).
SUCCESS-RATES
In games where the Habs out-chanced the opposition at even-strength they completed 69.5% of their attempted outlet and stretch passes. In games where they were out-chanced, they had a success-rate of 68.5%.
Gorges had the top success-rate within this metric among defensemen; followed closely by PK Subban. Among forwards with significant ice-time, Weise, Travis Moen, David Desharnais, and Brendan Gallagher produced the top success-rates. The lowest success-rate when attempting to produced a controlled zone-exit was earned by Thomas Vanek.
