Drake_Marcus

First things first- I spent an hour trying to dig up hitting stats via google. The best I could come up with was a list of the top ten hitters in the '03-'04 season with their total hits. That's it. I'm sure the stats must be out there, but short of going through every single archived "NHL super stats" page for each game played in every season in question I just can't find the data I need. Why do I want that data? Read below. In an effort to determine the rate of decline of Dallas Drake's physical play in the last 5 years or so I was hoping to find the checking stats for his last 5+ seasons as well as those of the rest of the league (at least of the top 10 checkers in the league, preferably of the top checker on each team). Ideally I'd analyze all 14 years he's spent in the NHL to look at the year to year trends as well as playoff statistics and variance with individual teams. Why am I doing this? Well I've got a background in math, physics and engineering and I loooove hockey. I admit I actually find the idea of doing the analysis in question fun . Given how heated discussions have been over Mr. Drake's acquisition I'd like to submit a sort of informal report based on the actual facts. I'm not really 100% decided whether Dallas will have a real impact here, although based on his salary I'm excited we picked him up. If anyone can PM me the data please let me know- I'd greatly appreciate it.

Ok guys and girls. I have Dallas Drake, Ville Nieminen, Chris Neil, Adam Hall, Chad Kilger, Trent Hunter and Darcy Hordichuk all in a table comparing their hits/game over the last two seasons (all the data I could get- thus making it pointless to give you a discussion of the "trends" since I only have two seasons to compare...). Anyone know how to post a table in html code? (or whatever code this forum uses in posts). Yep. Here are the two season averages for the people I looked at: Player________Average Hits/Game Dallas Drake_________1.09 Ville Nieminen________1.44 Chris Neil____________3.15 Adam Hall____________0.87 Chad Kilger___________2.35 Trent Hunter__________3.00 Darcy Hordichuk_______1.63 Here's the link to the list of regular season RTSS stats: HIttin' It Click the hits column to have it organised into the top 30.

Ok, well NHL.com only gives me the last two years of hitting stats, all previous years list hits as zero. I've got Ville Nieminen and Drake totaled up (Ville hits much more often ) but no one else. What other stats should I include other than hits, games and hits/game? PIM? Let me know...

Awesome. Thanks guys! Now what players would you like me to compare Drake to? Who'er the top ten hitters you'd say are similar players to him? I'd like this to be generally accepted as fair, so let me know what you guys think.

He's a career -27 and has played on Montreal AND NJ. But, to be fair, all but one of his minus seasons are from his stay in MTL. Regardless, we can all agree he look horrible on defense (god help the team if he's the only one back in a breakaway situation). Buuut having 19 pp goals and 38 pp points this season is pretty hot.

Huh? When exactly do you expect the roster to open up for Hudler, Filpula and the rest? If the Wings want to see non-25 year old players blossom on the team they need to give them some decent ice time in their second years if not their rookie years, don't you agree? Filling up the roster with short term players isn't a great idea if we want to give the kids a chance. I think the Wings need to enter the season with this roster, give our young kids a chance to get 15 mins in a game and watch the progress. If the scoring doesn't pick up we're still going to make the playoffs and have tons of cash to make a big deadline aquisition. Look what Filp and Huds did with a max of 10 mins of ice time last season. Imagine what they can do with 50% more ice time, 82 games and the possibility of some pp time. And why can't Dats and Hank mentor the young players? EDIT: Let's not forget how sweeeeet the UFA market is next year- it'd be nice to pick one of those gems up at the deadline and sign them up as a long term member of the club if they work out. I'm all for picking up players that'll be helping the team and appearing in signatures/avatars here on the forums 3 years from now as well as next April.

And a pet Unicorn! {honestly, I really hope you're right though!}

I hope it has a big enough garage for his BMW fetish That kid lurrrrvs BMW's.

GET OUT OF MY HEAD! Well said! I'm not sure about Kopecky threatening to take over anyone's roster spot though

He's not worth that! EDIT: Let me qualify here: He's not worth that much. It is, however, reasonable for him to expect a raise to $3 mill, IMHO.

Gasp! Who saw that coming?

Rabia! Stop using other peoples' user names! Huh? Dats is going to drop in production? I have a hard time seeing Dats only total 49 assists, not as a playmaking centre.

Agreed. Lang wasn't a talentless sack of crap. But he didn't earn his salary or show any motivation to improve his poor performance this year. He looked lazy and unmotivated all year and during 90% of the playoffs. Combine that with a slump year and an attitude at odds with the coach and you've got a ticket out of town. Of course people go overboard with him, but all the responses we see here on hockey matters are pretty bi-polar compared to a season analyst's opinion.

He'd likely break records for yearly pay if he hit the open market. $9 million is a steal for Crosby. Of course he won't be hurting for cash. He makes enough in endorsements to play for $9.45 a year.

Fun. Gotta love events like that. There's something special about the feeder teams too, eh? I love the idea of seeing the up-and-coming stars.

Thanks for the link! Cool jersey, but I must ask: Are those maple leafs on it? GO CANADA!

Well first of all we're talking about a ******* EKLAND rumour. Second of all we're talking about a ******* EKLAND rumour.

Pfft. Don't be a jerk. I'd give him a 2 year contract worth $850,000 in total. Ouch Lou. I thought we were really getting along. I'm kinda tough Oh please baby Jesus, please get rid of Sammy for Ville. At least I want to see one of them in the winged wheel. But be honest Nick- We'd pay a minor league kid that much to fill a fourth line roll all year, no? I really see $550,000 as such a minimal risk it'd be silly not to try it out if he could be a big open ice hitter like Holland obviously thinks he still can be (he sure as hell didn't hire him to shore up the second line).

Hey, you might be being sarcastic, but I honestly think Huds WILL hit 30+ if he's given 12-15 mins every night. That requires no more forwards being picked up, but hey- I'm actually excited to see the kids play real minutes for once in Wings history.

I know! Even if it's only 10% of the posters bitching, how can they ***** about a $550,000 veteran hitter who's got more toughness than any two other players on the Wings!?! So cheap! And so needed! Thanks Kenny!

Some excellent points so far: Honestly- he's a FANTASTIC addition to our checking line. He's a real veteran and adds the one thing the Wings need more than anything other than a top three high-scoring winger: toughness. Players like this should make up our 3rd and fourth line with six high-powered scorers above them. Part of our "softness", perceived and definitely partially earned, was that our fourth line was a young kids "scoring" style line instead of anyother grinding hit type of line. No?

This just in: Speculation involving the trading of Maltby or Draper is the leading cause of cancer among LGW readers.

Here's my theory: Cleary's moving up to the top two lines based on his performance last season and especially the playoffs (not to mention the fact that we don't have 6 forwards who're better choices then Dan). This leaves a hole in the grind line. Drake is a perfect solution to add even more grit to the third line.

Exactly. Let the kids play and see what happens.

I was thinking the same thing