NHL's most and least valuable players

[RedWings Gone Wild 6]

Let me preface this by saying that the posts are purely by the numbers, and that there is more to the MVP award than pure numbers (leadership, team standings, etc etc).

The results? Lidstrom is the 2nd most valuable player of this season (#1 is not a shocker), and Stuart is the least valuable player, which I found surprising. At the very least I take this as verification that Lidstrom has not lost a step, as many have asserted. I don't think the posts show the whole picture with Stuart though, because he logs a ton of time, a lot of which has been spent with glorified AHLers this year....

Thought some of you may find these posts to be interesting.

Least Valuable Post

Most Valuable Post

[GMRwings1983 8,793]

I guess other people don't overrate Stuart the way we do here.

[cupforwings 138]

Do not agree with Stuart being THE least valuable player in the league... He is a huge reason the wings were able to hang around while our entire team was hurt.. that seems pretty valuable. It looks like this guy is going purely off stats which is an awful way to do this list

[RedWings Gone Wild 6]

Do not agree with Stuart being THE least valuable player in the league... He is a huge reason the wings were able to hang around while our entire team was hurt.. that seems pretty valuable. It looks like this guy is going purely off stats which is an awful way to do this list

Yes, as I said, it is strictly based off the #s, and as I said there is more to being valuable or not than simply numbers. I still find it interesting.

[Hockeytown0001 7,652]

Disagree. Stuart has been solid this season.

[Lidstrom for life 20]

Its interesting that Lidstrom and Stuart's PK numbers are so different...don't they usually kill penalties together?

[edicius 3,269]

*looks at the poll on the MVP page*

Hmm, one of these things is not like the other...

[Carman 387]

This is just another example that numbers can be bent and twisted to look anyway the author wants.

Stuart is far far far from the least valuable player in the league.

He's not having a great season by any means, but it's a joke to have him last.

[Guest lilja4mvp]

stuart's NTC is up after this season.

time to cut that 3.75 mil loose. see ya, brad.

[Yzermania 156]

if stuart ia the leat valuable player, what the f*** is dan cleary?

[MCleveland89 122]

How stupid. We needed stuart this past year. We'd be f***ed without him.

[toby91_ca 620]

If you take MVP literally, not sure how it's Ovechkin, his team has a better record (7-2) without him in the line up than with him. In those 7 wins, they scored 40 goals (5.7 goals per game).

[Kira 451]

I'll take Brad Stuart over a hell of a lot more guys any day of the week and three times on Sunday.

Least valuable player, my ass.

[zettie85 106]

Its interesting that Lidstrom and Stuart's PK numbers are so different...don't they usually kill penalties together?

When Kronner was out he killed with Ericsson or Lebda mostly I thought.

if stuart ia the leat valuable player, what the f*** is dan cleary?

Stuart didn't have the luxury of being injured.

[dat's sick 1,002]

Disagree. Stuart has been solid this season.

He's been uneven. Amazing for the first half of the season, pretty much carrying the defense himself it seemed like. After christmas until the Olympic break he was kinda terrible, but after the break he has got it together again and is playing solid.

But he's definitely not the least valuable player in the league. Two of the biggest things he does for us, hits and blocked shots, are not taken into account there.

[lets go pavel 2]

Not I sure I buy into these statistics entirely. If I'm understanding correctly, they are based on what they are calling "relative +/-", which means they take the player's on-ice goal differential 5-on-5, PP, and PK, then subtract the goal-differential of his team in those same situiations when he's off the ice ... if the player is better than the team average, it enhances his +/-. If the player is worse, his score drops. Ideally this compensates for the disparity between players on a good team and players on a bad team ... but no system is perfect. Players in a non-scoring role will inevitably be penalized because the team scores more with them off the ice than on it.

This is most noticeable with Stuart's PP number. Stuart's PP # is a -8.4, but he's rarely on the PP. Has he been on the ice for this many shorthanded goals against? No ... what's making his number so bad is that with his limited PP time he's been on the ice for very few PP goals. Compare him to the rest of the team and his number drops. Hypothetically he could be a +10, but if his team is +18.4 with him off the ice, he ends up with a -8.4.

5-on-5 and PK are probably not as flawed for him because he does log plenty of ice time there, but I wonder how much of that is due to rotating cast of defensemen he's been paired with? In any case, not a great statistical year for Stuart, but least valuable? Not even close ...

Edited March 18, 2010 by lets go pavel

[KrazyGangsta 79]

Stuarts been playing good and he will step up his game when the playoffs come.

[egroen 384]

Lidstrom's effect always blows me away. From the article:

His penalty killing work is particularly telling. When he's on the ice, the Red Wings give up 3.45 goals per 60 minutes, a rate that is better than the top overall PK teams in the league. When he's on the bench, the Wings give up 8.36 goals per 60 minutes, which would rank among the worst.

That is crazy.

Basically, whomever plays on the PK with Lidstrom is automatically a part of the best penalty killing unit in the league.

[Hockeytown0001 7,652]

Does the least valuable player in the league need to be a non-injured player?

If not, then two words - Rick DiPietro.

[Finnish Wing 110]

How can Stuart be least valuable if you don't even talk about cap hit there?

I mean he's overpaid, but certainly has been better this season than before.

[Guest Crymson]

Whoever wrote up that list apparently doesn't watch hockey.

That said, I always get a kick out of how some people here treat opinions from articles as if they proverbially came from above.

Edited March 18, 2010 by Crymson

[Kira 451]

You know, this reminds me of the age-old statement..."there are lies, there are damned lies, and then there are statistics."

[Z Winged Dangler 2,082]

i'm not really a scotty neidermayer fan, but him accompanying stuart on that list shows just how credible the list is...that being not at all.

[Inultus 12]

Lidstrom's PP impact should be way higher than that.

[titanium2 867]

Anyone who can actually watch the game of hockey knows better than what that POS says. He's made mistakes but overall the positives completely outweigh the negatives.