The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn posted a set of “16 stats” of note prior to the NHL’s holiday break, and Luszczyszyn actually compliments a member of the Red Wings this morning:
Denied by Simon Edvinsson
I’ve always viewed Corey Sznajder’s tracking work as some of the most illuminating data in the public sphere and he’s started to share some of his tracked data for this season on his website All Three Zones. While it’s obviously important to be careful with small sample sizes, it’s still cool to take a look at some players standing out early.
One of those is Simon Edvinsson. In the last edition of 16 stats, I noted how strong Detroit’s top pair has looked defensively and one indicator of why that might be is Edvinsson being a potential neutral zone force. In the games Sznajder has tracked, Edvinsson stands alone in his ability to deny zone entries and force dump-ins — two keys to limiting offense. Last year, Brett Pesce, Devon Toews, MacKenzie Weegar, Jared Spurgeon and Gustav Forsling were among the league’s best. That’s good company to keep.
It’s still very early in the season and in Sznajder’s tracking process, but it’s something to keep an eye on with Edvinsson’s game going forward.
Continued; here’s hoping that Edvinsson’s going to be healthy going forward.
