One of the most requested segments and guests last year was Jason Paul, who uses analytics and charts to explain his thoughts about the development and progress of the Montreal Canadiens. This time we bring in Jason for a halftime review of the defence and there are some good and interesting thoughts backed up by numbers.
Chart 1. Defensive performance relative to team only. Courtesy of Jason Paul, Waveintel.com
“Xhekaj’s deployment was sheltered, but doesn’t change the fact that he performed very well under those circumstances. Guhle has challenging deployment. It’s true. Here you can see the ‘Big 3’ that take the hardest competition for the team.”
Chart 2. The ‘Big 3’ (Savard, Matheson and Guhle) gets the toughest assignments. Courtesy of Jason Paul, Waveintel.com
This chart shows the top of pyramid has the hardest competition, but the players lower in the chart (lesser competition) perform better. This is where the Canadiens have an advantage. However, it also showcases that the potential return for Gustav Lindström would never be good, and losing him on waivers should not be seen as a loss. Again, Arber Xhekaj stands out but mainly due to a small sample size and being sheltered. Jason Paul is clear that he regards Xhekaj as an important piece going forward but also states, “I’m sure Xhekaj’s stint in the AHL will serve him well. However, let’s not kid ourselves, the key motivation for the demotion was circumstantial – after return from injury / waiver exempt / afforded the team a chance to test other kids, namely Struble.”
While neither of us thinks that Xhekaj will be traded, he might be the defender that could bring in the biggest haul if he was, but keeping him in the AHL also means showcasing players that other teams might be interested in and not have enough data on for a trade.
You can listen to the full podcast below:
To follow Jason Paul hit the link: @WaveIntel
