Team Canada Olympic Hockey Team - February Roster Evaluation
Written by Jay   
Saturday, 06 February 2010 17:17

sidney_crosby_team_canada

2010 Olympic Preview:  Team Canada Olympic Hockey Team Roster Evaluation - February 2010

Team Canada's Olympic hockey team is a power house with expectations set high.  In fact, if Team Canada does not win the gold medal in Vancouver, it will be a disappointment for fans across this country.  The opening game for Team Canada is set at February 16th vs. Norway.  With an NHL equivalent team salary cap of $127,966,666, Team Canada has the most expensive roster heading into these Olympic games.

Scott Niedermayer of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks is the official team captain with Jarome Iginla, Sidney Crosby, and Chris Pronger named as alternate captains.  With his team struggling this season, is Scott Niedermayer the proverbial equivalent of dead wood on this team?  Follow the jump to see how the players on this roster rank in terms of goals, assists, points, +/-, and goals vs. threshold.

GVT or goals vs threshold is a statistical metric from the excellent website, Behind The Net.  GVT is defined as, "the value of a player, in goals, above what a replacement player would have contributed."  Basically, high numbers reflect better contribution to the team while negative numbers reflect a player who's less effective than a replacement player.

Sidney Crosby

Team Canada 2010 Olympic Hockey Team Roster Evaluation - Forward Skaters:

Player GP G A P +/- GVT
Sidney Crosby 56 37 34 71 10 19.6
Patrick Marleau 57 38 24 62 25 16.8
Joe Thornton 57 15 56 71 19 14.1
Dany Heatley 57 30 32 62 18 13.5
Jonathan Toews 51 18 27 45 19 12.5
Rick Nash 59 24 29 53 -11 10.5
Mike Richards 55 22 22 44 3 9.5
Ryan Getzlaf 54 14 42 56 2 9.5
Eric Staal 45 20 27 47 -1 9
Jarome Iginla 58 24 28 52 2 8.9
Corey Perry 58 20 33 53 0 6.4
Patrice Bergeron 50 12 22 34 -2 4.7
Brenden Morrow 52 14 16 30 -4 4
Total 709 288 392 680 80 139
Average 54.54 22.15 30.15 52.31 6.15 10.69

From the above rankings, there's no surprise that Sidney Crosby leads the team with the highest GVT rating of 19.6.  It's also probably not a huge surprise to see Brenden Morrow or Patrice Bergeron rounding out the bottom of this list.

 

duncan_keith

Team Canada 2010 Olympic Hockey Team Roster Evaluation - Defensemen

Player GP G A P +/- GVT
Duncan Keith 57 11 40 51 20 17.7
Drew Doughty 57 11 31 42 15 13.1
Chris Pronger 55 8 30 38 18 12.6
Dan Boyle 51 10 33 43 6 10
Shea Weber 54 10 23 33 -6 9.2
Brent Seabrook 55 3 18 21 21 8.9
Scott Niedermayer 58 5 26 31 -17 2.2
Total 387 58 201 259 57 73.7
Average 55.29 8.29 28.71 37.00 8.14 10.53

In terms of Team Canada's defenesemen, the Captain, Scott Niedermayer has a less-than-stellar +/- stat of -17.  He's also rated just higher than a replacement level player with a GVT of only 2.2.  Scott's getting pretty old, will he have enough gas left in the tank to lead Team Canada to the coveted Gold Medal?

Drew Doughty was one of the surprise additions to Team Canada's roster.  By the numbers, he really shouldn't be much of a surprise as he's currently the 2nd ranked defenseman by goals vs threshold.  He's also tied for first in terms of goals scored while being 3rd overall in point production.

 

martin_brodeur_team_canada

Team Canada 2010 Oympic Hockey Team Roster Evaluation - Goaltenders

Goalie GP GAA SV% GVT
Martin Brodeur 53 2.24 0.918 16.5
Roberto Luongo 49 2.32 0.92 15.5
Marc-Andre Fleury 45 2.59 0.908 8.8
Average 49 2.383 0.915 13.6

In terms of goaltending, there are no surprises here as Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo have been neck-in-neck in terms of stats for most of this season.  Both have been trailed by Marc-Andre Fleury whose numbers have imroved somewhat over the course of this season.

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Comments (3)Add Comment
FlyingFridge
...
written by FlyingFridge, February 06, 2010
Like most stats, GVT seems to favor players on good teams.
0
...
written by jonathanjoyce, February 06, 2010
I'll take it a step further. Canada could win 20 gold medals and the games will be considered a failure in we don't win a gold in hockey. Apologies to all the other great athletes out to do us proud.
HockeyNoob
...
written by Jay, February 06, 2010
Yeah, the Olympic Hockey Gold is the only one that I really care about myself.

I haven't watched Niedermayer play much this season, but he doesn't look good by the numbers.

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