Alright, the Avalanche stat attack continues with Part 3 where we turn our attention to the big hitters instead of the big scorers. (Here's Part 1: Scoring and Part 2: Time on Ice and Special Teams in case you missed them).
As mentioned in the earlier posts, I decided to take a look at the career statistics of the Avs in order to figure out what we might be looking at for next season. So, please keep in mind that all of these numbers are TOTAL PIM / BLOCKS / HITS ÷ TOTAL NHL GAMES, then MULTIPLIED BY 82 GAMES to get a full season average. I could have left them in stats per game form, but seeing what those stats mean over the course of a full season is a lot easier to understand. I also omitted any players with under 80 games and all goalies.
So, with that in mind, it's time for more trivia!!!
1) Which Avs player spends the most time in the penalty box?
2) Which player is in the box the least?
3) How many players would average 100+ hits over an 82 game season?
4) Which defenseman averages the fewest blocked shots in a year?
5) Which forward blocks the most?
Penalties:
*****Player's Name: Average Penalties in Minutes, Career Fights, Average fights per full 82 game season (if greater than 0)*****
McLeod: 183 PIM, 54 fights, 16.2 fights/season
O'Brien: 149 PIM, 35 fights, 7.6 fights/season
O'Byrne: 108 PIM, 11 fights, 4.7 fights/season
Quincey: 71 PIM, 3 fights, 1.3 fights/season
Wilson: 67 PIM, 10 fights, 6.4 fights/season
Yip: 61 PIM, 2 fights, 1.6 fights/season
Johnson: 59 PIM, 5 fights, 1.8 fights/season
Kobasew: 58 PIM, 8 fights, 1.5 fights/season
Lindstrom: 47 PIM, 0 fights
Stastny: 46 PIM, 0 fights
Hejda: 44 PIM, 1 fight, 0.2 fights/season
Winnik: 39 PIM, 7 fights, 2.0 fights/season
Hunwick: 35 PIM, 2 fights, 0.8 fights/season
McClement: 33 PIM, 2 fights, 0.3 fights/season
Galiardi: 33 PIM, 0 fights
Cumiskey: 30 PIM, 0 fights
Hejduk: 27 PIM, 0 fights
Mueller: 27 PIM, 0 fights
Rismiller: 26 PIM, 0 fights
Duchene: 25 PIM, 1 fight, 0.5 fights/season
Jones: 23 PIM, 0 fights
Porter: 20 PIM, 1 fight, 0.6 fights/season
O'Reilly: 18 PIM, 0 fights
Answer to Question #1 (most time in the Box): Here's a shocker - it's McLeod. The guy averages 16 fights a season, so no wonder he's in the box all the time. But take a look at number 2 on the list. O'Brien isn't afraid at all to drop the gloves, and he has a reputation for protecting his teammates, especially the goalie. He's bigger than Wilson and averages more fights than him too. However, Wilson has just about as many fights per season with half the penalty minutes. And Gaunce, who has only played in 11 NHL games, already has 2 NHL fights and 16 PIM. I'd say there's going to be a lot of competition between those three for the left-side 3rd pair spot. Should be fun to watch them compete for it this year.
Answer to Question #2 (least amount of time in the Box): O'Reilly. Add this to the list of all the little things that our 20-year-old, 3rd line center does right. Over the course of 155 games, he's only sat in the box for 34 minutes. Since I'm pretty sure he has no major penalties, that means he's only taken 17 minor penalties OVER THE PAST 2 SEASONS. That's pretty incredible. Just another reason to love Radar.
Fun Fact #1 - Milan Hejduk has played 910 NHL games and has never had a fight. The only other player in franchise history that had more NHL games (991) with 0 regular season fights was Stephane Yelle, although he dropped the gloves once in a preseason matchup in '05-'06 when he was with the Flames.
Hits
McLeod: 191 average hits per full season
O'Byrne: 188
Hejda: 154
Wilson: 142
O'Brien: 123
Quincey: 121
Rissmiller: 120
Porter: 113
Jones: 106
Kobasew: 102
Galiardi: 98
Yip: 96
Johnson: 93
Winnik: 91
Hunwick: 71
Duchene: 55
McClement: 55
O'Reilly: 48
Lindstrom: 48
Cumiskey: 43
Stastny: 42
Mueller: 38
Hejduk: 21
Answer to Question #3 (number of 100+ hit players): 10. That's right. TEN. Also, please note that of said 10, four are new signings. Is this a coincidence? I don't think so. I'd say that we can almost certainly expect more hits next year. The days of the soft Avs are over.
Fun Fact #2 - Paul Stastny only has 1 more hit in his entire career (180 hits in 348 games) than O'Byrne got in 67 games last season (179).
Blocks
O'Byrne: 142 blocks per full season
Hejda: 141
Wilson: 119
Quincey: 111
Cumiskey: 103
Johnson: 100
O'Brien: 75
Hunwick: 73
Winnik: 67
McClement: 51
Galiardi: 50
Stastny: 47
O'Reilly: 44
Duchene: 39
Kobasew: 36
Jones: 34
Porter: 33
Rissmiller: 33
Hejduk: 28
McLeod: 26
Yip: 23
Mueller: 18
Lindstrom: 17
Answer to Question #4 (defenseman with fewest blocks): Hunwick. Even Cumiskey has more than him. Actually, surprisingly, Cumiskey blocks quite a few shots while he's on the ice. However, even he has 3 left defenseman ahead of him in this category (Hejda, Wilson, and Quincey).
Answer to Question #5 (forward with the most blocks): Winnik. Even though it seems like after defensemen, centers block the most shots, he and Galiardi are the outliers. Both have managed to put up pretty solid numbers - clearly neither of them are afraid to sacrifice their body for the team.