PDO is interesting too (short version for those unfamiliar: on-ice save % PLUS on-ice shooting %, which regresses very heavily to the mean of 1000 over time, which is almost too easy to seem real, but it's true. see here:http://www.mc79hockey.com/?p=2996 if a player's PDO is over 1000, he's having some pretty good luck, less than 1000, he's hard on his luck).
tampa's team PDO is insane right now. brian lee is lowest on the team at 1021. sami salo is +10 thanks in large part to a 1175 PDO
- OrangeBlack27
Any tool to help evaluation is good. Too many people look at a guy's +/- and see a good number and assume he's played great defensively. Mike Green was a +39 one year and he's not very good in his own end...but his scoring ability obscures his shortcomings.
There's still no substitute for watching the games, though. The key is not allowing what you see to override the numbers...and vice versa