Brad Marsh: Give a Warm Welcome to the Least Valuable Player in History

The fact that Pronger is in the NHL Safety department is a joke, The guy was a dirty player who had little respect for other players on the ice. How many former players still suffer the effects of hit cheap shots?

I wonder how the players will feel having a Hypocrite involved in assessing their dirty play and handing out suspensions... Telling them "You can't do that..."

Nice read as always Brad, thanks.

I find these analytics so useless, do they take in effect players that expereince migranes more than others or when I player may develop a cold or the flu? How about a player going through a divorce or sick family member. All these variables are part of how a player will perform or get through the issue. IMHO there is only one person that can tell you what is going to happen with a particular player and we nailed his son to cross many moons ago.

The fact that Pronger is in the NHL Safety department is a joke, The guy was a dirty player who had little respect for other players on the ice. How many former players still suffer the effects of hit cheap shots?

I wonder how the players will feel having a Hypocrite involved in assessing their dirty play and handing out suspensions... Telling them "You can't do that..."
- RoloTahmasee

Gives him a great perspective then on what's a cheap shot and what isn't. And the impact it can have. Should suit him well in that role.

Nice read as always Brad, thanks.

I find these analytics so useless, do they take in effect players that expereince migranes more than others or when I player may develop a cold or the flu? How about a player going through a divorce or sick family member. All these variables are part of how a player will perform or get through the issue. IMHO there is only one person that can tell you what is going to happen with a particular player and we nailed his son to cross many moons ago.
- jtb3rd

I think they have a role in the game, but they'll never be able to quantify what players like Brad Marsh know. And that's that the warriors who do the dirty work, and the emotions involved are big parts of the game. To the number nerds, those players don't belong.

"I am a big believer in the 90-Day Challenge, and I think that everyone from children to seniors benefits from being active. "

Can you explain the 90 day challenge?

I actually suspect that if we had ice time totals, on-ice shot data, zone start percentage, etc. for the NHL during Brad's playing days, the "advanced stats" would suggest that he was indeed a pretty solid player who made his teams better by playing excellent defense. But of course we don't have that kind of data for that period of NHL history and probably never will.

Don't be so quick to throw out new stats. No, they are not perfect and they do not tell the whole story, but they have also added to our understanding of the game and have been a very useful tool -- not as a replacement for, but as a companion to the eye test -- in evaluating the effectiveness of particular tactics (e.g., how much better is it to carry the puck in vs. dump it in) and the performance of certain players.

The end goal of advanced stats is not to go out and prove that the low-scoring defensive defensemen and checking forwards aren't important. I think most people agree that it takes all types of players to win as a team and that defense-first role guys who do their jobs well are extremely important. The end goal is to slowly get better and better at quantifying those hard-to-track types of value so that the truly excellent role guys that make their teams significantly better through non-offensive skills (like, say, Manny Malhotra) can be placed in the same context as goal-scorers and still be fairly recognized for their contributions.

Didn't Shea Weber score 23 goals last season?