Top 10 forwards who provide solid point totals but poor peripherals

There are some players you can’t help but fall in love with, no matter what the statistics say.

Many of us play in leagues that count many peripheral statistics. And we go into a draft or trade negotiations wanting to get a player who can contribute in most of these categories. But then we see the 70-point guy and go for that player instead. Which is great if you need offense, but horrible for your team if he is useless in other categories.

Below you’ll find 10 players who are attractive to poolies on some level but horrible in peripheral statistics. I am looking at players who don’t contribute very much to shots, hits, penalty minutes, and blocked shots. While I mention faceoff stats at times, I don’t take it into consideration unless talking about someone who plays the center positions.

Keep in mind, I’m not advocating you sacrifice offensive players for guys who are great at peripherals and nothing else. But a 65-point player who hits and racks up penalty minutes could be more valuable than a 70-point player that doesn’t.

10. Gustav Nyquist

It doesn’t appear as if Nyquist will ever live up to his breakthrough 2013-14 season when he had 28 goals and 48 points in 57 games. He’s been disappointing fantasy owners every year since then but somehow keeps getting drafted. He was selected in 77 per cent of Yahoo pools this past year. Yet his peripherals are ugly. He finished with 18 PIM, 165 shots, 54 hits and 20 blocked shots.

9. Joe Thornton

Thornton has never been much of a peripheral guy, but 2016-17 had to have been his worst yet. He won 374 faceoffs (his lowest since they started keeping track of the stat in 2007-08), and his 81 shots was his lowest since his 55-game rookie season in 1997-98. He also had 52 hits and 31 blocked shots, but his 51 PIM were decent. It would be interesting to see if any of these numbers rise significantly if he signs with a new team this offseason as he tries to prove himself to his new squad.

8. Marcus Johansson

You’re only ever grabbing Johansson for points as he has never contributed anything to any peripheral category ever. Johansson this season had 10 PIM, 129 shots, 32 hits and 22 blocked shots in 82 games. His career high in these categories are: 16 PIM, 138 shots, 69 hits and 28 blocked shots. So he wasn’t far off career highs that are spread out over six seasons.

7. Phil Kessel

Kessel is great in the shots category, but remember that his shots have decreased every year since 2013-14 (from 305 to 280 to 274 to 229 this year). And while he’ll be a threat for 70 points for the foreseeable future, you can’t count on him outside of points and shots. This year he had 20 PIM, 12 hits and 15 blocked shots, all increases from the previous season.

6. Mikael Granlund

Granlund broke out this season in a big way this season with career highs in goals, assists, points, plus-minus and power play points. He also set a career high in shots at 177. At the same time, he moved from centre to wing, so he won just 16 faceoffs (compared to 528 the previous season). He also had 12 PIM, 50 hits and 50 blocked shots.

5. Mitch Marner

It’s always interesting to see where sophomores are drafted after a hot rookie season. Marner will get plenty of love (all the media attention the Leafs will over-inflate his fantasy worth). But keep in mind not to reach for Marner as he doesn’t contribute much to other categories. This year he had 176 shots, 38 PIM, 41 hits and 39 blocked shots. It remains to be seen if he can improve on any of these numbers but you’ll be better off letting someone else reach for Leafs sophomore.

4. Nicklas Backstrom

Backstrom is one of the best setup men in the NHL, as evidenced by his 63 assists this past season (second best in the league). But I wish Backstrom was more like teammate Alexander Ovechkin in peripherals. Backstrom finished the season with 38 PIM, 162 shots, 45 hits and 33 blocked shots. His value is boosted quite a bit in leagues that count faceoff wins.

3. Mark Scheifele

As Scheifele improves his points total season after season, his peripherals drop. That could be a coincidence, but maybe he figures that it’s better to focus on offense instead of some of the grittier parts of the game. Despite scoring 82 points this season, Scheifele had only 160 shots, 38 PIM, 49 hits and 34 blocked shots. He did win 635 faceoffs, but lost 826 (for those that count faceoff losses as well).

2. Leon Draisaitl

He may not be on this list for long but he is worth mentioning. He’s going to be drafted way too high next season in leagues with peripherals as he doesn’t hit (41), blocked shots (36) or pick up penalty minutes (20). His shot totals are improving each year (from 133 to 172) and he’s around close to 500 faceoff wins in each of the last two years.

1. Johnny Gaudreau

This guy is the reason I thought up this column. This year I drafted him as my first-round pick in a league that counted a lot of peripheral categories and I wound up regretting it for most of the season. If he’s not putting up points, he’s pretty much worthless. There were many nights when he sat on my bench and I seriously considered dropping him. Gaudreau finished with four PIM, 182 shots, nine hits and 14 blocked shots. He came on in the second half of the season of the season to finish with 61 points, but it was too little to make up for his deficiency in peripheral stats.