Forensics – Dustin Brown
Michael Amato
2012-03-14
Why the Kings would even consider trading heart and soul player and team captain Dustin Brown is beyond me. Ultimately the Kings made the right move by keeping him and were still able to add Jeff Carter in the process. Some fans may be upset that they weren't able to also deal for Rick Nash, but over time I think they will realize that was one desperate move not worth making.
Brown may only give you 50-60 points a season, but he contributes in many other ways to his team and fantasy wise. So as I'm sure most hockey pool enthusiasts know, the Kings right winger is a physical presence on the ice.
Rank |
Name |
Pos |
Age |
Yrs |
Team |
GR |
GP |
Hits |
1 |
L |
22 |
2 |
NYI |
13 |
67 |
314 |
|
2 |
L |
27 |
7 |
L.A |
13 |
69 |
242 |
|
3 |
R |
24 |
4 |
MIN |
13 |
61 |
232 |
|
4 |
R |
32 |
9 |
OTT |
12 |
61 |
231 |
|
5 |
R |
26 |
5 |
NYR |
14 |
64 |
228 |
|
6 |
D |
22 |
3 |
TOR |
13 |
66 |
225 |
|
7 |
C |
29 |
8 |
DAL |
13 |
62 |
220 |
|
7 |
D |
31 |
8 |
PIT |
14 |
59 |
220 |
|
8 |
L |
28 |
4 |
WPG |
13 |
69 |
215 |
|
9 |
R |
26 |
5 |
WSH |
13 |
69 |
213 |
|
10 |
D |
25 |
0 |
MTL |
13 |
57 |
211 |
You can see Brown sits second overall in the NHL with 242 hits. Los Angeles needs his rugged play because they only have two other players, Matt Greene and Kyle Clifford, who rank in the top 50 when it comes to hits.
Now you wouldn't necessarily think someone that plays the way Brown does would draw a lot of penalties. Typically, more skilled players come to mind when you think of forcing opponents to head to the sin bin. Brown however leads the league in penalties drawn with 46.
Rank |
Player |
Pos |
Count |
1 |
BROWN, DUSTIN |
R |
46 |
2 |
MALKIN, EVGENI |
C |
43 |
3
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|
PERRY, COREY |
R |
42 |
4 |
DORSETT, DEREK |
R |
40 |
4 |
NASH, RICK |
R |
40 |
5 |
CLARKSON, DAVID |
R |
39 |
5 |
SKINNER, JEFF |
C |
39 |
6 |
TAVARES, JOHN |
C |
37 |
This stat by itself may not have much impact in most fantasy leagues, but it can have an indirect impact in the power play point's area. If you consider that 13 of Brown's 43 points have come with the man advantage, and he averages 3:20 of power play ice-time per game, drawing penalties now becomes a key point of his production. Not to mention if you take away Jeff Carter, who had the majority of his power play goals with the Blue Jackets this season, Brown leads the Kings with eight tallies in that category.
The Kings scoring difficulties this season have been darn near Gomez-esque, but Brown has still managed to snipe 19 times on the year. In fact over his past four seasons he has managed to average 27 goals. His ability to be a consistent 20 goal man comes from shooting the puck regularly as he ranks third on the team in shots on goal.
Rank |
Player |
Pos |
Team |
GP |
Total |
1 |
WILLIAMS, JUSTIN |
R |
L.A |
69 |
197 |
2 |
KOPITAR, ANZE |
C |
L.A |
69 |
195 |
3 |
BROWN, DUSTIN |
R |
L.A |
69 |
179 |
4 |
RICHARDS, MIKE |
C |
L.A |
61 |
141 |
5 |
DOUGHTY, DREW |
D |
L.A |
64 |
132 |
Los Angeles is getting great value for Brown as well, and depending on if your league is based on a cap system you could be too. Cost effective players are becoming more and more valuable in today's NHL. He ranks second on the team in cap hit per point behind only Slava Voynov.
Rank |
Player |
Pos |
Team |
GP |
Pts |
Caphit |
Cost/Pnt |
1 |
VOYNOV, SLAVA |
D |
L.A |
40 |
14 |
816666 |
58333 |
2 |
BROWN, DUSTIN |
R |
L.A |
68 |
43 |
3175000 |
73837 |
3 |
WILLIAMS, JUSTIN |
R |
L.A |
68 |
46 |
3650000 |
79348 |
4 |
KING, DWIGHT |
L |
L.A |
13 |
7 |
597667 |
85381 |
5 |
HUNTER, TRENT |
R |
L.A |
38 |
7 |
600000 |
85714 |
6 |
CLIFFORD, KYLE |
L |
L.A |
67 |
10 |
870000 |
87000 |
Brown will make you reconsider how valuable players are based on the categories in your league. In leagues that value hits and shots just as much as points, it might be worth sacrificing some points and moving him up the depth chart. Mr. Brown can do a little bit of everything.
Feel free to follow me on twitter at @amato_mike