Earlier this season I examined which players had recorded primary points on the highest percentage of their team’s goals. It was a meaningful exercise highlighting the players who could generally be relied upon to score regardless of the fate of their team because for the most part, these were the guys driving the bus. You may have noted that the list was comprised entirely of forwards.

What can I tell you? Defensemen simply do not drive offense as directly as forwards can. Rare is the defenseman who scores 10 goals, let alone the 20 or 30 that an average top-line forward might. When defensemen notch assists, half of them are of the secondary variety. They start the breakouts, rather than finishing them. This puts defensemen into an awfully precarious position. They cannot be relied upon to drive offense for a team the same way that forwards can. Even in the age of the offensive defenseman it’s forwards who are driving the bus.

Still, there are some defensemen who do a better job of driving things than others. Here are the defensemen who have recorded points on the highest percentage of team goals (before last night’s action):

Only 18 defensemen in the league have points on 20% of their team’s goals, up from 16 last year. Here’s last year’s list:

You’ll notice a lot of overlap. Indeed, 12 of last year’s 20-percenters are hitting that mark again this season. Only Keith (season from hell), Byfuglien (injuries + shooting slump), and Shattenkirk (injuries) have dropped out. This year’s newbies include: Subban (injured last season), Carlson (injured), Gostisbehere (sophomore slump from hell), Suter and Jones.

Notes on this:

What a red herring last year’s first half was in Columbus. Zach Werenski is awesome, but the incomprehensible run that he and Columbus’ top power play unit went on over the first few months did enough to put us off Jones’ scent. Even as Jones quietly was the Blue Jackets’ best defenseman in the second half it still seemed like Werenski was the 1A. Jones has blown those notions to bits. He is so far past Werenski that he’s but a speck on the rearview mirror.

There is room for both Jones and Werenski to be fantasy relevant, but you’ll note something else from the table above, there is only one team with multiple defensemen in on 20% of their team’s goals and that’s Nashville.

Nashville is one of the few holdouts in the league’s trend towards 4F1D power play looks, and that may simply be because their defense are good enough to get away with it. In Columbus, they don’t have that luxury. Not that Werenski and Jones aren’t good enough, but their system is flawed. They can barely piece together a decent power play with four forwards on the ice, let alone just three. Plus, they don’t have good enough third or fourth defensemen to operate on the second unit.

Jones has command of that top deployment in Columbus. There’s enough room for this to swing back the other way, but we only have a half season of dominance from Werenski. Jones has been at this for a year and a half now. Jones is on pace for 57 points this season. Can you imagine if the Blue Jackets had more clicking up front than just Artemi Panarin?

The Jones example highlights how important deployment is. The list above is basically a whose who of top PP defensemen. Only three of the 18 above average less than 3:00 of PP time per game: Josi (2:59), Jones (2:40 thanks to continued dalliance with Werenski as the PP1 option and Columbus’ inability to draw a penalty), and Hamilton (whose second half breakout coincided with a promotion to PP1).

Defensemen averaging over 3:00 minutes of PP time per game but not appearing above: Shea Weber (injured), Shattenkirk (injured), Kris Letang (0.182 points percentage), Nick Leddy (0.183), Byfuglien (0.167), and Justin Faulk (0.157).

Another important piece of the puzzle is offensive zone starts percentage. Of the 18 above, only Subban and Yandle start less than 45% of their shifts in the offensive zone. Teams generate more offense when the puck starts in the other end (duh), so the defensemen deployed in these opportunities get greater exposure to scoring opportunities. This highlights what brilliant seasons Subban and Yandle are having.

While were on Yandle, both he and Barrie had down seasons in 2016-17 but have bounced back with a vengeance. I don’t know if offensive improvements are coming for Arizona or Buffalo, but if they do Ekman-Larsson and Ristolainen are ready to be 50-point defensemen.

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I made reference to this as the age of the offensive defenseman, basically, this encompasses the entirety of the time post-2005 lockout. Checkout the three-year volume for defensemen hitting various benchmarks:

Indeed, defensemen are more frequently hitting lofty heights than their pre-lockout compatriots, but there seems to be a cap on this. Post-lockout we are averaging 26 defensemen per year hitting 10 goals, and 25 defensemen per year hitting 40 points. That’s basically one per team per season and it doesn’t appear to be changing. It may even be growing more concentrated if power play opportunities remain this low.

Outside of the post-lockout power play spike in 2005-06 power plays have been trending downward from the dead puck era. They spiked briefly this season before refs reverted to their reticent ways. While power plays are growing more efficient thanks to the 4F1D setup, the reduction in opportunities only reinforces the predominance of teams only boasting one defenseman of genuine fantasy relevance since there are fewer juicy minutes to go around.

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Two assists for Jacob Trouba in his return to the lineup after a couple of months out. He skated only 14:42 with no PP time. The Jets are going to ease him back. It’s also worth noting that he wasn’t seeing much PP time earlier in the season when all three of Byfuglien, Trouba and Tyler Myers were healthy. It’s good that he’s back but he probably won’t be too much of a fantasy option.

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Andre Burakovsky ended a seven-game scoreless drought last night. He was a popular breakout pick, but he has struggled to find his groove and has battled injuries. I wonder how much room there is for him to produce as a playmaking winger on a team with two dominant playmaking centermen. Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov are better served with players more willing to shoot the puck.

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Both Zdeno Chara and Jake DeBrusk were ruled out for the weekend and will be re-evaluated next weekend. There goes two hot options.

Torey Krug did play despite also getting hurt the other night. He managed eight SOG in over 26 minutes of action.

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Cam Atkinson notched a hat-trick. He has finally found his touch with six goals and 12 points in the last 10 games.

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It’s time dump your Rangers. They are the only team in the league to play four games between now and March 25, the end of the standard fantasy playoffs. All of their games come on dense Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday slates so you may not even use them if you do keep them.

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Calle Jarnkrok has been ruled out for the remainder of the regular season with an upper-body injury. He may miss the playoffs as well. It’s a good thing the Preds went out and added nearly an entire extra forward line at the trade deadline. On pace for a 40-point season, Jarnkrok wasn’t overly fantasy relevant, but his absence might be enough to get multi-category option, Scott Hartnell back into the regular rotation for Nashville.

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Matthew Tkachuk is expected to be out again tonight, with no timeline set for his return. This will keep Micheal Ferland in the mix as the net-front man on the top PP unit.

Kris Versteeg is looking to make his return after hip surgery, but if his recovery is anything like Ryan Kesler’s, he won’t be particularly useful.

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Great article here on the importance of fit on sports teams from a former NBA executive:

The only major roster difference between the 33-49 outfit from 2012-13 and the 54 win team of 2013-14 was Robin Lopez. Looking back, there may have been no more flawless fit for our team, both on and off the court. Kismet indeed.

If you were to ask what the cause of that sudden surge was, the reason why a team that was picked before the year to finish below .500 ended up spending significant time at the top of the conference, you wouldn’t be wrong in saying simply: “Robin Lopez.” But you also wouldn’t be right.

This is a fun concept to try and apply in hockey. How long did the Penguins try to find the right fit for Sidney Crosby? The best options they’ve ever found are mostly anonymous grinding forwards. Put Crosby with Phil Kessel on the regular and they both suffer. Put Crosby with two grinders, and he turns them into stars. Hell, Chris Kunitz put up 52 points in 48 games in the lockout shortened 2013 season!

How about the Golden Knights taking a pile of seventh forwards and fifth defensemen and turning them into division champs? Sure, Jonathan Marchessault looks like a star now, but do you think William Karlsson goes from fourth line center with 18 career goals to a likely 40-goal man without chemistry playing some kind of role?

How about the preponderance for aggressive offensive defensemen to play alongside steady, sometimes plodding, stay-at-home types? This has to be a fit thing. Sure, Werenski and Jones are proof that you can succeed with two aggressive options paired together, but generally an elite offensive guy can elevate a defensive option. And a defensive option can elevate an offensive guy. Marc Methot got Team Canada consideration because of his partnership with Erik Karlsson in Ottawa.

Talent will always be the most important trait. It’s the scarcest resource to build around, but it’s not the only consideration. These sorts of team-building anecdotes are always intriguing to me.

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Thanks for reading, you can follow me on Twitter @SteveLaidlaw.