Weekly Western Leaders (to February 14th, 2021)

Goals – 10 – Brock Boeser – Vancouver

Assists – 19 – Connor McDavid – Edmonton

Points – 28 – Connor McDavid – Edmonton

PPP – 12 – Connor McDavid – Edmonton

Shots on Goal – 62 – Filip Forsberg – Nashville

Shooting % (min 14 SOG) – 35.7 – Chandler Stephenson – Vegas

PIM – 33 – Tyler Myers – Vancouver

Best plus/minus – plus 16 – Justin Faulk – St. Louis

Worst plus/minus – minus 12 – Quinn Hughes – Vancouver

Hits – 70 – Tyler Motte – Vancouver

Blocked shots – 48 – Adam Larsson – Edmonton

FOW – 210 – Ryan O'Reilly – St. Louis

FOL – 185 – Bo Horvat – Vancouver

FO% (min 90 FO) – 60.3 – Ryan O'Reilly – St. Louis

Giveaways – 23 – Calvin De Haan – Chicago, Nate Schmidt – Vancouver

Takeaways – 16 – Mark Scheifele – Winnipeg

Highest GAR (goals above replacement) – 7.2 –  Alexander Radulov – Dallas, Cale Makar – Colorado

Lowest GAR – minus 4.5 – Phil Kessel – Arizona

Highest xGAR (expected goals above replacement) – 8.8 – Darnell Nurse – Edmonton

Lowest xGAR – minus 3.8 – Erik Haula – Nashville, Mattias Janmark – Chicago

Highest CF% (min 8 GP) – 62.7 – Alexander Radulov – Dallas

Lowest CF% (min 8 GP) – 35.4 – Alex Chiasson – Edmonton

Highest PDO (min 8 GP) – 117.3 – Alexander Radulov – Dallas

Lowest PDO (min 8 GP) – 86.1 – Nick Caamano – Dallas

Goalie wins – 7 – Philipp Grubauer – Colorado, Jordan Binnington – St. Louis, Jacob Markstrom – Calgary

Save percentage (min 6 starts) – 94.1 – Marc-Andre Fleury – Vegas

Quality starts – 8 – John Gibson – Anaheim, Kevin Lankinen – Chicago

Quality start % (min 6 starts) – 75.0 – Marc-Andre Fleury – Vegas

Shutouts – 3 – John Gibson – Anaheim

I must admit that I have a difficult time being patient with the development of defensemen because my perception is that they take a little longer than forwards to find their ceiling. With the recent influx of young defensemen that isn't necessarily true any longer, so I thought I would attempt to come up with my list of who I consider the top fifteen multi-category defenders currently in the West. I created a rating that takes into account goals, assists, blocks, plus/minus, hits and power play points that has a predetermined value for each and I adjusted the score for PDO as well to give a final rating score per game.

The highest multi-cat rating for defencemen  in the NHL currently is Jeff Petry at 9.77. Here are the current top 15 players in the West with their multi-cat rating score:

15th – Nicolas Hague – Vegas (5.18) – Hague is the 3rd Golden Knight in the top 15 and that doesn't even include Alex Pietrangelo. No wonder the team could afford to part with Nate Schmidt. With a PDO of 108.2 Hague most likely won't remain here as he doesn't provide much offense and his plus/minus might be a little inflated right now. He is a decent hitter that is averaging about 2.4 per game.

14th – Quinn Hughes – Vancouver (5.24) – Hughes leads the NHL in points for a defenseman but leads the Western Conference for worst plus/minus. His value will be in points, shots on goal, but he should improve his plus/minus a little as the season progresses. He's not as bad at even strength as his numbers reflect as he still skates the Canucks out of a lot of trouble from his own end.

13th – Tyson Barrie – Edmonton (5.57) – Barrie started slow in Edmonton but has been playing well lately and has 12 points in 16 games, while having 45 SOG. While his plus/minus can hurt you a little, the Oilers should improve and Barrie does get more than a block per game.

12th – Devon Toews – Colorado (6.04) – Toews is on this list because he has three goals in his nine games with the Avalanche and that won't continue as he can't sustain a 16.7 shooting percentage. He's still a valuable multi-category player as he does block shots and get SOG.

11th – Neal Pionk – Winnipeg (6.23) – Pionk had an excellent season last year and has continued on this year. He has gone from 0.63 pts/game to 0.71 and has still maintained his level of hits and blocked shots from before. He's a pretty solid stay here.

10th – Drew Doughty – Los Angeles (6.48) – With eight power play points in 13 games to start the year, Doughty has seen his offence reach a level of 0.85 pts/game which is impressive considering his career high is 0.73. It won't stay at this lofty height as I don't think the Kings power play can sustain its success over the season. Doughty has always been a consistent hit and block machine with around 120 of each every year and he is keeping the pace this season.

9th – Samuel Girard – Colorado (6.62) – Girard is getting more points (0.82/game) than he has in the past and he will more than likely fall on this list as his other categories are sneaky good but not great (about 0.8 hits and blocks per game).

8th –  Jakob Chychrun – Arizona (6.91) – With the injury to Oliver Ekman-Larsson (who is back), Chychrun saw a little more time on the PP and has prospered. There is no reason to remove Chychrun from the first unit, so he might not stay at his lofty point totals, but he should blow away his career high in assists and points. He is also a threat to get into the 100 club (both hits and blocks) and should be just over one per game in each category.

7th – Torey Krug – St. Louis (6.92) – Krug has had a decent start to his season with the Blues and has averaged 0.60 pts/game which is a little below his 0.80 pts/game he averaged the past few years in Boston. The big difference for Krug is that he is not being sheltered in St. Louis as his OZ starts have been 45.6 percent as compared to his time in Boston at about 65 percent. As a result his hits and blocks per game have slightly increased and his plus/minus has been impressive, but how long can it last?

6th – John Klingberg – Dallas (7.10) – Klingberg has continued on from the bubble in Edmonton and maintained a point per game so far this regular season. Of his 12 points nine have come with the man advantage as he has been on the first unit ahead of Miro Heiskanen and isn't going anywhere soon. He doesn't provide much in the way of hits or blocks, so if the points dry up he will drop down.

5th – Alec Martinez – Vegas (7.55) – Martinez is 33-years old and his career highs in points per game is 0.48 and in block shots per game is 2.67. This season he has 0.62 pts/game and 3.46 blocks/game. It is unlikely that he will set marks in both categories, as his PDO is 105.7 and 5 on 5 shooting percentage is high at 12.1 so it will likely be the points first.

4th – Darnell Nurse – Edmonton (8.21) – Nurse has always blocked a lot of shots and thrown a lot of hits and been on the verge of becoming an offensive contributor more than his career high of 41 points and 0.50 pts/game. Even though he is shooting the puck more than he ever has (2.56 SOG/g) his shooting percentage of 14.6 is unsustainable and his goal production will come down. If he can maintain a solid plus/minus he should remain on this list.

3rd – Justin Faulk – St. Louis (8.36) – Faulk has shown he can score goals before and he should be a member of the 100 club, but he has over achieved so far in hits as he is averaging 3.07/game compared to his career best of 1.91 (perhaps the scorer in St. Louis is a little more liberal in assessing them?). His PDO Is 108.8 and 5 on 5 shooting percentage is 14.2 so look for his plus/minus to take a dip at some point in the near future. He is still doing much better than I had given him credit for.

2nd – Shea Theodore – Vegas (8.77) – I would never have guessed that not only would Theodore maintain his prior year peripherals in shots on goal and playing time but that he would improve his point production. The point production will decrease from a point per game as his PDO is 103.5 and his 5 on 5 shooting percentage is 13.4 but it is still encouraging to see him doing what he is doing with the addition of Pietrangelo.

1st – Cale Makar – Colorado (9.16) – Makar has seen his ice time increase by three minutes per game and as a result he has thrown a few more hits and blocked a few more shots to go along with his 12 points in 11 games. His PDO of 105.3 and 5 on 5 shooting percentage of 13 are a little high but they are only slightly higher than last season. His numbers should come down a little but he should be able to maintain his pace of the year before. It will be difficult to knock him from the number one perch in the West.

Some of the honourable mentions were Colton Parayko, Alex Pietrangelo, Jonas Brodin, Mark Giordano, Brent Burns and Roman Josi and look for any or all to move into this list.

Thanks for reading and if you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know below and/or follow me on Twitter @gampbler15.