Wild West: Defensemen Multi-Cat Stats

This week we are going to look at each team in the West and compare hits, blocked shots, giveaways and takeaways as a whole and then see who leads the team in all those categories from the back end.

I'll try to find some potential 100 hits/100 blocked shots players that can be very valuable in multi-category pools.

It was interesting to see some teams target these areas when they were adding players at the deadline.

I'm going to rank the teams based on their giveaway/takeaway ratio from best to worst.

Colorado Avalanche

Net giveaway/takeaway rate: minus 0.46/60 min. (1st of 16)

Hits – 533 (9th)

Erik Johnson at 142 (7.33/60 min) followed by Kurtis MacDermid with 88 hits in 50 games (14.33/60). Josh Manson has 139 hits in 51 games (8.28/60) with most of that being in Anaheim.

Blocked Shots – 475 (15th)

Erik Johnson at 112 (5.71/60). Ryan Murray is the next best blocker as he has 41 blocked shots in 37 games (4.71/60).

Giveaways – 157 (2nd)

Devon Toews at 30 (1.3/60), Cale Makar at 29 (1.12/60), Erik Johnson at 26 (1.37/60) and Samuel Girard at 25 (1.23/60). The Avalanche defenders take care of the puck.

Takeaways – 144 (4th)

Toews at 38, Makar and Erik Johnson at 33.

Minnesota Wild

Hits – 363 (16th)

Matt Dumba with 107 (5.36/60) and Jordie Benn with 35 in 29 games (4.79/60) were the only two defensemen in Minnesota that might be perceived as being physical. The club added Jacob Middleton from San Jose who has 99 hits in 48 games (6.4/60) and should help in that regard.

Blocked Shots – 504 (11th)

Jon Merrill leads with 100 (5.67/60),  followed by Jonas Brodin with 100 (4.56/60), Goligoski (4.08/60) and Dumba(3.68/60) with 75, along with Dmitry Kulikov at 73 (3.99/60). Middleton has 92 (6.2/60) which might make him the most prolific blocker on this team now.

Giveaways – 128 (1st)

Matt Dumba with 26 (1.32/60), is followed by Brodin with 22 (1.03/60), Kulikov 22 (1.16/60) and Goligoski (1.08/60) and Merrill with 20 (1.15/60). Much like the Avalanche, the defencemen look after the puck very well on the Wild.

Takeaways – 69 (16th)

Brodin with 22.

Net giveaway/takeaway rate: minus 0.52/60 min. (2nd of 16)

San Jose Sharks

Hits – 543 (5th)

Nicolas Meloche leads with 106 in 35 games(11.04/60), Mario Ferraro at 101 (5.41/60) and Jacob Middleton who was traded to Minnesota had 95 (6.4/60). Radim Simek has struggled