Hi there. I had this topic set up to be my Christmas Day Ramblings, but an unexpected personal matter on Friday evening has resulted in me switching this over to today. In other words, if you’re looking for more of a game recap-style Ramblings, I’ll have that tomorrow. That being said, I’ll offer a quick congratulations to Alex Ovechkin on passing Gordie Howe for #2 on the all-time goals list. I’ll bring up something on Ovie a little later on.

With the NHL season entering a three-day break, I'm going to use this opportunity to take you through some stats on Frozen Tools and the league leaders in those categories. Think of it as kind of like a midterm award show. I won't restate the stats you hear about or look up all the time like goals and points. This is about more of the unconventional stats that you don't notice as often. Or to take you on a journey through Frozen Tools, if you haven’t spent much time there.

Note: These numbers generally do not include Thursday's or Friday's games. If these stats are not current enough for you, remember that they are stats. That means they will change soon after you read this. And then soon after that. And so on. The idea is that the league leaders probably won't change much, if at all, over two days.

More seriously, if you are interested in finding out the current leaders for these stats at any time, just click Stats at the top of this page to go to the Frozen Tools stats page. Then click the green More Stats button, and you'll see an array of more green buttons. 

Icetime

Cale Makar leads with 27:06 of average icetime per game. You don't win the Norris Trophy by playing less than 20 minutes per night. Makar has had four 30+ minute games this season. Of course, that means more opportunities for all counting stats than the average defenseman.

Home/Away

Click this button for basic stats split into home and away games. Not surprisingly, leading scorer Connor McDavid leads the league in both home points (36 PTS) and away points (29 PTS). Start him anywhere.

Three Stars

I'm not sure if these are the ones actually announced by the teams, but McDavid also leads with 15 nominations as a game's first, second, or third star.

Draisaitl Hat Tricks

I have to explain this one to someone every time I mention it, since (to my knowledge) it is not tracked beyond Frozen Tools. This is a term coined by Eric Daoust to report every time a player scores at least one goal, records at least one assist, and is a minus player in a game. Think Gordie Howe hat trick, but with a minus instead of a fight. Leon Draisaitl was chosen based on the Oilers' inability several years ago to win games despite Draisaitl posting big numbers.

The leader in this category is not Draisaitl, who surprisingly does not have any DHTs this season. Fourteen players lead the league with 2 DHTs, including Draisaitl's teammate McDavid. I'll reiterate what I've said in the past: Even though the plus/minus might make this look like stat that a player does not want to be associated with, league leaders are often star players because of the scoring portion of the stat (power-play stats are key).

Plus/Minus

I might as well throw in plus/minus because it generates a lot of debate as to whether it is a meaningful stat in real life and fantasy. I won't wade into that discussion here, but instead just mention that the time of writing Hampus Lindholm has the league's best plus/minus at plus-23, while onetime Selke Trophy winner Ryan O'Reilly is saddled with the league's worst plus/minus at minus-24.

Top EV Line

Among forward lines, it is the Stars' top line of Joe Pavelski, Roope Hintz, and Jason Robertson with 31 GF (goals for). Among defense pairs, the Devils' pair of Dougie Hamilton and Jonas Siegenthaler with 33 GF. The two New Jersey defensemen have scored a combined eight goals (seven for Dougie), so this stat reflects goals they are out on the ice for, not how many the pair or trio scored while on the ice together.

Top PP Line

To no one's surprise, the Oilers' top-ranked power play of McDavid, Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Zach Hyman leads the league with 28 GF. Tyson Barrie is actually at the top of this list with 29 GF. A total of 19 of his 27 points have been on the power play.

Most Consistent

Once I click this button, I'll sort by Consistency % and filter out anyone that has played only one or two games. McDavid leads with 88.24% (percentage of games he has recorded at least one point). Honorable mention to Mitch Marner, who finished a close second with 87.88% thanks to his 23-game point streak.

$/Point

This is salary per point, similar to the Cap Bargains button below it. Sorted by cap hit per point, breakout performer Tage Thompson leads in terms of efficiency with $28,000 per point. The Sabres are getting their money's worth this season from Thompson, who has a cap hit of $1.4 million per season for 2022-23. That number is set to shoot up to just over $7 million per season next season, so cap leaguers prepare.

4^th Yr Breakout

He's not on his fourth full season, having played just three games in 2019-20, but Jason Robertson leads here with 48 points.

Next Yr Breakout

Kirill Kaprizov recorded a 108-point season in his second season. He's on pace for a similar total in his third season. If he has a true fourth-year breakout, then his scoring totals would be astronomical. That would be a lot to ask, though.

Multicategory

This category combines shots, hits, and blocks to give you peripheral stat players to target in multicategory leagues. The leader here is Jacob Trouba with 286 SOG+HIT+BLK. Trouba also led last season with 588 SOG+HIT+BLK. Don't let his lack of scoring devalue him as a multicat league option.

Faceoffs

Let's go with faceoffs won (FOW), since it covers both success in the faceoff circle and volume that eliminates small sample sizes. Patrice Bergeron, who has consistently won over half his faceoffs throughout his career, leads the league with 436 FOW. He also led last season with 991 FOW.

Fights

Obviously, there aren't as many fights as there were in years past, but they still pop up. Nicolas Deslauriers leads the league with eight fights. You might be curious about penalty minutes, so I'll throw that in as well: With 62 PIM, Deslauriers is second only to rookie banger Arber Xhekaj (65 PIM).

Shots by Type

I'll go specifically to tip-in shots here, since they reflect a certain type of goal scorer. Chris Kreider leads with 23 tip-in shots. This is a key part of Kreider's success, as he led the league with 17 tip-in goals last season (no one else had more than nine). This season, Kreider has "just" four tip-in goals.

Empty-Net Goals

I don't know of a fantasy league where this is tracked as a stat, but it could reflect players who are tasked with trying to put a game away for their team when it is leading a close game.

Okay, recent events forced me to give you the up-to-the-minute leader on this one. As you probably already know, Alex Ovechkin has now scored goals 801 and 802 of his career, passing Gordie Howe on the all-time list. But did you know that goal 802 of his career also vaulted him into sole possession of the league lead in empty-net goals this season? Ovechkin now has six empty-net goals, vaulting him ahead of Jake Guentzel. Ovechkin also led last season with 9 ENG.

The Great 8 continues his climb. 📈

With goal 802, Alex Ovechkin (@ovi8) now has the second most goals in NHL history! 🦅 pic.twitter.com/ySJOeb2pek

— NHL (@NHL) December 24, 2022

Shootout Goals

Also, I don't believe this has any bearing on any fantasy leagues. Kaprizov and Nick Suzuki lead the league with four shootout goals each. Both are 100% (4-for-4) in shootout attempts this season.

Band-Aid Boys

Finally, this stat lists the leading scorers among players that Dobber has designated as Band-Aid Boys – players who have a history of multiple injuries. Certified Band-Aid Boy Erik Karlsson has avoided the injury list this season and has put together a comeback season of the ages, leading all Band-Aid Boys at all positions with 42 points in 34 games. By the way, the Band-Aid Boy list might be a great place to look for potential bounce-back candidates if you are willing to take on the player's injury risk.

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Happy Holidays! Follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding for more fantasy hockey.