Your vote on the Band-Aid Boys Tournament – Part 3: Who should be the newest Executive?

All good things must come to an end; and with that, we’re onto the third and final week of epic Band-Aid Boy themed Cage Match Tournaments. Your votes have already given Dobber excellent food for thought on removing players from the current Band-Aid Boy list as well as adding new players to the list.

This week we move onto what’s arguably the most intriguing tournament of the three, as you’ll be voting on players to replace four (or perhaps even all five) of the current members of the Band-Aid Boy Board Executives (“BAB Execs”).

Voting Guidance

Among the five current BAB Execs, three have titles that are related to specific types of injuries (Peter Mueller – VP, head operations, Martin Havlat – VP, knee operations, and Marian Gaborik – Secretary of Groins), while the other two (Rick DiPietro – CEO, and Sheldon Souray – Band-Aid Treasurer) are there because of the volume and/or severity of their various injuries. To make things easier, we’re going to look at things in general; in other words, your voting should not factor in types of injuries the candidates have endured.

That begs the question – on what factors should you base your voting? It’s important to emphasize that a BAB Exec can have a few healthy seasons mixed in. In 13 seasons, Souray played 81 games twice and 70 games once, and Mueller averaged over 70 games played in three NHL campaigns before falling apart. Even Havlat and Gaborik have been able to maintain their health here and there.

What makes a Band-Aid Boy Executive material is not only does he tend to suffer from injuries more frequently than garden variety Band-Aid Boys, but also that when he does get hurt he’s apt to miss more games. Basically, BAB Execs are all the less durable than regular Band-Aid Boys, and it can often take them longer to get back to health. Essentially, they’re in an echelon truly above (below?) a traditional Band-Aid-Boy.

Also, in deciding your votes you should ignore a player’s production. Although DiPietro and Mueller had poor production throughout most of their careers, Havlat, Gaborik and Souray were able to put up excellent point per game rates for at least some stretches of their NHL tenures. In short, there’s room for excellent players and lousy players among the BAB Execs, so don’t factor skill and production into your voting.

Another key is just like real life, where there are VPs and even CEOs in their 30s, a player can be a BAB Exec even if he’s not been a Band-Aid Boy for many, many years. The perfect example is Mueller, who only lasted five campaigns in the NHL and last saw regular season action for the Panthers at age 25.

Lastly, as I’ve noted in all my previous tournaments, please don’t vote based solely on who hurt (pun intended) you most in your leagues due to his Band-Aid Boy status. While of course your vote is your vote and you can opt to cast it based on what you think matters most, in fairness to the process you shouldn’t ignore an objectively more “deserving” player in order to vote for someone who doesn’t fit the criteria as well but happened to have cost you a title at one time or another.

How I Selected the Candidates, and How/Where to Vote

I tried to select players from a cross-section of positions (two goalies, six defensemen, 12 forwards), from various teams, and at various stages of their careers. You’ll see some who haven’t missed huge chunks of seasons but instead tend to get hurt more frequently, as well as vice versa. In short, I tried to get a range of players to give you voting options that hopefully will make this a difficult decision.

Because we’re likely replacing at least four current BAB Execs, you should vote for four players. Of course you can vote for fewer if you choose. Voting is already open here in the DobberHockey forums.

Time to get to what you’ve all been waiting for – here are 20 candidates for new Band-Aid Boy Execs, presented in alphabetical order along with a blurb about their qualifications.

Craig Anderson – One of two goalies for your consideration, Anderson is an interesting case because he only became a true starter in 2009, and since then, his numbers don’t look that terrible. But considering that if he hadn’t been beset with injuries he’d have been in a position to start 90% of his team’s games, then you can see he’s a deserving candidate.

Kevin Bieksa – I’m not sure which is more surprising – that Bieksa actually had an 81 games played season (albeit back in 2006-07), or that only once (in 2007-08) has he missed more than half an entire campaign due to injury. But make no mistake – Bieksa belongs on this list, what with missing at least a quarter of the entire season in half his past eight campaigns and only managing to miss fewer than ten games in two of the other four.

Zach Bogosian – Although he’s one of the youngest BAB Exec candidates, it’s not an exaggeration to say it’s been one injury after another for Bogosian during his NHL tenure, to the point where he saw his games played total decrease from his first full season to his second and then to his third, and also has missed an average of a quarter of every season since 2011-12.

Dave Bolland – In seven full seasons, Bolland has only once missed fewer than 11 games, while twice missing more than half the season and three other times 25% of a campaign or more. And his recent trends show things only getting worse, with only 111 games played out of a possible 212 over the past three seasons.

Mike Cammalleri – Instead of focusing on whether Cammalleri can continue his torrid pace through the rest of 2015-16, poolies should be more worried about whether he can defy the odds and manage to stay healthy. That’s because he has zero seasons of even 70+ games played among the previous five full campaigns. Yes – you read that correctly; Cammalleri’s games played totals in full seasons since the 2008-09 campaign have been 65, 67, 66, 63, 68. And he also managed only 63 games played in 2007-08, making it fewer than 70 in six of his past seven full seasons.

Pavel Datsyuk – The amazing thing about Datsyuk is how healthy he was during the middle of his career, missing only six games over the course of four campaigns. But what can’t be ignored is the before (37 games missed in his first three seasons) and the after (92 games missed in his past four full seasons).

Johan Franzen – After an 80 game rookie campaign in 2005-06 in which ranzen tallied only 16 points, it’s been excellent production juxtaposed with poor health. First there were four seasons in a row of ten or more games missed, including one campaign where he managed to dress for only 27 contests. Then in the last two full seasons, he managed to play in only 87 total contests and currently sees his career in limbo due to concussion woes.

Mark Giordano – Upon returning from the KHL in 2008, things looked up for Giordano, as not only was his production on the rise but he played in all 82 games in two of the next three seasons. But in the other campaign he managed only 58 games; and his games played totals ranged from 61 to 64 over his last three full seasons.

Mike Green – For a while, Green’s poor health was somewhat tolerable since he was giving poolies point per game output when playing. But as his production waned his track record of poor health has come into sharper focus, revealing a player who, in the past seven seasons, has only once missed fewer than ten games in a campaign and has averaged a staggering 20 missed games per campaign over that time.

Martin Hanzal – Like Franzen, Hanzal is a walking (or should I say limping?) example of bigger players being just as capable of Band-Aid Boy status as those of smaller stature. In Hanzal’s case, when you eyeball his games played numbers you see only one of his seven full seasons with an “8” as the first number, and, perhaps even more alarming, just one with a “7”! And if we focus on just the past four full seasons, we see three with games played ranges between 61 and 65, plus last season, where his games missed (45) outnumbered his games played (37).

Ales Hemsky – Last season Hemsky played 76 games; and the season prior he skated in 75. Not too terrible, right? Consider that those numbers where higher than any full season total he’s had since back in 2005-06, which, for a point of reference, is half of Connor McDavid’s lifetime ago. In the interim, Hemsky had games missed totals of 18, 8, 10, 60, 35, 13, and finally 10 (of only 48).

Evander Kane – Say hello to our youngest nominee! But even at age 24 Kane has a renowned injury history. Although he somehow managed to play all 48 contests during the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign, his career best in games played for his five full seasons is 74, with three of the other four featuring games played totals of 66, 63 and 37.

Mikko Koivu – I was surprised that among his nine full seasons, Koivu had four with games played totals of 79 or more. But then I was brought back to reality by seeing that in the other five his high in games played was 71 and his average number of contests missed in those five seasons was, like Mike Green, just under 20 per season.

Kris Letang – You knew his name would be here, considering that if you omit his 82 game 2010-11 campaign, and even can somehow look past the nine and eight games missed in the two seasons prior to that campaign, what you have to swallow is four seasons where Letang – who’s currently hurt yet again – missed 102 cumulative games, managing to take the ice in only 192 of a possible 294 contests.

Joffrey Lupul – Like some others on this list, Lupul started his career without major health issues; in fact, his first five seasons saw him take the ice in 81 games twice as well as 75 and 79 games. Sandwiched in there was a 56 game season which at the time looked like an outlier. But then Lupul didn’t manage to put together 82 combined games played in his next two seasons, and in the past four has missed 16, 32, 13, and 27 games. Ouch – literally ouch.

Evgeni Malkin – If we look beyond the two 82 game campaigns that Malkin had within his first three seasons (along with a 78 game rookie campaign), what we see is just one season with fewer than 13 games missed, and, like several players above, an average of just under 20 games missed per campaign in the others.

Mike Smith – Early in his career, Smith’s injuries delayed his path toward becoming a true #1 goalie. And since earning that role with Phoenix/Arizona, he’s struggled to stay healthy enough for the team to be able to rely upon him. Case in point – although 62 games played in each of the past two seasons is not a low total, it is when the team was likely hoping for him to play all but perhaps 10% of its games. And this season he won’t even hit the 40 games played total due to his current injury.

Alex Steen –Steen’s recent track record of poor health is also a far cry from an early career that featured a total of only 14 games missed in his first four campaigns. But when you consider that last season was the first full campaign among the last five where he missed ten or fewer games (and he still missed eight!), you can see it’s been a downhill slide, to the tune of an average of 17 games missed over that five full season stretch.

Alex Tanguay – Although 2013-14 was the lone season (out of 15) that saw Tanguay miss more than half the campaign, since 2001-02 there’s only been two instances in which he missed fewer than ten games in consecutive seasons. Couple that with six campaigns where he’s missed double digit games (plus eight missed in the 48 game 2012-13 season) and you can see why he’s a voting choice.

James Wisniewski – It’s lather, rinse, repeat with Wisniewski’s injuries. Since becoming an NHL mainstay in 2007-08, Wisniewski has but two 70+ game seasons to his credit. But beyond just the sheer number of injury-affected seasons he’s had, this will amazingly be the fourth campaign of the past eight where he’s missed more than 35% of his team’s games.

Where to Vote

Voting is already open here in the Hockey Hockey Hockey Hockey area of the DobberHockey Forums, and will run until Monday December 23rd. Be sure to post in the pool thread about why you choose the players you voted for, as I’m sure this will inspire some lively debate (and sob stories!).

Next week will be a break from Cage Match; but the column will return the first week of January 2016 with more great head-to-head battles. Until then, Happy Holidays to you and yours!