
Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid is mobbed by reporters after becoming one of the youngest players ever to win the Art Ross Trophy finishing with exactly 100 points on the nose to lead the NHL in scoring. He should win the Hart over Rocket Richard winner Sidney Crosby. AP Photo via Getty Images courtesy Edmonton Oilers.
With the regular season concluding Sunday night, here are your 2016-17 NHL leaders. Connor McDavid indeed hit the 100-point mark recording two assists for numbers 69 and 70 which also paced the league. The 19-year old phenom wins his first Art Ross finishing with 30 goals and 70 assists for 100 points. That’s one prediction I got right. But it wasn’t that hard.
Here are your final three top scorers:
1.Connor McDavid EDM 30-70-100
2.Sidney Crosby PIT 44-45-89
3.Patrick Kane CHI 34-55-89
In 75 games, Crosby takes the Rocket Richard leading the league with 44 goals. Here are the top three finishers:
1.Sidney Crosby PIT 44
2.Nikita Kucherov TBL 40
3.Auston Matthews TOR 40
Note: Alex Ovechkin finished 14th with 33. His lowest total in a full season since ’10-11 when he had 32.
In a close race, Brent Burns was the NHL’s leading scoring defenseman with 76 including a Sharks’ record 29 goals. He beats out Victor Hedman and Erik Karlsson. They’ll also be your three Norris candidates. I would give it to Karlsson, who wasn’t just all offense finishing second in the league in blocked shots with 201.
1.Brent Burns SJS 29-47-76
2.Victor Hedman TBL 16-56-72
3.Erik Karlsson OTT 17-54-71
Auston Matthews wins the rookie scoring race with a league best 40 goals and 69 points. He beats out Patrik Laine along with Leafs teammates William Nylander and Mitchell Marner. It really is great that they’re in the playoffs. But they need a prayer against the Caps.
1.Auston Matthews TOR 40-29-69
2.Patrik Laine WPG 36-28-64
3.William Nylander TOR 22-39-61
3.Mitchell Marner TOR 19-42-61
Note: Zach Werenski led all first-year D with 47 points and a plus-17 rating. If he is unable to go against the Pens, the Jackets could be out faster. I would still nominate Werenski as the third Calder candidate after Matthews/Laine. Pens rookie Matt Murray won 32 games in 47 starts with a 2.41 GAA, .923 save percentage and four shutouts.
Braden Holtby led all goalies in wins with 42 with former Ranger Cam Talbot tying him. Sergei Bobrovsky had 41. That’s my Vezina three. I would take Talbot over Devan Dubnyk who faded badly down the stretch despite a lower GAA and higher save percentage.
1.Braden Holtby WSH 42
1.Cam Talbot EDM 42
3.Sergei Bobrovsky CBJ 41
Here are your GAA leaders:
1.Sergei Bobrovsky CBJ 2.06
2.Braden Holtby WSH 2.07
3.Peter Budaj LAK/TBL 2.18
Note: John Gibson (2.22), Carey Price/Tuukka Rask (2.23) are right behind with Dubnyk at 2.25. Henrik Lundqvist finished 56th with a career worst 2.74. Cory Scheider was 2.82. Marc-Andre Fleury was over 3.00. Sad.
Your save percentage leaders:
1.Sergei Bobrovsky CBJ .931
2.Braden Holtby WSH .925
3.John Gibson ANA .924
Note: Price, Dubnyk and Murray each were at .923. Lundqvist finished 55th with a career low .910 followed by Fleury at .909. How the mighty have fallen.
Your overall plus/minus leaders are all Wild led by Ryan Suter.
1.Ryan Suter MIN +34
1.Jason Zucker MIN +34
3.Jared Spurgeon MIN +33
3.David Savard CBJ +33
Note: Zucker led all forwards with a +34 followed by T.J. Oshie +28 with McDavid and Mikko Koivu each +27.
There was a three-way tie for power play goals. Ovechkin, Kucherov and Brayden Schenn all paced the league with 17 PPG.
1.Alex Ovechkin WSH 17
1.Nikita Kucherov TBL 17
1.Brayden Schenn PHI 17
Anaheim’s Richard Rakell paced everyone in game-winners with 10.
1.Richard Rakell ANA 10
2.Jeff Carter LAK 9
2.Cam Atkinson CBJ 9
2.Filip Forsberg NSH 9
Nashville’s Viktor Arvidsson paced all skaters in shorthanded goals (5).
1.Viktor Arvidsson NSH 5
2.Zach Smith OTT 4
2.Zach Hyman TOR 4
2.Joel Armia WPG 4
Burns led the NHL with 320 shots defeating Ovechkin. The third guy was a surprise.
1.Brent Burns SJS 320
2.Alex Ovechkin WSH 313
3.Patrice Bergeron BOS 302
Note: Tyler Seguin was fourth with 301.
Your penalty minute leaders are:
1.Mark Borowiecki OTT 154
2.Cody McLeod COL/NSH 145
3.Tom Wilson WSH 133
Your ice-time leaders are:
1.Dustin Byfuglien WPG 27:26
2.Drew Doughty LAK 27:08
3.Ryan Suter MIN 26:55
Note: Karlsson was fourth with 26:28.
Bergeron led all centers in face-offs winning just over 60 percent. He also had the most face-off wins with 1089. Here is how it shapes out:
1.Patrice Bergeron BOS 60.1
2.Ryan O’Reilly BUF 58.0
3.Ryan Kesler ANA 57.4
Note: Jonathan Toews was at 54.9. Among locals, Travis Zajac went 54.7. Antoine Vermette won 62.2 percent of draws and Matt Duchene went 62.6 but each took significantly less than the leaders.
Hits Leaders:
1.Mark Borowiecki OTT 364
2.Matt Martin TOR 300
3.Luke Schenn ARI 286
Note: Radko Gudas was fourth with 280. Adam Larsson was sixth with 253.
Blocked Shots Leaders:
1.Kris Russell EDM 213
2.Erik Karlsson OTT 201
3.Ian Cole PIT 194
Note: Islander Calvin de Haan was fourth with 190. Ranger Dan Girardi finished ninth with 166 despite missing 19 games.
T.J. Oshie had the best shooting percentage in the league beating out opportunistic underrated Habs secondary scorer Paul Byron. Hard to believe they stole him off waivers from Calgary. If you’re the Rangers, beware.
1.T.J. Oshie WSH 23.1 33 on 143 shots
2.Paul Byron MTL 22.9 22 on 96 shots
3.Artem Anisimov CHI 21.0 22 on 105 shots
Note: Anisimov’s status is uncertain for the first round. Mark Scheifele went 32 for 160 at 20.0 followed by Rakell who went 18.9 or 33 for 175.
Auston Matthews led all skaters in even strength goals with 32, meaning 32 of his 40 in Year 1 came either 5-on-5, 4-on-4 or even 3-on-3. Unreal.
1.Auston Matthews TOR 32
2.Sidney Crosby PIT 30 (44)
2.Vladimir Tarasenko STL 30 (39)
2.Jeff Skinner CAR 30 (37)
Note: Rakell scored 28 of his 33 at even strength. Laine had 27 of his 36 at even strength.
Home Goals:
1.Sidney Crosby PIT 22
2.Vladimir Tarasenko STL 22
2.Nikita Kucherov TBL 22
2.Jonathan Marchessault FLA 22
Road Goals:
1.Auston Matthews TOR 24
2.Sidney Crosby PIT 22
3.Brad Marchand BOS 22
Note: Atkinson was fourth with 20. Somewhat astonishingly, Burns had 18 of his 29 away from home.
That’s going to do it for the NHL statistical leaders. If you’re looking for Corsi/Fenwick and charts, you’re on the wrong blog. I don’t care about possession. It’s important. But I’m not obsessed with it like some. If you follow the action, you know whether your team and player(s) are dictating play. It’s been around since NHL ’94. The old school people like myself used it to see how we were doing in the classic Sega Genesis video game.
You must be logged in to post a comment.