The post-season is one of the most important point in a NHL year. During those quick months, you have to trade players, sign new prospects and extend or let go guys set to become UFA. A lot of decisions have to be made and it's obviously not easy to do. That's why the managers get the dollars.
However, a Twitter analyst made a very simple and clear graph showing who were the clear winners and losers of this post season.
To be sure, the Goal Above Replacement is not the best statistic in the world, but it still tells a story. It basically computes how many goals on average you will gain or lose by replacing a player with another. For example, let's say you replace a 30 goals scorer by a 35 goals guy, you get a +5 rating.
This year, the Hurricanes came out strongly on top, vastly ahead of their peers. Adding Justin Williams adds a lot of goals and having Scott Darling between the pipes will help remove some negative goals.
On the contrary, both the Capitals and the Blackhawks are far behind with this differential. Moving guys like Panarin, Hjalmarsson, Williams and Johansson will hurt with that statistic, a lot.
Interestingly, the Devils and the Canadiens, to name only them, were pretty active on the market and pretty much stayed at the same place as they were before.
All in all, the stats only tell a little part of the whole story and next season will show who was the true winner in the process!
