Report: Mark Stone ranked one of NHL's best right-wingers over past three seasons

“He is, far and away, the best defensive winger in the game today”

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 6 years ago
Report: Mark Stone ranked one of NHL's best right-wingers over past three seasons
Keystone Press

Sportsnet has put out an article detailing the top players at each position over the past three seasons. The list is limited to players who have participated in 2000-plus 5-on-5 minutes over the past three years.

There was a specific formula and calculations used for generating the rankings. The three categories were offense, transition play and defense, with some of the statistics used being even-strength and power-play goals, 5-on-5 outlet passes, stretch passes, 5-on-5 and shorthanded loose puck recoveries by zone, pass blocks and many more.

Ottawa Senators' right-winger Mark Stone came in at number five.

Here's the write-up from Sportsnet:

"Mark Stone just keeps getting better. He is, far and away, the best defensive winger in the game today. For the second straight year no winger recovered more loose pucks than Stone, nor did any winger strip opponents of possession more often. The weirdest thing to me based on his play and defensive awareness is that he’s never really been tried as a centre. Maybe he’s really bad at faceoffs?"

"Guy Boucher cut Stone’s quality of competition slightly last year, which was a weird choice, but resulted in significant boost to his on-ice goal differential. Though with Stone’s skill set, you’d think it’d be wise to use him against the other team’s best players. Either way, if I had a vote for the Selke, he’d have been in the mix last year."

Source: Sportsnet