| 06 February 2010
2010 Olympic Preview: Team Canada Olympic Hockey Team Roster Evaluation - February 2010
Team Canada's Olympic hockey team is a power house with expectations set high for the upcoming Olympics. In fact, if Team Canada does not win the gold medal in Vancouver, it will be a disappointment for fans across this country. The opening game for Team Canada is set at February 16th vs. Norway. With an NHL equivalent team salary cap of $127,966,666, Team Canada has the most expensive roster heading into these Olympic games.
Scott Niedermayer of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks is the official team captain with Jarome Iginla, Sidney Crosby, and Chris Pronger named as alternate captains. With his team struggling this season, is Scott Niedermayer the proverbial equivalent of dead wood on this team? Follow the jump to see how the players on this roster rank in terms of goals, assists, points, +/-, and goals vs. threshold. The following article is reprinted with permission from the Low On Oil blog: Team Canada Olympic Hockey Team - February Roster Evaluation. Is there enough talent on Team Canada for them to win gold in Vancouver?
GVT or goals vs threshold is a statistical metric from the excellent website, Behind The Net. GVT is defined as, "the value of a player, in goals, above what a replacement player would have contributed." Basically, high numbers reflect better contribution to the team while negative numbers reflect a player who's less effective than a replacement player.
Team Canada 2010 Olympic Hockey Team Roster Evaluation - Forward Skaters:
| Player | GP | G | A | P | +/- | GVT |
| Sidney Crosby | 56 | 37 | 34 | 71 | 10 | 19.6 |
| Patrick Marleau | 57 | 38 | 24 | 62 | 25 | 16.8 |
| Joe Thornton | 57 | 15 | 56 | 71 | 19 | 14.1 |
| Dany Heatley | 57 | 30 | 32 | 62 | 18 | 13.5 |
| Jonathan Toews | 51 | 18 | 27 | 45 | 19 | 12.5 |
| Rick Nash | 59 | 24 | 29 | 53 | -11 | 10.5 |
| Mike Richards | 55 | 22 | 22 | 44 | 3 | 9.5 |
| Ryan Getzlaf | 54 | 14 | 42 | 56 | 2 | 9.5 |
| Eric Staal | 45 | 20 | 27 | 47 | -1 | 9 |
| Jarome Iginla | 58 | 24 | 28 | 52 | 2 | 8.9 |
| Corey Perry | 58 | 20 | 33 | 53 | 0 | 6.4 |
| Patrice Bergeron | 50 | 12 | 22 | 34 | -2 | 4.7 |
| Brenden Morrow | 52 | 14 | 16 | 30 | -4 | 4 |
| Total | 709 | 288 | 392 | 680 | 80 | 139 |
| Average | 54.54 | 22.15 | 30.15 | 52.31 | 6.15 | 10.69 |
From the above rankings, there's no surprise that Sidney Crosby leads the team with the highest GVT rating of 19.6. It's also probably not a huge surprise to see Brenden Morrow or Patrice Bergeron rounding out the bottom of this list. To be fair, Patrice Bergeron made this team for some of the intangible elements that he adds including being a right-handed center who's effective at winning faceoffs and killing penalties.
Team Canada 2010 Olympic Hockey Team Roster Evaluation - Defensemen
| Player | GP | G | A | P | +/- | GVT |
| Duncan Keith | 57 | 11 | 40 | 51 | 20 | 17.7 |
| Drew Doughty | 57 | 11 | 31 | 42 | 15 | 13.1 |
| Chris Pronger | 55 | 8 | 30 | 38 | 18 | 12.6 |
| Dan Boyle | 51 | 10 | 33 | 43 | 6 | 10 |
| Shea Weber | 54 | 10 | 23 | 33 | -6 | 9.2 |
| Brent Seabrook | 55 | 3 | 18 | 21 | 21 | 8.9 |
| Scott Niedermayer | 58 | 5 | 26 | 31 | -17 | 2.2 |
| Total | 387 | 58 | 201 | 259 | 57 | 73.7 |
| Average | 55.29 | 8.29 | 28.71 | 37.00 | 8.14 | 10.53 |
In terms of Team Canada's defenesemen, the Captain, Scott Niedermayer has a less-than-stellar +/- stat of -17. He's also rated just higher than a replacement level player with a GVT of only 2.2. Scott's getting pretty old, will he have enough gas left in the tank to lead Team Canada to the coveted Gold Medal?
Drew Doughty was one of the surprise additions to Team Canada's roster. By the numbers, he really shouldn't be much of a surprise as he's currently the 2nd ranked defenseman by goals vs threshold. He's also tied for first in terms of goals scored while being 3rd overall in point production.
Team Canada 2010 Oympic Hockey Team Roster Evaluation - Goaltenders
| Goalie | GP | GAA | SV% | GVT |
| Martin Brodeur | 53 | 2.24 | 0.918 | 16.5 |
| Roberto Luongo | 49 | 2.32 | 0.92 | 15.5 |
| Marc-Andre Fleury | 45 | 2.59 | 0.908 | 8.8 |
| Average | 49 | 2.383 | 0.915 | 13.6 |
In terms of goaltending, there are no surprises here as Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo have been neck-in-neck in terms of stats for most of this season. Both have been trailed by Marc-Andre Fleury whose numbers have imroved somewhat over the course of this season.
Jay M. writes about the Edmonton Oilers at Low On Oil in addition to his work on Bloguin's Olympic Hockey Blog.
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