An Advanced Look: Antoine Vermette

In case you had missed it, or are still on the fence on how you feel about the acquisition, we’re going to take a look at how recent trade acquisition Antoine Vermette might fit on the Blackhawks forwards. If you’re not familiar with some of these abbreviations or terms, the entirety is listed at the bottom under “Resources” with brief explanations for your convenience. All charts can be clicked on to enlarge.

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Some basics are that Antoine Vermette is a 32 year old center who for the past eleven seasons has averaged 1.78 points per 60, 0.85 Goals per 60 and 0.96 assists per 60. He averages 17.16 minutes of play per game with a 13.17 shooting percentage and a 48.47 CF%. In comparison, Chicago’s Brad Richards is a 34 year old who, for this season, has averaged 2.2 points per 60, 1.6 assists per 60 and 0.6 goals per 60 with a 5.8 shooting percentage and 14.7 minutes on ice.

So how will Vermette fit in here?

First let’s take a look at his player usage compared to other Chicago centers on the ice.

Chart courtesy war-on-ice ?Current as of 2 March 2015

Vermette was used as a two-way player (went out on the ice for both offensive and defensive zone starts, similar to Jonathan Toews). And it’s clear that he can eat a significant amount of even-strength minutes per game; again, numbers similar to Toews.

Let’s look at how he ranks amongst Chicago’s centers by looking at their usage-adjusted (UA) metrics:

What does this tell you? Well, it’s not great. Don’t get me wrong, it is possible that shifting his usage into the offensive zone a bit more could help his stats pick up a bit. He might be outmatched against top-line level of competition. He actually has very similar shot suppression stats to Brad Richards (look at UA CA60) but these aren’t at high enough levels to justify using him on Marcus Kruger‘s fourth shutdown line. Playing him on the second or even third line would guarantee more time in the offensive zone, rather than the two-way tougher competition minutes Arizona had him playing.

Resources

Corsi: For those that are unsure of what Corsi even is, it is measured as Corsi For and Corsi Against (CA). Corsi is the total number of on-ice shot attempts (on goal, missed, or blocked) taken during a game/series/season. Corsi For is the amount of the total Corsi taken by one team or player on said team. Corsi Against is the amount of the total Corsi taken against one team or player on said team.
CA% : Corsi Against Percentage (of total) What this means is they’ve totaled up the Corsi Events that took place for both teams, and divided the individual team’s total by that number and multiplied it by 100 to get a percentage.
CP60 : Corsi Per 60. What this means is they’ve totaled up the Corsi events that took place for both teams and divided it by 60 to get an average Corsi Events per 60 minutes.
G+/- : Goal Differential. The total number of Goals For (GF) minus the total number of Goals Against (GA). If it is a positive number, the team is outscoring their opponents.
FO%: The percentage of Face-offs won.
OFOn%: On-Ice Unblocked Shot Attempts on Goal
OSh%: On-Ice Shooting percentage
OSv%: On-Ice Save percentage
PDO: On-Ice Save percentage + On-Ice Shooting percentage
ZSO%: The amount of Offensive Zone starts. The larger the number, the more often a team starts (with a Face-off) in their Offensive Zone

Sources

Stats and charts courtesy of war-on-ice.com and ownthepuck.blogspot.ca

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