[Signing] Wild re-sign Jonas Brodin

[Devron]

1 hour ago, Monty said:

Tanev is a different defenseman than Brodin, who can chip in both offensively and defensively.

Not really. Tanevs career ppg is .23 vs .26 Brodie

 

sorry don’t see the difference at all

[JM_]

Just now, Devron44 said:

Not really. Tanevs career ppg is .23 vs .26 Brodie

 

sorry don’t see the difference at all

Brodin is a little bit better. He got a assist bump playing with Dumba this year. But 6 mil AAV? whats Pietrangelo worth? 12? 

[Devron]

@Monty you’re one confused individual 

[Provost]

Tanev and Brodin are too different for anyone to be worrying about comparables.

it isn’t setting the market for Tanev at all.

The interesting part is really the structure.  Making sure less actual money is owed over the next couple of years to “hopefully” avoid as much escrow as possible.

Edited September 15, 2020 by Provost

[AV.]

Robert Long, please stop the trolling.

 

It seems you're only inciting confusion among the thread with your intentionally misleading takes.  Everybody knows Brodin is better than Tanev.  I expect better from the weekly top contributing poster.

 

Respectfully yours,

Alain Vigneault

[Devron]

Just now, Robert Long said:

Brodin is a little bit better. He got a assist bump playing with Dumba this year. But 6 mil AAV? whats Pietrangelo worth? 12? 

They are very comparable players. A tiny bit more offence from Brodin makes very little difference. 
 

I think Tan man will take a bit of a cut but you know his agent will use this to gauge his market

[JM_]

1 minute ago, Devron44 said:

@Monty you’re one confused individual 

I guess its too much to hope for a decent discussion these days. 

 

 

[Devron]

Just now, Robert Long said:

I guess its too much to hope for a decent discussion these days. 

 

 

It’s called trolling now I guess

[JM_]

1 minute ago, Alain Vigneault said:

Robert Long, please stop the trolling.

 

It seems you're only inciting confusion among the thread with your intentionally misleading takes.  Everybody knows Brodin is better than Tanev.  I expect better from the weekly top contributing poster.

 

Respectfully yours,

Alain Vigneault

what? I posted an actual comparison for discussion purposes. 

[mll]

Re-signing Brodin was one of Guerin's top off-season priorities.  He is a key reason why the Wild are one of the very best defensive teams in the league.

 

CSA is probably one if not the most elaborate tracking company out there - it's the company that Woodley likes to use when talking of Markstrom.  They don't just look at shot location but complete shot sequences and capture context of plays that lead to a shot on net.  They have the Wild as the best team at preventing mid-to-high scoring chances against.  That's plays that have a conversion rate of 9% or more.  Although they allow the fewest chances of any other team they have the worse record - that's on goaltending.  

 

Mike Kelly using Sportlogiq's tracking technology breaks down what makes Brodin such a valuable player despite not appearing on the score sheet:

 

Quote

The video examples and charts can be found here:  https://www.thepointhockey.com/three-skills-that-make-jonas-brodin-one-of-the-top-defenders-in-the-nhl/
 

A superstar NHL player jumps over the boards, grabs the puck, races up the ice and then…….nothing happens. 

 

A few days ago, I sent out a tweet hinting that I’d be writing an article about a player who I feel might be the most underrated in the NHL. Of the 100+ responses I got back, only one person mentioned th guy I was thinking of – shoutout to ‘chloeshow1981’ on Twitter. This was a good hint that the player in question is still flying under the radar in most markets other than his own. This player is Jonas Brodin of the Minnesota Wild. A left shot who can play both sides of he ice, Brodin has established himself as one of the better defenders in the NHL. 

 

Brodin, who will be eligible for a contract extension July 1st, isn’t flashy and rarely shows up on highlight reels but his value comes less from what happens while he’s on the ice and more from what doesn’t happen. Opposing teams rarely score or generate scoring chances for that matter when Brodin is patrolling the ice.

 

Why is that?

 

Brodin is a master of the small details of the game that make a big difference. Positioning, anticipation, and awareness to name a few. It also doesn’t hurt that Brodin can skate backward as well as some players skate forward.

 

Minnesota Wild fans see him play often enough to know what makes him such a valuable defenseman. For those who don’t see the Wild or Brodin play often, here are the three hallmarks of his game that allowed him to put up some of the best defensive numbers in the NHL this season.

 

HALLMARK #1 – SKATING

Brodin’s ability to match an attacking players’ speed while moving backward is one of his greatest assets. There’s maybe a handful of defensemen in the NHL who can do this as well as Brodin. Exhibit A – this sequence against Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs. As Matthews builds up speed through the neutral zone, Brodin is able to keep Matthews to the outside before stripping the puck and starting a breakout.

 

[video clip]

 

It may not seem like it at first glance but there aren’t a lot of defensemen in the NHL who can do what Brodin just did.

 

Brodin is essentially flat-footed but is able to keep pace with Matthews thanks to a couple of quick crossovers and his elite skating ability. Pushing a world-class scorer like Matthews outside the dots is imperative and not only was Brodin able to do this, he was able to strip the puck and help the Wild exit the defensive zone. 

 

Here are a couple more examples of Brodin’s exceptional skating allowing him to keep pace with attacking forwards in full flight. 

 

[additional examples with video clip]

 

Brodin’s ability to skate with the fastest and most dynamic forwards in the NHL enables him to kill a lot of entries at the defensive blueline, before opposing players can make a successful play in the offensive zone. This shows up the number of times Brodin denied a controlled zone entry attempt this season – more than any defenseman in the NHL.

 

[ranking with Brodin 1st with 204 5-on-5 zone denials.  Petry is 2nd with 200 followed by Provorov, Pionk and Chara]

 

Brodin’s raw totals in this area are much more a reflection of his ability to kill entries than simply being targeted at a high-rate or eating a lot of minutes as his success rate defending entry attempts shows. Brodin denied 56.3% of the zone entry attempts that came his way at 5-on-5, 3rd best in the league. 

 

So, the odds of skating through or around Brodin aren’t great. How else can a team try to get the puck into the offensive zone and to the middle of the ice to generate quality chances? You can try to chip the puck past him and pressure him on the forecheck but you probably won’t be very successful. 

 

HALLMARK #2 – PUCK RECOVERY

This is where the awareness and deception in Brodin’s game really show. Whether an attacking forechecker is on his hip or just a few strides behind, Brodin’s ability to get back on pucks and quickly move it up and out is noticeable. 

 

[examples with video clip]

 

241 times this season Brodin recovered a dump-in and successfully navigated the puck out of the defensive zone, either by skating it or passing it, at 5-on-5 – 13th most of any defenseman. His success rate in terms of dump-in recoveries leading to successful zone exits, 75.3% which ranked 27th. 

 

As good as Brodin is at denying entries and recovering dump-ins to limit time spent in the defensive end, even the top defenders in the game are going to have to defend in-zone. This brings us to the third hallmark of his game.

 

HALLMARK #3 – POSITIONING / ANTICIPATION

Brodin rarely gets caught out of position and does a terrific job anticipating what’s coming next. This is another reason why teams struggle to attack between the dots when he’s on the ice.

 

[examples with video clip]

 

Because Brodin is positionally sound and reads the play so well, he’s able to break up passing plays at a high-rate. This is reflected in the number of passes he’s blocked in his own zone.

 

[chart with Brodin ranked 2nd with 251 DZ blocked passes only behind Burns followed by Provorov, Slavin and Keith]

 

Again, this is more a reflection of Brodin’s ability than him spending an inordinate amount of time in his own end, which he doesn’t.

 

Denying entries, turning puck recoveries into successful exits and blocking passes into contested areas aren’t plays that end up on SportsCentre but these are absolutely the type of plays that prevent the other teams’ star players from appearing in highlight packs. 

 

They also contribute to Brodin’s elite defensive while-on-ice numbers. 

 

Brodin’s 0.64 expected goals against (a reflection of shot quantity and quality) per-20 at 5-on-5 ranked 2nd amongst the 198 defensemen who played at least 500 minutes in this game state. His inner slot shot differential of 62.4% was best in the NHL. In addition to the impressive defensive numbers, Brodin set a career-high in points with 28 in 69 games despite minimal powerplay time.

 

Brodin isn’t a 1A defenseman like a Roman Josi, Alex Pietrangelo, or Victor Hedman but he’s a top tier 2 / 3. You might not see his impact in terms of points in the boxscore on a given night but be sure to check the other teams’ top players, as well. Don’t be surprised if their stat sheet is a little more bare than usual.

 

Edited September 15, 2020 by mll

[JM_]

Just now, Devron44 said:

It’s called trolling now I guess

yeah its silly. There's a little group of trolls that likes to overuse their emoji's  its juvenile but its a public site. 

[AV.]

2 minutes ago, Robert Long said:

what? I posted an actual comparison for discussion purposes. 

Yes but you neglected to mention that Jonas Brodin is the best defensive defenceman in the league (statistic as per J.D Burke)

 

He's also younger, historically more durable, and offers far more mobility to moving the puck.

 

C'mon pal...

Edited September 15, 2020 by Alain Vigneault

[JM_]

Just now, Alain Vigneault said:

Yes but you neglected to mention that Jonas Brodin is the best defensive defenceman in the league (statistic as per J.D Burke)

 

He's also younger, historically durable, and offers far more mobility to moving the puck.

 

C'mon pal...

the actual discussion point was around production. Tanev also happens to have had a pretty stellar defensive career as well. 

[Devron]

1 minute ago, Robert Long said:

yeah its silly. There's a little group of trolls that likes to overuse their emoji's  its juvenile but its a public site. 

For a hallmark defence Minnesota sure made it far. There maybe that’s trolling lol

[AV.]

1 minute ago, Robert Long said:

the actual discussion point was around production. Tanev also happens to have had a pretty stellar defensive career as well. 

Tanev has had a similar offensive career in the same sense that Ryan Getzlaf has had a similar offensive career to Sidney Crosby.

 

Tanev had the Sedins, Kesler, Horvat, Petersson.  Brodin had E. Staal, Parise, and a whole lot of nothing.

[JM_]

Just now, Alain Vigneault said:

Tanev has had a similar offensive career in the same sense that Ryan Getzlaf has had a similar offensive career to Sidney Crosby.

 

Tanev had the Sedins, Kesler, Horvat, Petersson.  Brodin had E. Staal, Parise, and a whole lot of nothing.

not really, Minni was a really good scoring team this year in the 2nd half. 

 

Of course Brodin is a better player now, just not remarkably better on offence compared to Tanev. 

[mll]

5 minutes ago, Robert Long said:

not really, Minni was a really good scoring team this year in the 2nd half. 

 

Of course Brodin is a better player now, just not remarkably better on offence compared to Tanev. 

Brodin's contribution is not offensive - it's defensive.  He allows to limit the time the Wild have to spend defending.  He is an elite defensive D.  He's the reason why Dumba can take those offensive risks as he has Brodin covering for him.  

 

 

[Zfetch]

42 minutes ago, Robert Long said:

"at about the same rate." - what would you call 0.30 ppg and 0.26 ppg? 

 

Last Three Year Stats Comparison

2017-2018 - 2019-2020

 

 

Search:

 

 

 

 

JONAS BRODIN	20	224	12	55	67	4.1	0.30	11	58	0	5	1	3	291	23	84	0	0.0	136	386	21:12	00:28	02:11
CHRISTOPHER TANEV	7	166	6	37	43	4.7	0.26	6	39	0	1	0	3	127	14	67	0	0.0	82	351	19:48	00:07	03:17

All I see is one guy who managed to stay healthy way more than the other

Health is key//look at Ferland / Baertschi

 

That alone probably nets 2m more to Brodin. 

[Master Mind]

18 minutes ago, Robert Long said:

not really, Minni was a really good scoring team this year in the 2nd half. 

 

Of course Brodin is a better player now, just not remarkably better on offence compared to Tanev. 

Alain clearly said career, not just this season.

 

Historically, Brodin hasn't had the same offensive talent to work with, so his numbers won't wow anyone.

 

Not to mention his defensive game is among the best in the league.

 

Brodin is superior to Tanev both offensively and defensively. That's not a knock on Tanev, but rather praise for the often underrated Brodin.

[mll]

34 minutes ago, Zfetch said:

All I see is one guy who managed to stay healthy way more than the other

Health is key//look at Ferland / Baertschi

 

That alone probably nets 2m more to Brodin. 

Traditional stats are not going to explain how valuable Brodin is to the Wild.  He is one of the best defensive Ds in the league.  

 

Below just a basic heat map with him on the ice.  Their goalies have been well below average with Sportlogiq even showing them as the worse tandem in the league based on quality of shots faced.  Posted also Tanev's for comparison where it's the opposite and Markstrom has been saving the day.

 

Andrew Berkshire using Sportlogiq's tracking technology analysed the Ds believed to be available at the TDL - the Wild were willing to break up their D-corps for a true C1.  The Canucks have allowed the 2nd most rush scoring chances against.  On Brodin he writes:

 

"Brodin might be the top defensive defencemen available at the deadline, with his biggest strength being defending off the rush. Brodin makes a lot of stops at the defensive blueline overall, over 29 per cent more than the average player, and that’s despite opponents avoiding him on entries. The reason they avoid Brodin is because he has the second-highest entry denial rate in the NHL this season at 55.1%, trailing only Matt Niskanen.

 

Brodin’s strong defence and the fact that he doesn’t actively inhibit offence while he’s on the ice has led to him posting one of the best 5-vs-5 inner slot shot differentials in the league 59.9 per cent. Any team that needs to stop rushes against could really use Brodin, with the most obvious to me being the Vancouver Canucks, who need defencemen and are terrible at defending rush chances."

 

Quote

 

 

 

By comparison here is Tanev's:

 

 

Edited September 15, 2020 by mll