As Everett assistant general manager Zoran Rajcic and I were waiting for the elevator to head down to the locker rooms following Everett’s 4-3 overtime victory over Portland on Sunday, Rajcic remarked rhetorically that someone should look up how many points the Saskatoon Platoon line of Kohl Bauml, Carson Stadynk and Dawson Leedahl has produced of late.
Ask and ye shall receive.
The line actually formed just before the Christmas break, but they didn’t really get things going until January, so here’s what those three have done statistically during Everett’s 18 games in 2015 (goals-assists-points, points per game):
Stadnyk: 9-15-24, 1.33
Bauml: 12-6-18, 1.00
Leedahl: 8-7-15, 0.83
Here’s what they did in Everett’s previous 36 games (Leedahl played in just 16 of those):
Stadnyk: 12-20-32, 0.89
Bauml: 15-15-30, 0.83
Leedahl: 2-7-9, 0.56
As you can see, all three have seen a significant bump in production since settling in as a line. Collectively, they’ve gone from 0.81 points per game per player to 1.06 points per game per player.
The remarkable thing to me in gathering these numbers is that although the three of them have been playing together, they have more combined goals than assists (29-28). So they’re not just piling up points via second assists on their linemates’ goals, their production is legitimate.
How important have they been to Everett’s offense. The Tips scored 74 goals in the 18 games since the turn of the new year, so their 29 goals represent 39.2 percent of Everett’s offense. Before that, they scored 29 of Everett’s 112 goals, which was just 25.9 percent. That number is a tad skewed because Leedahl missed 20 games, but it’s clear they’ve become a much more important part of Everett’s offense.
What about the rest of Everett’s offense? Have the other lines seen their production drop because Stadnyk, Bauml and Leedahl are no longer part of them? Let’s take a look. Everett’s other lines have scored 45 goals the past 18 games, which equals 2.5 per game. In the previous 36 games, the rest of the team scored 83 goals, good for 2.3 per game. So not only has the formation of the Saskatoon Platoon not hindered the rest of Everett’s offense, the other players have actually increased their goal scoring a fraction.
What’s happened is that Everett’s overall scoring output has increased. Everett was averaging 3.1 goals per game through the end of December. In the new year the Tips are averaging 4.1 per contest, a full goal per game more.
That’s a significant increase, and the data suggests the formation of the Saskatoon Platoon is the primary driving force behind it.
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