A lot has been made about Craig Adams and his recent behavior in practice. Which has included the following in recent memory.
And yesterday this:
Once again taking a run at the Penguins 2014-15 MVP and their top organizational prospect as well.
Contrary to belief he is not being a good teammate. He sees the writing on the wall and is treating practice like a personal tryout every day. Playing hard and trying to earn a roster spot isn't an issue, it should be encouraged. Taking a run at multiple teammates does not fall under this umbrella.
I can tell you from experience nobody likes the try hard Rudy-type on the team unloading on your team's best players in practice. It doesn’t help anybody and there is really only one significant outcome that can come from it, well two. The first is obviously a serious injury. The second is it creates unnecessary animosity.
There has been a surge of social media backlash against Craig Adams because of these two incidents in practice, but the backlash should have been this way for a while. The fact is Craig Adams isn’t a good NHL hockey player and he really never has been despite people beating you over the head with talk about intangibles and grit.
Adams in his prime was supposed to be a responsible defensive forward capable of playing against the opponent and shutting them down. As his even strength play continued to get worse Adams supporters attached their wagon to the PK specialist battle cry. Well we’ve seen firsthand this year there is no such thing as a PK specialist because when Adams went down with injury it literally had no impact on the penalty kill. When good even strength players are out injured and missing from your penalty kill that will have a negative impact. When terrible even strength players are missing from your penalty kill nobody will ever notice.
Here is Craig Adams CF% in 5v5(close) situations throughout his career. I chose game close situations because Craig Adams defenders will point to him being valuable towards the end of close games defensively.
He has never been good. Always below average.
Offensively he has been a ghost throughout his career as well
But he’s been playing against tough competition throughout his career right?
Wrong. His bad numbers also come while facing easier competition.
Advanced stats can save you from players like Craig Adams. For years players like him have gotten away with narratives that talk about their intangibles and how valuable they are to a hockey team.
Here is a dirty little secret about intangibles, they do show up in the data. If their “intangibles” really do make a difference, then the team will play better. When teams play better, their underlying data improves. If the team isn’t playing better with said player who has great intangibles perhaps the intangibles are being overrated.
Intangibles are a crutch used to defend bad players. They are also unnecessary in evaluating a good player. The good player doesn’t need that kind of defense you can just look at their on-ice play.
Teams have never been better with Craig Adams on the ice.
“Who was on the ice in the closing seconds of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final?”
Craig Adams and Rob Scuderi. Which was a bad decision they got away with (Fleury save anyone?).
The fact is there are still many people in the NHL that buy into the idea that players like Craig Adams have value. The teams that figure out what a myth all of this is will be ahead of the game and put their teams in a better position to succeed.
Advanced metrics can save you from this.
Instead of paying players like Craig Adams, Tanner Glass, Taylor Pyatt, Zach Sill etc… you can use that money and pay guys like Blake Comeau and Rob Klinkhammer who have shown to be useful NHL players the same amount of money. Hell, sometimes these players can even jump up in a pinch and play lights out for short stretches in your top six…
Using the data can also help you find the next Blake Comeau. Considering how important cap management is that seems like a useful thing when trying to build a Cup contender.
NHL players are professionals and the overwhelming majority are not a problem on a personal level. So why keep bad players because of the “magical intangibles” they bring to the table?
It doesn’t have to this way. Never be a slave to intangibles. Focus on the real stuff that matters, on-ice ability.
Thanks for reading!
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