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Jets Grades- Defense: Buff and Chiarot |
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Jets Grades top Pair Defense
So before we move on to all those players who did not finish the season as active players we’ll start with the defense and go through the 3 pairs.
Before we get to specifics is there a more controversial or discussion provoking group of players on the Jets than it’s defense corps? Perhaps not and that’s how the it seems to have been for some time. Is the defense still a work in progress? For some yes and others no- it depends on where you see the biggest deficiencies in the team. Taking all this into consideration the Jets defense may be the biggest conundrum when you look at the roster and the depth that has been drafted.
The top pairing as the season finished was Byfgulien and Chiarot. This duo was first formed back in late November of 2014 when injuries plagued the Jets rear guards and forced head coach Paul Maurice to move Byfuglien back to defense. The duo stayed together for the remainder of the season and helped earn Chiarot a 2 year deal over 800k per year. That’s what playing with Byfuglien does.
Ben Chiarot.
In his second full season fans and pundits alike expected to see the player build upon his solid 14-15 campaign. That did not happen. In fact, although more than a few Jets players did as well, Chiarot regressed and became a worrisome part of the Jets defense.
At even strength Chiarot managed to hold close to positive territory at 49.21% as well as a PDO of 98.09% which could suggest his is a tad unlucky or he really did regress. Consider his rookie campaign at 53.32% and a PDO at 100.3 but then again he was playing with Buff. Where did the drop come? His on-ice shooting percent held fast but his on-ice save percent tumbled and while there is much evidence to suggest players do not influence that stat, good things were not always happening with Chiarot. The problem for the second year player is that expectations were high for him, as they were for many players, he though failed to rise when opportunity presented.
Grade C
Dustin Byfuglien.
Where do you start with the lovable big Buff? By far the most popular Jets player and one of the most controversial it always seems like there is a bigger expectation for him than other players. If he’s not sledge hammering guys into the ice or scoring goals many fans bemoan his defensive play and coverage in front of the net. Yes they want everything.
Driving play is what Buff does best and he was pushing the play with a CF% of 54.04. Was he lucky? His PDO was 100.18 and perhaps he bucked he trend with the sub-par goal keeping the Jets had this season What’s interesting is Buff’s on-ice save percent was not much higher than Chiarot’s at .9132 However the shooting percentage was 8.87%. The team was scoring well when he was on the ice- again this should not be surprising. In fact Buff moved his CF% nearly 2% from last year and his PDO stayed almost identical. Last season Buff was higher in on-ice save % but so was most of the team, but this season that goalie regression did not affect the big guy. Buff was having a strong year last year but only played 69 games his points per game was .65 and it was the same this season .65 but he had a slight dip in P60 going from 1.74 to 1.57, as I said, slight. He has a huge contract that should see him retire a Jet and should he even keep pace with production that he has had recently the 8 mill per year will sting a bit less in the later years of the deal.
Grade A
Winnipeg Jets Blogger •Winnipeg Jets Writer • 
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