Thanks to Ryan Stimson of In Lou We Trust and numerous volunteers we have passing data from this past season.
For background information on the project and the full data set see this post.
This is part two of trying to find out who was the Blue Jackets best passer last season. You can find part one of the series here.
In this part we are going to be looking at secondary passes.
Secondary passes are any pass that led to another pass that led to a shot attempt (think secondary assists).
The first thing we are going to look at is volume. Who had the most secondary passes that led to shot attempts, per 60 minutes.
All data is from 5 on 5 only.
Wow Nick Foligno! It's no shock to see Foligno at the top but to see him have such a higher rate than everyone else was impressive. Foligno had 13 secondary assists last season, a total that lead the team and was ninth among NHL forwards.
No shock to see Wennberg near the top. As was discussed last time Wennberg connects on a ton of passes every game. What the concern is though is that it's not leading to many scoring chances.
It should be noted how low Saad is on this list. This is a similar thing we saw last time. It’s because Saad is a shooter, he's on the receiving end of these passes. Players are trying to get him the puck, whether on the breakout or in the offensive zone.
Up next we are going to look at secondary passes in the offensive zone.
This graph comes up with basically the same results as before.
David Clarkson doesn’t fare very well here and it’s for many of the same reasons as Saad. Clarkson likes to shoot a lot. He’s not a player who you want handling the puck. He’s at his best when he is battling in front of the net, tipping pucks and getting rebounds.
In part three of this series the focus will be neutral zone and defensive zone passes.
If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask. Leave a comment or hit me up on twitter @PaulBerthelot