St. Louis, man.

Switching to EH's GAR/xGAR model (which takes into account more),top 5 leaders (and league rank %tile by position):

1. York (85%)
2. Foerster (81%)
3. Drysdale (82%)
4. Cates (79%)
5. Brink (69%)

York is having a heck of a year. I doubt this happens, but he's currently on pace for 62 (!) points.

Infuriating

no one loved that Rich started running more than Zukey, who would jump all over him for his sweat. it always made her day. so it's only fitting that he is raising money to run a 5K in her honor. proceeds will go to help paws, an org that helps potcakes like Zukey 💜
www.gofundme.com/f/5k-for-zuk...

Heck, Seeler himself was awesome by the analytics two years ago! He hasn't really changed his play style at all. He's just getting older and is in a system that I don't think works for him, vs. Torts's which I think was perfect to use him to his ability.

Like it's undeniable that having the puck and preventing quality chances leads to wins more than anything else. It's a clear trend in how NHL teams are being built and it's why that archetype is changing in how they're deployed and used. They still have a place and are very useful!

There are a ton defensive defensemen that grade out well. Jason Slavin and Risto are two of them. Ekholm, Pesce, etc. Hell, look at York's chart above. His total value is driven by defense. The goal is to prevent chances, and just winning a puck battle doesn't actually mean you've prevented that.

The data from this year largely lines up with what I'm watching.

Drysdale's isolation stats are coming back down to earth, Seeler's aren't great across the board. This could change dramatically over 1k more minutes. Included last year for comparison. Re: eye test is one of my gripes with it, I'm looking at the same player as you but drawing a different result.

I’m not surprised. His calling card defensively is shot blocking. The team wants to block fewer shots, and he’s not exactly the fastest player so his pressure game hasn’t been great. think hes been weaker at puck battles on the boards. Has his good moments still so I’m not fully out

Seeler losing in almost every major category: being outshot, out chanced, and out scored. And I don’t think it’s just sample size, I think he’s struggling with new defensive assignments. last year he was rough but at least he kept quality chances down. This year everything is bad

Andrae has always been an offensive black hole but defensively very sound. Drysdale historically the latter (this year it's kind of 40/60 towards defense). They got playing time *this year* and looked good in their shifts together.

Lol, skeets. Yeah, don't agree with Seeler eval at all. I think he's looked bad (if he's not blocking shots he's also not doing a good job preventing them either, and he's still generating no offense, his RAPM is really poor). Drysdale/Andrae I think don't have much in common other than puck moving

But to your point, Seeler has been bad this year, IMO. Both by eye test and his underlying numbers. I wouldn't mind giving Drysdale a more able-bodied partner (maybe one Emil Andrae?)

Drysdale's effectiveness has been waning just a bit over the last week, and I'm not quite ready argue they throw him up on D1/2 duties just yet. I still think keeping Drysdale on the second pair is good for his long term, as he's not quite sheltered, but he doesn't need the hardest matchups.

I audibly said "oh, that's new" to his new found aggressive play during his first shift, haha. He just seems wholly more confident in his play, and having Zegras must help. He's still not really driving play at 5v5 (tho his pts look good), but the PP has looked great with him.

I knew this was going to age badly the moment I saw him this year, as he was more aggressive at pinching towards the dots. That's not a "I was right all along", I still am taking the L, but it was obvious he came into this year to work on his offensive side and its showing on the PP so far.