The Rod Langway Award

I've always liked the idea of an annual trophy for the NHL's top defensive defenceman.

After all, the one end-of-season award available for blueliners, the Norris Trophy, long ago became dedicated to offence-first types, leaving the league's underrated defensive stalwarts going unrecognized. (The last player to win the award with fewer than 50 points was Rod Langway in 1984.)

But being a top defensive player is a tough thing to qualify, whether it's a forward or a defenceman. As someone who followed the Vancouver Canucks closely in the past, for instance, I've always thought Mattias Ohlund was, if not the team's best player, certainly one of them.

And that's not really something that shows up on his statline as a player that has never scored more than 36 points and has been a minus nearly as many years as a plus in the plus/minus column.

The past few days, I've been looking into coming up with a simple way to find who the league's top defensive blueliners have been this season, the combination of a few key metrics that will give us an idea of who has stood out in the category.

In order to come up with a manageable number of blueliners to look at, I came up with a few criterion:

1. They'd have to play a lot, let's say be among the top 90 defencemen in even-strength ice time
2. Playing shorthanded would also be a big part of being a shutdown blueliner, so we'll take the top 60 from that category

Those two stipulations leave us with 52 defencemen, which is a workable number to use. With that group, I've chosen three metrics to look at (with another hat tip to Behind The Net):

(a) rate of goals against at even strength,
(b) rate of goals against shorthanded and
(c) strength of opposition

Here's a look at the leaders when all three categories are weighted equally:

RK	Player		Team	GP	+/-	EVGA /60	rank	SHGA /60	rank	EV Opp	rank
1	JOHNSSON		MIN	73	-4	2.23	9	3.10	2	0.0685	16
2	PHILLIPS		OTT	77	28	1.76	1	5.16	15	0.0842	12
3	SCHULTZ		MIN	77	-2	2.31	13	4.31	5	0.0763	15
4	HANNAN		SJS	74	-1	2.28	11	4.11	4	0.0572	18
5	LIDSTROM		DET	76	36	1.82	2	5.85	24	0.0897	9
6	MARKOV		MTL	72	3	2.51	22	4.53	8	0.0950	7
7	VOLCHNKV		OTT	74	32	1.90	4	6.46	32	0.0957	6
8	O'DONNELL		ANA	74	10	2.29	12	4.36	7	0.0218	35
9	HAMHUIS		NSH	76	7	2.72	31	5.56	19	0.1068	4
10	ROZSIVAL		NYR	75	5	1.89	3	3.48	3	-0.0203	49
11	BIEKSA		VAN	76	-1	2.43	15	5.25	16	0.0456	25
12	OHLUND		VAN	74	-5	2.43	15	2.83	1	0.0119	41
13	VLASIC		SJS	76	14	2.43	15	4.99	13	0.0325	31
14	FERENCE		BOS	76	7	2.09	7	4.32	6	-0.0147	47
15	ALLEN		FLA	77	6	1.93	6	5.42	17	0.0172	38
16	WITT		NYI	75	15	2.53	24	6.25	29	0.0892	10
17	REGEHR		CGY	74	23	1.90	4	7.08	42	0.0542	19
18	SARICH		TBL	77	-10	2.43	15	6.46	33	0.0643	17
19	SEABROOK		CHI	75	-6	2.46	20	4.94	12	0.0284	34
20	KLESLA		CBJ	69	-11	2.62	28	6.06	27	0.0868	11
21	SMITH		EDM	77	-10	2.92	39	5.87	25	0.1386	2

For one thing, the list shows how inaccurate a measure plus minus can be — at least if you put any stock in these rankings.

Kim Johnsson's certainly a surprise at the top of the list, but given he plays the most minutes per game on the top defensive team in the league, perhaps he shouldn't be. Johnsson's not getting easy minutes either, and plays a ton on one of the best penalty kills in the league, so perhaps it's time we gave him his due as a solid defensive player.

There are some other surprises there that highlight players who have had terrific seasons in the role: Dan Hamhuis, Bryan Allen, Marc-Eduoard Vlasic, Brendan Witt and Brent Seabrook.

As for the bottom end of the 52-player list I've put together, it offers a telling story the other way:

22	BEAUCHEMIN		ANA	66	7	2.37	14	5.56	20	0.0300	33
23	KOMISAREK		MTL	77	8	2.54	25	6.33	30	0.0837	13
24	NIEDERMAYER		ANA	74	8	2.57	26	5.67	22	0.0538	21
25	BREWER		STL	76	-9	2.94	41	6.55	34	0.1378	3
26	MORRISONN		WSH	73	3	2.76	34	6.91	40	0.0976	5
27	SUTER		NSH	77	13	2.46	20	4.68	10	-0.0216	51
28	ZHITNIK		ATL	74	1	2.98	42	4.58	9	0.0338	30
29	SCUDERI		PIT	74	6	2.45	19	7.04	41	0.0484	24
30	BOUWMEESTER		FLA	77	23	3.03	45	4.80	11	0.0346	29
31	POTI		NYI	72	1	2.17	8	6.40	31	-0.0151	48
32	WARD		BOS	74	-4	2.61	27	5.83	23	0.0213	37
33	HILL		NYI	75	7	2.72	31	6.85	38	0.0542	19
34	KEITH		CHI	76	-2	2.93	40	5.65	21	0.0348	27
35	CHARA		BOS	74	-16	2.98	42	6.87	39	0.0933	8
36	VAN RYN		FLA	73	-6	2.65	30	5.48	18	0.0067	43
37	HAINSEY		CBJ	74	-14	2.51	22	6.24	28	-0.0131	46
38	COMMODORE		CAR	77	6	2.99	44	5.91	26	0.0347	28
39	NUMMINEN		BUF	74	13	2.62	28	6.71	37	0.0215	36
40	KALININ		BUF	76	11	2.73	33	6.69	36	0.0302	32
41	HAVELID		ATL	72	-2	3.17	50	8.53	50	0.1895	1
42	HATCHER		PHI	76	-24	3.68	52	5.12	14	0.0143	40
43	NORSTROM		DAL	70	-16	3.03	45	8.52	49	0.0789	14
44	BLAKE		LAK	72	-26	3.15	49	8.26	46	0.0702	15
45	STUART		CGY	69	-15	2.89	38	8.41	48	0.0456	25
46	CLARK		COL	76	4	3.05	47	7.57	43	0.0510	22
47	MCCABE		TOR	76	9	2.26	10	8.57	51	-0.0272	52
48	GILL		TOR	76	9	2.83	36	6.65	35	-0.0097	44
49	MILLER		LAK	77	-13	2.81	35	8.15	45	0.0103	42
50	MORRIS		PHX	76	-18	3.42	51	8.73	52	0.0487	23
51	KABERLE		TOR	68	3	2.83	36	8.37	47	-0.0104	45
52	MICHALEK		PHX	76	-15	3.14	48	7.62	44	0.0169	39

Keep in mind that offensive statistics count for absolutely nothing in these standings — only defensive performance is rated. Atlanta's Niclas Havelid takes a pounding in the goals against categories, but benefits from a big bump up due to the fact he faces the toughest opposition in the league, and Derian Hatcher is saved by the fact he's actually been very strong on the penalty kill this season in huge minutes there.

I'll be the first to admit this is a pretty rudimentary look at defensive performance among blueliners, but I'm hoping this can be a jumping off point for other bloggers/stats junkies to come up with their own winners for the Rod Langway Award.

UPDATE Just an FYI: Chris Pronger would have been in a top five position had he not missed 16 games due to injury. His goals against rates are way up there.