The best penalty killers

I'm of the reasoning that, when you're shorthanded, the only thing that matters is keeping the puck out of your net. Shot blocking's nice, and so are penalty kill chances, but really the best measure of players doing their jobs in 4-on-5 situations is that they are rarely scored on.

There are quite a few 'specialists' in this regard throughout the league, players you rarely hear of otherwise, but quite a few stars are also out there killing penalties every night.

Here's a look at the leaders in this regard so far this season:

Top penalty killers
(among top 90 forwards in PK ice time)

	NAME	TM	GP	TOI/60	GF	GA	GA/60
1	CURTISBROWN	S.J	10	2.71	0	0	0.00
2	PATRICKSHARP	CHI	26	2.62	7	1	0.88
3	RICKNASH	CBJ	29	2.31	1	1	0.90
4	MICHAELPECA	CBJ	21	2.72	1	1	1.05
5	RENEBOURQUE	CHI	16	2.42	6	1	1.55
6	NIKLASHAGMAN	DAL	30	2.45	4	2	1.63
7	STUBARNES	DAL	30	2.86	3	3	2.10
8	DANIELCLEARY	DET	28	2.93	1	3	2.19
9	DEREKROY	BUF	27	2.51	3	3	2.66
10	HENRIKZETTERBERG	DET	28	2.41	1	3	2.67
11	BRETTMCLEAN	FLA	17	2.48	0	2	2.84
12	MICHAELGRIER	S.J	26	3.24	1	4	2.85
13	CHRISDRURY	NYR	29	2.89	1	4	2.86
14	DAVIDSTECKEL	WSH	29	3.84	3	6	3.23
15	TRENTHUNTER	NYI	27	2.74	0	4	3.24
16	MICHAELSILLINGER	NYI	27	3.17	0	5	3.50
17	RYANJOHNSON	STL	25	3.4	1	5	3.53
18	MARTINST. LOUIS	T.B	28	2.4	1	4	3.58
19	KRISDRAPER	DET	24	3.26	1	5	3.83
20	ANTOINEVERMETTE	OTT	27	3.41	2	6	3.91

(among top 90 defencemen in PK ice time)

	NAME	TM	GP	TOI/60	GF	GA	GA/60
1	SERGEIZUBOV	DAL	30	2.94	3	2	1.36
2	ANDREASLILJA	DET	27	2.95	1	2	1.51
3	MATTIASNORSTROM	DAL	17	3.27	1	2	2.16
4	MATTIASOHLUND	VAN	25	2.71	0	3	2.65
5	ERICBREWER	STL	20	3.37	1	3	2.67
6	KYLEMCLAREN	S.J	22	2.64	0	3	3.1
7	MARC-EDOUARDVLASIC	S.J	28	3.46	0	6	3.72
8	BARRETJACKMAN	STL	25	3.23	1	5	3.72
9	BRYCESALVADOR	STL	23	3.37	2	5	3.87
10	LADISLAVSMID	EDM	20	3.86	0	5	3.89
11	BRENTSOPEL	CHI	25	4.2	6	7	4
12	GREGDE VRIES	NSH	27	2.77	0	5	4.02
13	STEVESTAIOS	EDM	29	3.49	0	7	4.14
14	ANDREWGREENE	N.J	27	2.63	1	5	4.23
15	HENRIKTALLINDER	BUF	21	3.95	1	6	4.34
16	SHAONEMORRISONN	WSH	29	3.8	1	8	4.35
17	ADAMFOOTE	CBJ	29	4.73	2	10	4.38
18	TREVORDALEY	DAL	30	2.74	4	6	4.38
19	NICKLASLIDSTROM	DET	28	4.88	1	10	4.39
20	CRAIGRIVET	S.J	26	2.6	2	5	4.43

Quite a few guys from strong penalty killing teams, but there are a few outliers as well. Steckel, De Vries, Greene and Morrisonn all play on teams down in the basement in terms of shorthanded play.

The other way I can think to measure this is to see which players improve their team's performance the most, taking into account team goals against with and without them on the ice. The leaders in that metric (among top 90 players in shorthanded ice time) turn up some interesting results:

	FORWARDS	TM	GP	GAON/60	GAOFF/60	Change
1	PATRICKSHARP	CHI	26	0.88	7.74	-6.86
2	ADAMHALL	PIT	26	4.25	10.42	-6.17
3	SAMIKAPANEN	PHI	23	4.18	10.17	-5.99
4	DAVIDSTECKEL	WSH	29	3.23	8.96	-5.73
5	MARIANHOSSA	ATL	26	4	9.64	-5.64
6	CURTISBROWN	S.J	10	0	5.42	-5.42
7	RICKNASH	CBJ	29	0.9	6.09	-5.19
8	RENEBOURQUE	CHI	16	1.55	6.55	-5.00
9	DEREKROY	BUF	27	2.66	6.77	-4.11
10	MICHAELPECA	CBJ	21	1.05	5.01	-3.96
11	PER JOHANAXELSSON	BOS	27	6.17	9.95	-3.78
12	NIKOLAIANTROPOV	TOR	29	5	8.4	-3.40
13	ANTOINEVERMETTE	OTT	27	3.91	7.28	-3.37
14	ALEXANDERSTEEN	TOR	29	5.04	8.36	-3.32
15	BRETTMCLEAN	FLA	17	2.84	6.13	-3.29
16	TODDWHITE	ATL	29	6.28	9.42	-3.14
17	CHRISDRURY	NYR	29	2.86	5.95	-3.09
18	NIKLASHAGMAN	DAL	30	1.63	4.63	-3.00
19	JORDANSTAAL	PIT	29	5.59	8.51	-2.92
20	MARCUSNILSON	CGY	22	6.93	9.78	-2.85

	NAME	TM	GP	GAON/60	GAOFF/60	Change
1	CHRISPRONGER	ANA	31	4.98	11.23	-6.25
2	HALGILL	TOR	29	5.07	11.05	-5.98
3	MATTIASOHLUND	VAN	25	2.65	8.13	-5.48
4	SCOTTHANNAN	COL	28	4.79	9.24	-4.45
5	NICLASWALLIN	CAR	19	7.14	11.39	-4.25
6	JAROSLAVMODRY	L.A	28	5.74	9.66	-3.92
7	SERGEIZUBOV	DAL	30	1.36	5.16	-3.8
8	STEVESTAIOS	EDM	29	4.14	7.57	-3.43
9	SHAONEMORRISONN	WSH	29	4.35	7.75	-3.4
10	KIMJOHNSSON	MIN	28	4.65	7.82	-3.17
11	TOBIASENSTROM	ATL	29	6.34	9.37	-3.03
12	BRENTSOPEL	CHI	25	4	7.01	-3.01
13	GREGDE VRIES	NSH	27	4.02	6.89	-2.87
14	ANDREWGREENE	N.J	27	4.23	7.07	-2.84
15	ANDREASLILJA	DET	27	1.51	4.06	-2.55
16	CORYSARICH	CGY	29	6.39	8.69	-2.3
17	ANDREIMARKOV	MTL	29	6.43	8.67	-2.24
18	MARTINSKOULA	MIN	29	5.07	7.19	-2.12
19	PAVELKUBINA	TOR	19	6.08	8.19	-2.11
20	JAROSLAVSPACEK	BUF	19	5.28	7.36	-2.08

There's a little bit of overlap there, but we also get guys like Chris Pronger, who are playing on teams that have been rotten on the penalty kill, but that would be much, much worse if not for their contributions.

Patrick Sharp's numbers so far this season have been quite amazing, with seven shorthanded goals scored when he's been on the ice. We've also got some offensive stars like Marian Hossa, Rick Nash, Derek Roy, Nik Antropov, Sergei Zubov and Andrei Markov showing up as top penalty killers.

Other items of note? How about Scott Hannan showing up high here, despite the fact he's definitely had a hard time at even strength this season (-15 in 28 games before tonight's goalfest against St. Louis). Jaroslav Modry has very quietly been the Kings best defenceman this season (not that there's been a ton of competition), while Hal Gill and Kim Johnsson continue to be two of the league's more underrated defensive players.

And how about Brent Sopel showing up here? (And I seem to recall he had good shorthanded numbers in more limited minutes last season.)

One of the things that this on ice/off ice metric helps with is to eliminate the goaltending factor, as one assumes netminders would play the same regardless of which penalty killers are on the ice. There are still the matters of strength of competition and strength of teammates, but given we're only looking at team's top five or six PK players, it's a safe bet these are the top unit members for the most part.