Stephen Burtch

Editor's Note: Over the summer we're going to try to put together some primers on some of the statistical measures that fall under the "advanced statistics" umbrella in order to help lay the groundwork for a lot of the analytical discussion that takes places

I know this may seem a tad overblown given that Chemmy posted about Alexander Semin yesterday, but I've been ranting about this topic for a while, and I thought I'd toss my 2 cents into the ring. Ok - so Alexander Semin is apparently an Enigmatic

The Toronto Maple Leafs used their last selection - 209th overall - in the 2012 NHL Draft to select the slightly older and slightly more experienced 19 year old Viktor Lööv of Södertälje SK in the Swedish Allsvenskan (2nd division). He's touted as a balanced two-way defender with

With their second selection of the sixth round, the Toronto Maple Leafs chose Ryan Rupert, a 5'10", 180 lb centre from the London Knights of the OHL. After a sophomore season that saw him post 17 goals and 48 points in 63 regular season games, followed by

The Toronto Maple Leafs used their sixth round pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft to select Connor Brown from the Erie Otters of the OHL. I'm normally one of the first people to disdain the use of +/- as an individual statistic to track hockey players but

The Toronto Maple Leafs used their fifth round selection to pick Dominic Toninato in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. Toninato is a 6", 161 lb. left handed centre from Duluth, Minnesota who has been primarily playing high school hockey to this point in his career. He was selected by

So I know the draft is coming up in a couple of days, and I know the Leafs need more help in their prospect pool. I've actually been thinking about the common perception about the Leafs lack of offensive producers in the pipeline, and considered some potential prospects

Entering this off-season, it was obvious the main weakness of the Leafs has yet again been goaltending. Despite praise worthy statistics in the back half of the 2010-11 season from James Reimer, leading to a nice RFA contract for the young starter in waiting, the Leafs net was anything but

So earlier this season, around the midway point, I started trying to devise a measurement tool to assess defensive skill for defenders. I decided after reading the postings on the Heavy Lifter Index written over at PuckProspectus.com that I could craft something comparable for blue liners, with a few

Recently we've been treated to copious amounts of "analysis" attempting to find a rational reason for the Leafs dive to the basement of the NHL. The management is throwing its arms up with a "never seen anything like it" response. The team discusses how

On Feb 28th, I posted a look at the Leafs upcoming schedule and how we could expect them to do. The basic premise was to make use of the log5 method first devised by Bill James, and the home and away goal differentials via the pythagenpuck win probabilities model to

Looks like the team's new head coach, Randy Carlyle realizes something many of us around Leaf land have been saying for a while: Mikhail Grabovski is the Leafs top Centre. It appears important that Carlyle get off on the right foot with this team in a relatively short

So in a quick discussion around Home and Road goal differentials around the NHL last night on Twitter with Julian (PPP) and Neil Greenberg, the Washington Capitals blogger from the Washington Post, he linked to a story he had posted recently on the Caps likely probability of winning their games

Recently lots of talk has been in the offing around what and where the Leafs need to change if they hope to make the playoffs. The main stream media has been discussing the trade possibilities posed by this young Leafs squad, and much of this is due to Brian Burke&

So yesterday I ran down the numbers on a new statistic that's targeted at determining who the best defensive defensemen are in the NHL. I referred to it as the SDI or Shut Down Index, and to briefly summarize it compares a blue liner's Corsi REL

How often have we heard the idea that defensive blue liners are a "dime a dozen" in the NHL? Probably far more than we should frankly. As a skill set, the defensive defender's repertoire is difficult to master at a high level, and in some ways

A little while ago I was in discussion with Cam Charron about Shot Blocking metrics and the problems of normalization, and he directed me to work by Daniel Wagner over at the Score and a recent posting by Derek Zona over at Copper and Blue, which in turn prompted me

So a couple of days ago, after watching yet another Leafs loss in 86" of gory glory, I caught myself briefly agreeing with people that think making a trade of one of our young D men makes sense going forward. Luke Schenn, Keith Aulie, and Jake Gardiner had all

Ok so as I was perusing various statistical pages last night, I stumbled across some interesting team statistics that have received nary a mention in the mainstream press. Why? you might be asking yourself, would we want to know anything that isn't quoted in the mainstream press? Well

Reflect back to the start of last season. Think back to when Clarke MacArthur first showed up in Leaf land, fresh from signing a one year, $1.1 million dollar contract that was a $300 K reduction from his previous contract. MacArthur had gone to arbitration as an RFA with

So a couple of days ago if you read the From The Branches, or if you keep tabs on what Gabe Desjardins is up to at BehindTheNet.ca (or Arctic Ice Hockey), you may have noticed that the Fenwick Percentages for the 2011-12 season were added to the mix of

By this point last year, Nikolai Kulemin had posted 4 goals and 5 assists on 26 shots, during a "slow start" en route to a 30 goal 57 point season. So far this year he has 2 goals and 4 assists on 25 shots, during an even SLOWER

Last year at the trade deadline the Leafs dealt Tomas Kaberle to the Boston Bruins in exchange for Joe Colborne, and 1st and 2nd round draft picks (that we traded to get Tyler Biggs and John-Michael Liles respectively). Theoretically if Biggs pans out, and the Leafs at some point either

It's Wednesday night, there's no Leafs game on, the Marlies game is on 640 AM here, and there is a Habs/Flyers game to trash on TSN. Scrivens is in net, and Colborne is trying to continue his point streak. So if anyone is interested in

So far this season it looks like more of the same from Jonas Gustavsson. As we head into a match up versus the Philadelphia Flyers, many Leaf fans are are shaking their heads at the decision to bring Gustavsson back for another kick at the can as an NHL level