The better scoring stat

While in Europe it's often believed that the "NA-stats-science" is overrated I'm a true believer in stats. Stats tell something about players if you follow it in the long-term and if follow the right stats.

The problem in Europe is sometimes that we take the wrong stats for judging players and we take stats from just not a big enough amount of figures. E.g. we judge goalies save-percentage after just a handful of games in a tournament or so.

I guess it's time to look at a very important stat from the NHL. We have in average more than 30 games so I do dare to read something into it, in a stat I just can dream of from European leagues. It's the stat what shows how many minutes of ice-time a player needs in average to score a point. It takes away the aspect of logging a lot or nearly no ice-time. To be fair, it still doesn't take away the type of ice-time a player gets (e.g. power-play) but still... it's fair and valuable to read something into this stat. Here we go:

1. Sidney CROSBY, PIT, he needs in average just 13.4 minutes of ice time to score a point on the score-sheet.
2. Steven STAMKOS, TB, 14.7
3. Daniel SEDIN, VAN, 14.9
4. Milan HEJDUK, COL, 15.7
5. Chris STEWART, COL, 15.8
6. Teemu SELANNE, ANA, 16.1
7. Pavel DATSYUK, DET, 16.7
8. Matt DUCHENE, COL, 17.0
9. Alexander SEMIN, WSH, 17.8
10. Martin ST.LOUIS, TB, 18.1

What do I read into this:
Watch at Teemu Selanne, No. 6 and Milan Hejduk, No. 4. Players who are over the hill in their careers and still in the top10 right now? Congratulations is just not enough to be said. It's also obvious that you find whatever stat it might be, it's always Sidney Crosby at the near top or at the very top. It's time for us also in Europe to declare Sidney Crosby as simply the best hockey-player. He is the best player in my eyes since quite a long time.

I'm sure that by the end of the season this list looks a bit different but still: Matt Duchene... No.8... and Steven Stamkos... No. 2... new star-players on the horizon, actually not on the horizon, they are already right there.

Thomas Roost