There's a theory out there (which I subscribe to, with certain caveats) which states that NHL players have no noticeable impact on on-ice save percentage, and a small impact on on-ice shooting percentage.
Therefore, since these things fluctuate quite a bit between players on the same team, we can chalk much of it up to luck, bounces, and other unrepeatable stuff - and these things can make us regard players as either better or worse than they really are.
Enter PDO numbers. The PDO number is a simple measure of even-strength on-ice shooting percentage and save percentage. The league average, for obvious reasons, is 100. After the jump: those numbers for the Oilers so far this season.
Forwards
- Dustin Penner: 111.8
- Andrew Cogliano: 111.0
- Zack Stortini: 108.5
- Ethan Moreau: 108.3
- Gilbert Brule: 108.1
- Sam Gagner: 106.9
- Ales Hemsky: 105.8
- TEAM AVERAGE: 105.4
- J-F Jacques: 104.7
- Patrick O'Sullivan: 103.5
- Robert Nilsson: 102.0
- Mike Comrie: 101.5
- LEAGUE AVERAGE: 100.0
- Shawn Horcoff: 96.4
- Ryan Stone: 94.0
Defence
- Ladislav Smid: 110.6
- Taylor Chorney: 109.5
- Lubomir Visnovsky: 108.8
- Jason Strudwick: 105.4
- TEAM AVERAGE: 105.4
- Steve Staios: 104.3
- Tom Gilbert: 101.6
- LEAGUE AVERAGE: 100.0
- Denis Grebeshkov: 99.6
- Sheldon Souray: 99.4
- Theo Peckham: 89.5