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Faceoff Leaders By Starting Zone

By Derek Zona Updated
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Tom Renney is doing yeoman's work to avoid unfavorable match-ups and it's showing up in Qualcomp and faceoffs per sixty minutes of time on ice.  My curiosity was piqued, so I dug into the league-wide ratios to see what else we might find buried in the faceoff data.  After the jump, we'll look at the top ten and bottom ten in offensive, defensive and neutral zone faceoffs per 60 minutes of even strength time on ice.

*all stats current as of 11/6/11

The offensive faceoff leaders are a familiar bunch to those people who understand how Alain Vigneault runs his bench.

OF/60 RK Name Team GP TOI RK OF/60
1 Alex Burrows VAN 14 165 33.34
2 Henrik Sedin VAN 14 49 32.37
3 Daniel Sedin VAN 14 42 32.19
4 Tomas Holmstrom DET 9 340 30.38
5 Andreas Engqvist MTL 7 390 29.06
6 Cory Emmerton DET 9 364 27.32
7 Andrew Brunette CHI 12 180 27.21
8 Jason Pominville BUF 13 186 27.08
9 Jeff Carter CBJ 5 44 26.76
10 Jacob Josefson N.J 5 267 26.74

Though the Hall-Hopkins-Eberle line has a large percentage of their faceoffs in the offensive zone, by limiting their overall faceoffs, they don't even place in the top 200 by this measure.  The Sedins benefit a great deal from Manny Malhotra's work.  It's not a surprise that Tomas Holmstrom is on this list, his role in Detroit is that of an offensive and power play specialist, but it is a surprise to see Jason Pominville on this list.  My money would've been on Tyler Ennis.

OF/60 RK Name Team GP TOI RK OF/60
384 Zac Rinaldo PHI 9 388 8.723
385 Brandon Prust NYR 12 262 8.676
386 Tom Pyatt T.B 8 301 8.291
387 Tanner Glass WPG 13 292 8.121
388 Maxim LaPierre VAN 14 310 7.264
389 Samuel Pahlsson CBJ 10 258 7.104
390 Maxim Mayorov CBJ 7 281 6.549
391 Derek Dorsett CBJ 10 296 5.378
392 Aaron Volpatti VAN 12 321 4.42
393 Dale Weise VAN 14 327 4.383

The bottom ten gentlemen on the list are a mix of defensive specialists and replacement players.  Vancouver's three are the counter-balance to the Sedins and Scott Arniel doesn't allow the Pahlsson line anywhere near the offensive zone unless they get there through a wormhole.

The defensive zone faceoff leaders list has a repeat appearance by Samuel Pahlsson.

DF/60 RK Name Team GP TOI RK DF/60
1 Jerred Smithson NSH 12 194 46.39
2 Manny Malhotra VAN 14 286 33.76
3 Dustin Jeffrey PIT 6 343 30.38
4 Nick Spaling NSH 10 112 30.11
5 Marcus Kruger CHI 11 325 29.32
6 Derek Dorsett CBJ 10 296 28.09
7 Samuel Pahlsson CBJ 10 258 27.87
8 Max Talbot PHI 13 312 27.53
9 Jordin Tootoo NSH 12 127 27.44
10 Jim Slater WPG 11 246 27.32


Smithson, Malhotra, and Pahlsson are being used as defensive zone / faceoff specialists and the numbers bear that out.  Spaling, Tootoo and Dorsett are along for the ride.

Renney's strategy of limiting faceoffs for the Hopkins' line, combined with limiting defensive zone faceoffs is apparent in the bottom ten defensive zone faceoffs list:

DF/60 RK Name Team GP TOI RK DF/60
384 Joakim Lindstrom COL 10 220 7.70
385 Stephane Da Costa OTT 15 283 7.66
386 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins EDM 13 144 6.77
387 Brad Staubitz MIN 9 384 6.70
388 Jordan Eberle EDM 13 164 6.65
389 Andrew Gordon ANA 14 306 6.58
390 Taylor Hall EDM 12 139 6.55
391 Mark Scheifele WPG 7 318 6.50
392 Ryan Reaves STL 6 386 5.42
393 George Parros ANA 11 392 4.66


The kids are only taking ~7 defensive zone faceoffs per 60 minutes of even strength ice time.  Shawn Horcoff, on the other hand has taken ~24 defensive zone faceoffs per 60.  Of note - Mark Scheifele got the same treatment during his time with the Jets, but couldn't produce much in the way of results.

The last two lists are the top 10 and bottom 10 in neutral zone faceoffs for informational purposes only.

NF/60 RK Name Team GP TOI RK NF/60
1 Dave Bolland CHI 11 150 35.37
2 Nikita Filatov OTT 6 352 35.04
3 Peter Regin OTT 5 264 34.10
4 Brooks Laich WSH 12 147 33.05
5 Zac Rinaldo PHI 9 388 32.40
6 Bryan Bickell CHI 12 146 32.22
7 Michael Frolik CHI 12 88 31.82
8 Joel Ward WSH 12 187 30.97
9 Jason Chimera WSH 12 192 30.71
10 Jay Pandolfo NYI 11 304 30.36


The Blackhawks have Brunette in the top 10 OF/60, Kruger in the top 10 DF/60 and Bolland, Bickell, Frolik in the top 10 of NF/60.

NF/60 RK Name Team GP TOI RK NF/60
384 Brad Boyes BUF 13 247 14.05
385 Mathieu Darche MTL 12 339 13.69
386 Cory Emmerton DET 9 364 13.66
387 Kaspars Daugavins OTT 6 156 13.44
388 Scott Nichol STL 13 365 13.42
389 Mattias Ritola T.B 5 348 13.27
390 Andreas Engqvist MTL 7 390 12.91
391 Tyler Ennis BUF 7 231 11.89
392 Kris Newbury NYR 6 385 10.43
393 Kevin Westgarth L.A 5 382 9.95