In Favour Of Andrew Burnette
Despite the off season lull some bloggers have kept really busy, and Mirtle in particular has been pretty effective at giving everyone a lowdown on the July 1 free agents and their essential stats. Because Matt has so eloquently explained that the Flames have no 2nd line, it seems to me the FA season strategy should be to find cheap players who can play decent competition and put up even strength points. I think Andrew Brunette fits the bill:
One of the things that most caught my eye was Mirtle's lsit of EV/60 UFA/RFA scorers.
Number one on the list was Mats Sundin (2.74/60), no real suprise there. Marek Svatos (2.59/60) gets an honorary second because he's an RFA. Next on the list is Brunette (2.56/60). That's damn impressive. His quality of competition wasn't the highest at 0.1, but it's good enough for second line ice time. His quality of linemates wasn't stunning or anything like that so I don't think we can chalk up his strong EV/60 to that.
The best part about Brunette is that he wasn't only scoring a lot of points, but he was completely outplaying the opposition he was playing against. His GAON/60 was one of the worst on the team at 2.86, but his GFON/60 was 3.57. Only Statsny and Forsberg were ahead of him, and they were playing with much better team mates.
His corsi number was negative (-3.1) but I think that's a minor quibble. His stats have been pretty consistent since he broke into the NHL, scoring between about 50-80 points per year.
If I had a vote for the Flames top UFA target, Andrew Brunette would be it.
One of the things that most caught my eye was Mirtle's lsit of EV/60 UFA/RFA scorers.
Number one on the list was Mats Sundin (2.74/60), no real suprise there. Marek Svatos (2.59/60) gets an honorary second because he's an RFA. Next on the list is Brunette (2.56/60). That's damn impressive. His quality of competition wasn't the highest at 0.1, but it's good enough for second line ice time. His quality of linemates wasn't stunning or anything like that so I don't think we can chalk up his strong EV/60 to that.
The best part about Brunette is that he wasn't only scoring a lot of points, but he was completely outplaying the opposition he was playing against. His GAON/60 was one of the worst on the team at 2.86, but his GFON/60 was 3.57. Only Statsny and Forsberg were ahead of him, and they were playing with much better team mates.
His corsi number was negative (-3.1) but I think that's a minor quibble. His stats have been pretty consistent since he broke into the NHL, scoring between about 50-80 points per year.
If I had a vote for the Flames top UFA target, Andrew Brunette would be it.
Posts
