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Originally Posted by hawksfan50
Not every good prospect can get selected to the game BUT still why 2 Brandon Wheat Kings prospect D-men made it (Pulock and Roy) ,while only 1 Kelowna prospect made it (Bowey) is perhaps debateable--sure Pulock and Roy are "offensive" but Bowey and WHEATON are reliable defenively ...In the selection OBVIOUSLY they chose ROY over WHEATON because I guess 6g+14a for 20 pts in 33 games played is enticing when you are a 6'3 190 lb d-man and only 0g+7a for 7pts in 30GP is not so "worthy of selection EVEN though you are BIGGER (6'5 225 for WHEATON)--and oh yes that "insignificant" differential in the +/- : that is ROY's stinky -24 vs, Wheaton's impressive +20 ...
Now the usual response is that everyone knows that =/- is meaningless-it only reflects TEAM not INDIVIDUAL net positive or negative equal strength performance ...YET i) EVERYONE also knows Kelowna actually teaches their D-men how to play defense,while this is an after-thougtr over the years in Brandon --and a betting man would be a fool to think all they have to do is teach the Brandon kid properly and they will learn to be better d-men...but I suugest that looking at the differential in+/- even between the 2 Brandon D-men --we find Pulock is at least ok at a +11 while ROY is a whopping -24 -that simply cannot be due to TEAM defense (both are good offensively --Pulock at 28 pts in 27GP and Roy at 20 pts in 33GP...MAYBE ROY simply is awful defensively and may NEVER LEARN ?
Meanwhile--as usual--Kelowna teaches their d how to play good defense---BOWEY is +26 wth 14 pts in 31Gp and WHEATON is +20 in 30GP despite only contributing 7 assits to the offense.
Now usually 6'5 225 d-men who are +20 in just 30GP WOULD spark a lot of TOP PROSPECT consideration--but somehow I guess the scouts think ROY has more 'upside" and think they can teach him out of having NO CLUE how to play the D-man position properly to stop the opponents from scoring.
WEll life is a mystery --and it would seem the selectors for this game have perhaps overlooked THE OBVIOUS... which is that it occurs to me that a +54 TOTAL differential in favour of Wheaton ought to be more "deserving" of the spot-but what do I know? Sure offense sells tickets --defense is hard work and boring -but If you are going to win games -what would you rather have --the better offensive player or the steady and reliable defensive guy ? yes I know--scouts are looking at the not now but the overall potential several years out -WHEATON won't ever bring much offense but MAYBE they can teach ROY defense --the caveat is MAYBE --the clincher is that Roy leads the entire BRANDON team in this stat of NEGATIVE 24
and yes 3 other Brandon d-men are -10,-16,-19 the other top 2 are +11 and +9
(Bowey and Yaworsky respectively) --but this only shows how bad Roy is in comparioson to the 3 other poor defensive D-men ...and the fact that with their top pairing being +11 and +9 --it means that the real problem is with iNDIVIDUAL d-men D-zone play and not really the whole team --because SOME D-men mnaged to be POSITIVE in ES play -so in THIS CAE it reaaly does seem to be an "INDIVIDUAL" issue..IF it was simply forwards and goalie issues that WOULD impact NEGATIVELY even on Pulock and Yaworsky -but it hasn't---sometimes the +/- really does show INDIVIDUAL flaws ..and so it sure does look like ROY simply stinks defensively and so not sure why he gets the selection over the even bigger but clearly more solid on d WHEATON?
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I'm not intimately familiar with the WHL or the players you mentioned here, but this is an excellent reason why utilizing the plus/minus stat as some sort of indication for defensive play, especially when comparing players in different organizations is an incomplete argument.
The Brandon Wheat Kings are winning at a pace of .394, nothing to write home about, they're on the losing side of the spectrum. They've scored 94 goals this year and have allowed 138 goals against. In total, as a team, they've scored 44 fewer goals than they've let in. So the team's plus/minus is -44.
The Kelowna Rockets are winning at a pace of .688, which is something to write home about, they're one of the top teams in the Western Conference. They've scored 130 goals this year and have only allowed 78 goals be scored against them. In total, as a team, they've scored 52 more goals than they've let in. So the team's plus/minus is +52.
Now again, as mentioned, I don't know a lot about the particular strengths and weaknesses of the players mentioned above in comparison to one another, but I can tell you without a doubt that the plus/minus of a top defenseman for Brandon will be quite a bit lower from the plus/minus for a top defenseman in Kelowna. You can't compare players from two teams that have a differential of over 90 goals between them and expect that you're comparing apples to apples.
