Oct 30, 2014; Tampa, FL, USA; Philadelphia Flyers defenseman
Nick Schultz(55) warms up prior to the game against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
When it was announced that the Philadelphia Flyers had signed defenseman Nick Schultz to a 2-year extension there was a collective meh from Flyers Twitter.
Many saw the extension as a way for the Flyers to have depth at the blue-line in anticipation that they would be subtracting defenseman at the trade deadline. And on cue, that’s exactly what transpired. The Flyers traded their two best blue-liners, Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn.
The trading of Coburn, who in the absence of Kimmo Timonen was unarguably the Flyers best defenseman, exposed Nick Schultz. The writing on the wall was clear even before the trade when Coburn went down in January with a broken foot.
The drop off is pretty dramatic. (5 game moving aveage via
)
As you can see, Nick Schultz’s Corsi Rel% took a huge hit when Coburn went down. That graph really illustrates just how much Coburn was carrying Schultz around the ice on his back. And since the trade, it unsurprisingly hasn’t gotten any better.
Schultz has not been good in the absence of Coburn. (Single game running average since the Coburn trade via
)
On Flyers Twitter there’s a running joke about the myriad of ways the Philadelphia media have accused Braydon Coburn of regressing. I guess it’s easier for them to create narratives like the most this recent gem from the Philadelphia Daily News’ Sam Donnellon,
"Coburn, at 25, played so well in that postseason that it appeared he too was developing into a No. 1. That, of course, never happened. Coburn lost his game, his confidence over the last two seasons, and was traded this year at the deadline for a better future.– Sam Donnellon via Philly.com"
Oh really Sam? He lost his “confidence” and his “game” the last two years huh? Well let me take you to task on that dumb opinion by introducing you to WOWY.
In all honesty Nick Schultz should be thanking Coburn for his contract extension
WOWY in a nutshell exhibits the effect a player has on the teammates he is playing with and how they perform without him.
Below I have put together Braydon Coburn’s WOWYs over his last two seasons. I have included only defenseman in the chart and only players Coburn has shared more than 300 minutes of ice time with. Comparisons are presented using Corsi For %.
Coburn is actually still pretty good at hockey folks. (Data gathered from
)
So taking into account the data exhibited above, it makes any argument that Braydon Coburn might not have been as great as we wanted him to be a lot harder to make. In all honesty Nick Schultz should be thanking Coburn for his contract extension because a narrative was created by a lot of the sports media dumb-dumbs that maybe Schultz wasn’t what many of us already knew he was, a bottom pairing defenseman.
As I stated earlier in this piece though, Schultz’s extension was also one of circumstance after the trades we made. The Flyers felt that they needed to add some depth. It’s not like they broke the bank to extend him, but the fact remains, Schultz is no better than a bottom pairing defenseman, unless he’s being carried around on Coburn’s back like that travel stenographer from Chappelle’s Show.
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