Fansided

Evgeny Medvedev is not a bust, and Randy Miller is dumb

By Brendan Canney |

Oct 30, 2015; Buffalo, NY, USA; Philadelphia Flyers defenseman

Evgeny Medvedev

(82) against the Buffalo Sabres at First Niagara Center. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports

Unfortunately, being a Philadelphia Flyers fan means you will subjected to some of this city’s worst beat reporters, and Randy Miller might be the worst. If you are not familiar with all the extraordinarily bad things Randy Miller has had opinions on, here is a quick recap.

Let’s Watch A Flyers beat Writer Throw Ilya Bryzgalov Under The Bus – Deadspin

This is super hilarious because Randy was Bryz’s biggest cheerleader before the relationship soured. I’d link to the story that provides some context to just how much of a homer Randy was for Bryzgalov but the archived story is behind a paywall.

I am not paying actual money to read a Randy Miller article.

Kalas Grave “Party” Causing Uproar – Examiner

Randy Miller was going to hold a book signing for his tell-all book about Harry Kalas at his grave site. You read that correctly. Of course, Miller said that he had no knowledge of this event and accused his publisher of setting up the signing without his knowledge. Not everyone was convinced of his innocence.

VOTE: Flyers sinking again with Claude Giroux as captain; Time for change? – NJ.com

Speaking of drum banging, Randy got the drum kit out and went nuts when he asked whether or not Claude Giroux should be stripped of his captaincy. The best part of the article is when he directly contradicts himself by writing these two paragraphs.

Claude Giroux shouldn’t be the captain writes Randy Miller. He then lists all the reasons he should be.

Now that I’ve painted a broad stroke of how incredibly bad Randy Miller is at his job, let’s go over his most recent bout of written diarrhea.

In one of his latest musings, Randy Miller questions why no one covering the Flyers has yet to deem recent offseason signing Evgeny Medvedev a bust yet. It’s a fascinatingly dumb question for three reasons.

  1. He is a KHL import with no prior NHL experience who is still adapting to the North American game
  2. He speaks very little English which has led to some issues with his on-ice defensive partner
  3. The Flyers haven’t even completed 25% of their games yet

So to sum up, Medvedev is a rookie trying to conquer a language barrier, and the sample size is too small to make any kind of definitive evaluation. Yet, he we are talking about whether or not the player is a bust or not.

It’s a joke and embarrassing.

Even with all those factors playing against him, Medvedev has shown to be a very effective player, especially in regards to his play in the neutral zone.

Over at Broad Street Hockey, staff writer Charlie O’Connor has been tracking Zone Entry For Percentage. Before we comb over the data I’ll allow Charlie to clarify what this metric tells us and how we can use it to help us evaluate our defenseman.

In its simplest terms, Zone Entry For Percentage shows which direction the play tends to move when a specific player is on the ice. A higher percentage means that the puck is being driven into the offensive zone more than the defensive zone, primarily due to sound neutral zone play. A lower percentage implies that the player is often retreating into his own zone and not helping to move the play forward.

Based on the most recent data collected by O’Connor (10/21/15), Medvedev had the 3rd best Zone Entry For Percentage (58.11%) on the Flyers behind Luke Schenn and Radko Gudas. Meaning, while Evgeny has been out on the ice, the Flyers have the ice tilted 60/40 in their favor.

As a direct result of Evgeny pushing the play into the opponent’s end of the ice, he sports the best Corsi For Percentage of any defenseman on the Flyers with a 53.2 CF%.

Another factor that has helped with Medvedev’s transition to the NHL has been how quickly he’s picked up the new system Dave Hakstol has installed since becoming coach.

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The system employed by Hakstol is one that is centered around pressure, especially on the forecheck.

He wants to create offensive pressure by limiting the amount of controlled zone exits by the opponent. The system attempts to do this by having his forwards be uber-aggressive on the forecheck and his defenseman to control the blue line in order to keep offensive zone pressure.

Medvedev has succeeded in this system and seems very comfortable pressuring the puck at the blue-line on both ends of the ice. His propensity for challenging opponents trying to enter the Flyers’ offensive zone reminds me a lot of former Flyer Braydon Coburn.

Now, knowing all of this, it becomes harder and harder for me to understand how Randy Miller was coming to the conclusion that Evgeny Medvedev was on his way to becoming a bust.

Sure, you can point to his two points on the season as a reason to be skeptical of how effective he is, but the underlying metrics are showing that there is much more to the seasoned Russian’s game that is having a positive effect on the Philadelphia Flyers.

Next: Radko Gudas Worth More to Flyers than Zac Rinaldo

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