Philadelphia Flyers’ Evgeny Medvedev Has Been A Bargain

The Philadelphia Flyers made a good choice when bringing aboard Evgeny Medvedev.

When the Philadelphia Flyers signed the former KHL all-star many fans were unsure of the quality of player that the team just signed. As the season has worn on it has become clear that Evegeny is more than capable of playing with the best players in the world in the NHL, and at his cap-hit, he’s been a heck of a bargain when you compare him to his peers.

In order to properly illustrate how much of a bargain Evegeny Medvedev has been for the Flyers I put together a couple of charts. Those charts were made with this criteria:

• played in at least 30 games
• age ≥ 30
• cap hit
  • ≥ 2.5 million
  • ≤ 3.5 million

Nine NHL players matched this criteria. Those players are as follows:

• Trevor Daley
• Clayton Stoner
• Kevin Klein
• Tom Gilbert
• Mark Stuart
• Rob Scuderi
• Deryk Engelland
• Zbynek Michalek
• Nicklas Grossmann (LOL spoiler alert, he’s still bad)

As you can see, Medvedev ranks third among his peers in CF% while owning a cap hit that places him fourth. Not a bad showing for an import who can barely speak any English. That’s a considerable hurdle to overcome, especially when being thrust into a top-4 role.

…Evegeny Medvedev has been Ron Hextall’s best signing.

Even while experiencing some healthy scratches at the hands of Philadelphia Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol, Medvedev has put in a quietly productive season. While his point production may be lacking, he still places third with a 0.83 points recorded per 60 minutes compared to his peers.

So this might be the most proud I am of any of the charts that I’ve used on Broad Street Buzz.

What you see above is what I am deeming a 4-zone chart. I’ve seen this type of chart used a lot to easily convey player or team effectiveness.

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For this chart I used corsi for per 60 minutes (CF60) and corsi against per 60 minutes (CA60). Corsi for gives us a general idea of how effective a player is at generating offense when they are on the ice. Corsi against gives us an idea at how how good player is at suppressing shots.

By using both of these metrics and their average, we get four distinct zones that gives us a better understanding of each player’s effectiveness.

Medvedev while coming up average in shot suppression trails only Trevor Daley in shot generation. To those of us who have watched Medvedev this season his ability to create offense shouldn’t come as a surprise. He’s used not only his skating ability to allow for more offensive zone time, but used his old-hockey-man experience to keep the puck tilted in the Philadelphia Flyers favor.

With the exception of the Couturier extension, the 1-year $3.0 mil deal for Evegeny Medvedev has been Ron Hextall’s best signing. I say this knowing full well the season that Michael Del Zotto has had.

Without sounding like a broken record again, Medvedev has had to overcome a language barrier, a new coach, new teammates, and new league and has excelled. Even at the age of 33, I think there is room for Medvedev to improve. Barring a trade to a contender before the trade deadline, I think the Flyers will take a long look at bringing Medvedev back after this season.

Now, for some fan insights on good Russian hockey player Evgeny Medvedev.

Data mined from War-On-Ice.