Wrist Shot Wonders

Now it's time to look at the top wrist shots from the NHL 2005-6 Regular Season, broken down by range. I've screened for the top 100 players in terms of wrist shots taken, ranked them by overall shooting percentage, and noted particular ranges with extreme high or low values. The graphic below details the first 30 players on that list. And the top sniper from last year turns out to be... (another drum roll, please)

Alex Tanguay, who has taken his game north from Colorado to Calgary, where hopes are high that he will lift a stagnant offense at least up to the level of mediocrity. Tanguay potted 22.2% of his wrist shots last year, nearly double the league-wide average of 11.3%. What's noteworthy with this chart is how many players have particular sweet spots. For instance, Tanguay and Daniel Briere were both very effective from 21-30 feet, but from the 11-20 foot range they actually scored at a below-average pace (18%). Marek Svatos of Colorado, on the other hand, was deadly from 11-20 feet (33%), but didn't score on a wrister from beyond 20 feet all season, on 40 shots.

For those of you who are wondering, Alexander Ovechkin came in 31st in this ranking, at 14.4% The noteworthy thing about his numbers were the high number of wrist shots (194), and his touch from the 31-40 foot range (8 goals on 48 shots).

Click the picture below to enlarge, and keep on commenting and emailing with your suggestions for other pieces of information or refinements to what I've already posted.


As usual, empty net goals are excluded.