Before we even get into this article, there is something that needs to be said and that is that P.K. Subban and Shea Weber both play extremely different styles of hockey.
Weber relies on his size, his physical strength, his ability to throw his body around and his slapshot in the offensive zone. Subban relies on his skating ability, his stick handling skills, his playmaking skills and overall creativity (sure some hitting too) to get things going. While they both fall under the category of ‘gamers’, the two are quite different.
This isn’t to say one player isn’t better than the other right now, but when you dive into these advanced stats you may want to keep the previous paragraphs in mind.
Now that we’ve got that all settled, let’s look at 2016 P.K. Subban vs 2016 Shea Weber. Viewer discretion advised, Habs fans.
Subban was without question a better player than Weber was last season.
The numbers above show that Subban was better in the categories of shot generation, shot suppression, playmaking, point production and possession – the ever important stat. As mentioned before, Subban is a playmaker while Weber is not, hence the difference in the playmaking and possession numbers. We can’t forget about shot suppression either, the difference between the two players last season is unbelievable as you can see.
Don’t let the “following season probabilities” statistics get overlooked with Subban completely dominating in both of those categories as well.
Yes, Weber – who averaged 25:23 of ice-time per contest – did top Subban in the goals scoring department, but let’s not forget that 14 of Weber’s 20 goals came on the man advantage. Weber averaged 3:03 of power play time per game. Subban averaged 26:22 of ice-time per game and 4:36 on the man advantage each game while just two of his six goals came while on the power play.
When you look at even strength numbers, Subban put 100 shots on net giving him a 4.86 shots per 60 mark and a 4.0 percent shooting percentage while the 30-year-old Weber had 113 shots and a 4.78 shots per 60 mark while carrying a 3.54 percent shooting percentage.
Hitting on Subban’s playmaking ability again, he registered 45 helpers in 68 regular season games while Weber had 31 helpers in 78 contests. Both Subban (6 G, 45 A) and Weber (20 G, 31 A) ended the year with 51 points each, but Subban’s 1.21 points per 60 minutes average during 5-on-5 play drastically outweighs Weber’s 0.85 points per 60 minutes.
And no, Subban did not just start all of his shift in the offensive zone last season. Weber started 31.9 percent of his zone starts in the offensive zone during 5-on-5 play last season while Subban started 32.8 percent of his in the offensive zone.
Perhaps the biggest criticism Subban receives is his “inability” to take care of the puck as he did lead all NHL defensemen in giveaways last season with 106. With that being said, let’s again remember that the 27-year-old is a puck handling defenseman that drives play.
According to Andrew Berkshire of SportsNet and SportLogiq, in 10 fewer games played than Weber last season Subban made around 600 more plays with the puck during 5-on-5 play than Weber did.
Six.
Hundred.
Were all of those 600 plays completed passes or did they turn into shots on net? No, but having a guy that not only has the ability to make plays with the puck but a guy that obviously wants to have the puck on his stick and has been relied upon to do so is a positive for the Preds in every sense of the word.
Weber had just 39 giveaways last year, for those keeping track.
Roman Josi’s playmaking numbers in that same category are not there to compare, but just imagine a pairing of Subban and Josi carrying the puck; not only on the power play but at even strength as well.
Most Nashville fans have been smiling since the blockbuster deal went down a few days ago, and based on this information they shouldn’t stop smiling anytime soon.
Stats via Hockey Analysis.