Michael Clifford

DFS @Stokastic_com. Assoc. Ed. @DobberHockey. 10 Stats: | I chew my food like an idiot and I am no Jedi.

[Michael Clifford @SlimCliffy]

@Echeney69 And if my town had one I’d be there right now, probably laying down in the bathroom surrounded by curly fries and broken dreams.

[Michael Clifford @SlimCliffy]

Part 3 of my series on the evolution of the NHL defenceman: how they have gotten more involved in the offence on the penalty kill, and whether it has helped or hurt their teams https://t.co/4xcsUDoZXw

[Michael Clifford @SlimCliffy]

Part 3 of my series on the evolution of the NHL defenceman: how they have gotten more involved in the offence on the penalty kill, and whether it has helped or hurt their teams https://t.co/4xcsUDoZXw

[Michael Clifford @SlimCliffy]

I opened a site over on Ghost so I can post more hockey stuff. This summer I'm doing doing a multi-part series (nine planned so far) on how defencemen have evolved in the Analytics Era. Here is Part 1 on assists and shot attempts: https://t.co/3NO6KMy6YR

[Michael Clifford @SlimCliffy]

Today is Part 2 in my series on the evolution of NHL defencemen in the Analytics Era, covering changes in shots and goals both at 5v5 and on the power play https://t.co/9epz7395IB

[Michael Clifford @SlimCliffy]

it begins...

[Michael Clifford @SlimCliffy]

and today's Ramblings reviews the rest of the significant fantasy hockey moves, including Ovechkin returning, the Trocheck trade and Lee signing by Utah, Trouba in San Jose, Maccelli to the Islanders, Tarasov to Detroit, and more https://t.co/55dI1pPsKH

[Michael Clifford @SlimCliffy]

today's Ramblings has the fantasy hockey round-up of some major moves yesterday, including the extensions for Byram, Demidov, and Hischier, the trades of Bourque, Levi, and Robertson, as well as the signings of Marchment, Zuccarello, and Bobrovsky https://t.co/jXS8mBKoI4

[Michael Clifford @SlimCliffy]

as is the case every year, the @DobberHockey team has fantasy managers covered when it comes to the major trades and signings coming down the pipe today https://t.co/tQcOHUEqZC

[Michael Clifford @SlimCliffy]

in this week's '10 Interesting (To Me) Stats' newsletter, I wrote about some of the pending free agents and what they bring, including Anders Lee, Mason Marchment, Viktor Arvidsson, Rasmus Andersson, John Carlson, and more https://t.co/k8RxZU6tdd

[Michael Clifford @SlimCliffy]

in today's Ramblings, I wrote about the fantasy values of J.J. Peterka and Mason McTavish following their trades to Boston and St. Louis, respectively https://t.co/GpuRle3bfm

[Michael Clifford @SlimCliffy]

Today is Part 2 in my series on the evolution of NHL defencemen in the Analytics Era, covering changes in shots and goals both at 5v5 and on the power play https://t.co/9epz7395IB

[Michael Clifford @SlimCliffy]

but he faces the same kind of dilemma in Boston. They ran more or less the same four forwards (Pasta, Geekie, Lindholm, Zacha), occasionally rotating in someone like Arvidsson or Mittelstadt. Unless he replaces one of those four top PP guys, I dunno how his fantasy value improves

[Michael Clifford @SlimCliffy]

Interesting thing about JJ Peterka's fantasy value: comparing his 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons, by goals, assists, shots, blocks, hits and PIMs per 60 minutes, they were very similar (left). The big fantasy value drop was driven almost entirely by power-play usage (right):

[Michael Clifford @SlimCliffy]

Zellweger has some of the wildest tracking numbers you'll see from a defenceman. Incredibly high rate of zone entries and carry-in rates, and incredibly low playmaking rates. You don't often see that (with Thomas Chabot for comparison)

[Michael Clifford @SlimCliffy]

not a prospect analyst, but I did have some thoughts on this weekend's Draft https://t.co/fhn9uCJLS3

[Michael Clifford @SlimCliffy]

maybe his knee finally gets healthy and he turns things around, but to be honest, I'd rather wait a year to see if he bounces back and then pay extra in a trade than trade for him now and have him be a boat anchor.

[Michael Clifford @SlimCliffy]

keep seeing Elias Pettersson's name in trade rumours and that's gonna be a giant 'NO' from me, dawg. Back in January of 2024, he suffered a knee injury. That gives us to distinct timeframes to look at: fully healthy 2021-22/2022-23 and questionably healthy 2024-25/2025-26...

[Michael Clifford @SlimCliffy]

using A3Z tracking data, here are how Pettersson's rates of contributions to scoring chances, rush offence, and cycle/forecheck offence, as well as HD passes, zone entries, and % of entries carried in compare in those two timeframes *relative to other Canucks forwards*:

[Michael Clifford @SlimCliffy]

today's Ramblings has some fantasy analysis on lesser-valued free agent defencemen like Shea, Blankenburg, Peeke, Stanley, and DeAngelo. Also some thoughts on what the Tuch signing means for WSH https://t.co/3vmEDDahpv

[Michael Clifford @SlimCliffy]

re: Kyrou, I thought I'd highlight the difference between the WSH and STL defence groups. Here is the A3Z tracking data for assists off the rush or forecheck/cycle, high-danger assists, and assists on teammate scoring chances.

[Michael Clifford @SlimCliffy]

in this week's '10 Interesting (To Me) Stats' newsletter, which is now on Ghost and free to sub, I looked at changes teams made to their offence, and why more successful teams did one thing in particular: https://t.co/8Mt5jx7gCg