Corsi Rel is a good statistic, but it seems that sometimes it compensates too much.
For this chart I added up Corsi and Corsi Rel and found all (30) of the defensemen over 10 (with a positive CorsiRel QoC stat), plus one defenseman (Maata), who was slightly below.
So these are all defensemen (minimum 40 GP) higher than 10, when adding Corsi and Corsi Rel (Y-axis) who also were positive in CorsiRel QoC (size of bubble). The x-axis shows how much each team used each player at even-strength, per-game.
I think this shows up better than the last chart, but here is the direct LINK, which should be even clearer.
Isles' Metro division is in red.
Larger bubbles are higher Corsi Rel Quality-of-Competition. (This seems a better measurement than simple Corsi QoC, but I don't know exactly how the number is calculated.... The best defensemen in the NHL seem to score higher in this than Corsi QoC.)
Note: I moved Timonen to the right so that he would fit on the chart. (He should be 12.93.) And I lowered Muzzin (39.4), Vlasic (33.6), and Girodano (32.4) considerably, to fit on the chart.... So the Pacific had by far the best three defensemen in combined Corsi statistic.
Edit: And here is another way to look at the information, switching QoC with EV TOI. (So EV TOI is the bubble size for the following chart.)
And the LINK for the second chart.
You can see in this 2nd chart that Timonen was well ahead of the pack of Metro defensemen. (As upper right is most impressive.) Seven of the nine other appear to have similarly impressive seasons, according to this data: Stralman, Niskanen, Wisniewski, Donovan, MStaal, de Haan, and Fayne.
NOTE: Following comments apply to first of two charts, above.
Thoughts:
- It's great that Isles have Donovan (13th) and de Haan (17th) in the top-20 for this stat, from this past season.
-Both de Haan (0.8) and Donovan (0.5) played about average competition, compared to these other 29 defensemen. Tougher competition than Niskanen (0.2), Stralman (0.3), Green (0.2), BSmith (0.3), Maatta (0.1), and perhaps Demers (0.3), but weaker than Giordano (1.7), Bouwmeester (1.4), Chara (1.5), Pietrangelo (1.3), AGreene (1.1), and Brodie (1.5). (According to Corsi Rel QoC stat.)
-Donovan, Timonen, and Muzzin are in the upper left corner, indicating that they may have outplayed their EV TOI last season.
-Campbell is lower right. His Corsi combination score is still top-30 in the NHL among defensemen, but perhaps if he played a little less he'd have an even better score. (I don't know.)
-How many of these defensemen are NOT top-4 for respective teams? Judging by TOI, it appears everyone Wisniewski and to-the-right was top-4. Was Hamilton? Fayne? Maatta? Demers? Muzzin?... Donovan wasn't, (isn't considered top-4, but some games he was paired with de Haan in a top-4 role.... And the two did remarkably well together, as far as Corsi numbers).
-This does omit some excellent defensemen who faced high CorsiRel QoC and finished under par in one Corsi stat or the other, such as Josi (1.9 CorsiRel QoC stat), Weber (1.8), Hjalmarsson (1.8), Ekman-Larsson (1.6), Carlson (1.5), EJohnson (1.5), McDonagh (1.4), Fowler (1.4), Kronwall (1.3), and Suter (1.2).... In other words, some defensemen would have likely made this chart if they didn't face such good competition.... This isn't meant to be a chart of the best NHL defensemen at even-strength, but it's a chart of defensemen who did well despite facing above-average competition.
-Hamonic had a combined score around 3 this past season, which is good considering his 0.9 Corsi Rel QoC stat.
-Hickey also good this past season, at 6 and 0.2. (Thats about as impressive as Maatta's 8 and 0.1.)
-In 24 GP this season, Visnovsky was an outstanding 32 and 0.2.... Last season in 35 GP he was 32 and -0.3. (Still a very good combination of the three stats.... His EV TOI shrunk from about 18 minutes to about 16 minutes from one season to the next, due to injuries.)
So Isles have 5 defensemen who appear promising for Corsi stats going into this season. (Plus whatever Reinhart can add.) And the two rookies from last season are perhaps the most promising, in this regard.
End.