A little over a month ago we looked at which players in the NHL were helping and hurting their team the most when it came to penalties. Drawing penalties -- and not taking penalties -- is a skill and if a player has a knack for sending other guys to the box while not taking any of his own, that is a nice hidden advantage that can sneak under the radar and maybe lead to a couple of extra goals over the course of a season.
As the 2014-15 season goes on, I will continue to look at which players are helping (and hurting) their teams the most, and as the season reaches the halfway point this is good time to take another look.
Let's start with the forwards, where Nazem Kadri of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Dustin Brown of the Los Angeles Kings are still among the best in the NHL when it comes to giving their team a special teams advantage.
| Penalty differential: Forwards helping their team | ||||
| Player | Team | Penalties Drawn | Penalties Taken | Penalty Differential |
| Nazem Kadri | Toronto Maple Leas | 23 | 7 | +16 |
| Dustin Brown | Los Angeles Kings | 19 | 5 | +14 |
| Mark Scheifele | Winnipeg Jets | 17 | 5 | +12 |
| Tyler Johnson | Tampa Bay Lightning | 17 | 5 | +12 |
| Vernon Fiddler | Dallas Stars | 19 | 7 | +12 |
| Johnny Gaudreau | Calgary Flames | 11 | 0 | +11 |
| Rob Klinkhammer | Coyotes/Penguins/Oilers | 13 | 2 | +11 |
| Tommy Wingels | San Jose Sharks | 22 | 11 | +11 |
| Matt Duchene | Colorado Avalanche | 16 | 5 | +11 |
| Mikkel Boedker | Arizona Coyotes | 12 | 2 | 10 |
Kadri continues to be amazing at this, and there has simply not been a better player in the NHL at it since he has become an NHL regular.
The only player that might be close is Brown, the Kings' captain, who moved up a couple of spots since we last looked at this. There are a few new names on the list, including Winnipeg's Mark SCheifele, Calgary's Johnny Gaudreau, Arizona's Mikkel Boedker and Rob Klinkhammer, who is currently on his third team of the season after being traded from Pittsburgh to Edmonton in the David Perron deal. It's one of the things that can help make Klinkhammer a valuable player at the bottom of some team's lineup. He can play a little bit with the puck, provides the physical edge teams like in that role, and has consistently been a positive player in the NHL when it comes to drawing penalties.
Gaudreau is the only player in the league that has drawn at least 10 penalties this season and has yet to take one of his own.
Vernon Fiddler remains the most surprising at the top of this list.
At the other end of the list, Pittsburgh's Steve Downie remains the worst forward in the league when it comes to penalties and is currently a minus-16. Alex Chaisson (minus-13), Antoine Vermette (minus-12), David Clarkson (minus-12), and Andrew Ladd (minus-10) round out the bottom five.
| Penalty differential: Defensemen helping their team | ||||
| Player | Team | Penalties Drawn | Penalties Taken | Penalty Differential |
| Alex Pietrangelo | St. Louis Blues | 9 | 3 | +6 |
| Michal Jordan | Carolina Hurricanes | 5 | 1 | +4 |
| Matt Donovan | New York Islanders | 4 | 0 | +4 |
| Calvin de Haan | New York Islanders | 11 | 7 | +4 |
| Lubomir Visnovsky | New York Islanders | 4 | 1 | +3 |
| Alec Martinez | Los Angeles Kings | 6 | 3 | +3 |
| Victor Hedman | Tampa Bay Lightning | 8 | 5 | +3 |
| Roman Josi | Nashville Predators | 9 | 6 | +3 |
| Tim Gleason | Carolina Hurricanes | 14 | 11 | +3 |
| Brian Campbell | Florida Panthers | 3 | 1 | +2 |
Yes, that is three New York Islanders defensemen at the top of that list, though Donovan has only played in eight games. Still, for a defenseman to draw four penalties without taking one in eight games is pretty impressive.
When it comes to the raw number of total penalties drawn, Toronto Maple Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf has drawn 27 penalties, which should be an advantage when you consider that no other defenseman in the league has drawn more than 15 this season. The problem is Phaneuf has also taken 29, which also leads all NHL defensemen.
Vancouver's Kevin Bieska has the worst penalty differential in the league among defensemen at minus-15, with Jay Harrison just ahead of him at minus-14. San Jose's Brent Burns is still struggling as a defenseman when it comes to staying out of the box and is currently at a minus-11, still one of the 10 worst in the league at the position. He was a positive player when it came to penalties the past two years as a forward.
(Penalty data in this post via War-On-Ice)
