Weird stats: The EURO’s most generous per minute

It’s good to be generous. It gives you a good feeling, especially if your generosity leads to a teammate’s goal. Ryan O’Reilly of the Athens Greeks is one of the most generous guys in the league with 13 assists so far in 11 games.

But being generous all the time isn’t good, really. On the topic of generosity, the Roman statesman Tacitus said, “…generosity, unless tempered by due moderation, leads to ruin.”

Among goals, assists and other statistics, the EURO League also keeps track of who loses the puck the most. Gabriel Landeskog of Madrid has 30 giveaways in 11 games. It’s a good bet Royals Coach Dan Bylsma would like the 23-year-old assistant captain to be a little less generous with the puck.

But even though O’Reilly and Landeskog lead the league in their generous acts, there are others who are more generous – per minute – than they are.

O’Reilly plays 20 minutes per game for Coach John Tortarella. Nazem Kadri of the Belfast Giants plays 6 minutes per game less than O’Reilly and he has 12 assists, just one behind the Greek.

Zurich fourth-line center Patrick Thoresen is among the league leaders in hits and takeaways per minute this season.

Here’s a statistical ranking of the top 10 in assists per time on the ice; followed by the top 10 in giveaways per ice time. Only players with at least 8 games played are considered. The formula is assists (or giveaways) divided by (minutes per game x games played) times 100.

The top 10 in assist are: