Best points-per-minute forwards listed

boeser

Two players who show up on the EURO League transactions list this week share something in common; something pretty good.

Four days ago, American speedster Peter Mueller was waived by Milan for the third time this season. Not surprisingly, his $4.2 million contract kept him from being snapped up by another team. He is currently on the farm club in Bolzano, Italy.

On Sunday night, Czech Milan Michalek was an injury call-up from the farm club in Amsterdam to the Dublin Fighting Irish.

This season, both Mueller and Michalek are ranked in the Top 10 most productive forwards in the league … basically a points per minute average, although both men have played just a small number of games. Mueller has 11 points in 12 games at 13 minutes per game. That’s 156 minutes played and 11 points for a 7.05 average (Points Scored / Total Minutes Played * 100). Michalek has 4 points in 8 games at 8 minutes per game for an average of 6.25.

If you are a stats nut and were wondering which full-time forward has been the most productive per minute, look to Helsinki’s third line of Ryan Kesler centering rookie wingers Brock Boeser and Kyle Connor. Boeser has 41 points, Kesler 48 and Connor 31 points. Some teams’ top lines aren’t producing that many points and Boeser and Connor are playing just 12 and 10 minutes per game, respectively. Kesler gets specialty team minutes, so his average (6.81) drops below Boeser’s to be the second-best in the league. Boeser leads everyone with a 7.43 average. Connor’s 5.96 average places him 11^th in the EURO among full-time forwards.

With the Kesler line doing so well, wouldn’t Jokerit Coach Doug Weight be smart to grant them first-line minutes? Not necessarily so. Kesler is a high risk in terms of injury, and Boeser isn’t high on the durability scale himself.

These stats clearly show that Dublin has the most dangerous fourth line in the league. Christian Dvorak, Teuvo Teravainen and Emerson Etem all have at least 20 points for the Irish in just 7 minutes per game. All three are in the Top 15 of all full-time forwards, in terms of points per minute average.

We found out who the league all-stars are a couple of weeks ago, but – just for fun – if only points per minute was used as a guide, who would be the best first-, second-, third- and fourth-liners in the league? Remember, this takes only points into consideration, so defensive resposibility is not required to make this list. So players who kill penalties are at a real disadvantage when it comes to this list.