With a day off from games in the EURO League, how about a quick dive into some statistics?

Today we are focusing on puck possession – or at least trying to – by looking at the stats available on Websim’s pages. Here’s our formula: we took a player’s takeaways minus his giveaways to come up with a “turnover ratio” and then divided that by his ice time, which is Time On Ice per game (TOI/G).

Above is a list of the Top 25 players in our Possession (Poss) statistic for players who have played more than 15 minutes per game this season. Defensemen are shaded.

At the top of the list is Dominic Canic of Milan who has been an absolute puck possession machine this season. The 25-year-old Croatian center is in his fourth season with the Guerriero and he has been centering the second line with Robby Fabbri and Jason Robertson on his wings. He is third on the team in scoring with 70 points in 76 games with 125 takeaways against just 53 giveaways. He seems to be very careful with his passing. He always has been. In his previous three seasons, Canic’s turnover ratios were +14, +39 and +28 last season. Canic has signed a contract that will have him staying in Milan for the next two seasons with a player option year after that.

His 4.00 Possession rating is twice that of the Number 9 player on the list. Helsinki center Jesperi Kotkaniemi is second on the list with a 3.35 rating.

As for defensemen, Minsk has the two best at the moment in puck possession. Veteran Nerius Alisauskas is 18th on the list and Aaron Ekblad is 22nd.