According to Evolving Hockey’s GAR model, Koivu’s even-strength defense has led the league since 2007. That inherently will be biased towards star players in big markets, and against players on teams universally known as “boring.”īut we’ve got the numbers, so let’s use them. This has left Selke voting in the hands of journalists relying mostly on the eye test. Outside of these advanced metrics, there’s not much you can do to quantify defense other than look at the incredibly flawed plus/minus statistic. Advanced stats like Corsi, expected goals, and Evolving Hockey’s Goals Above Replacement have only come into being in recent years. The other is some sort of combination of a lack of information and a lack of interest. They’ve combined for seven of the last 13 Selkes, and deservedly so. Both of them are elite defensive centers who scored more points than Koivu and won Stanley Cups for historic franchises. The first is that Koivu was playing in the league at the same time as Datsyuk and Patrice Bergeron. It’s fair to ask why Koivu didn’t win an award tailor-made to his skill set. This includes the Selke Trophy, which is awarded to the best defensive forward each year. He Deserved a SelkeĪ major strike against Koivu’s case will be the lack of any league awards. The players ahead of him? Pavel Datsyuk, Vladimir Tarasenko, Marian Hossa, and Joe Pavelski. During that time, Koivu’s had 0.72 points per game, which ranks fifth among that group. There are 31 forwards who allowed fewer than two goals per hour at 5-on-5 since 2007-08. Let’s also not forget Koivu’s offensive capabilities. If you were good at it, he made you great. If you were bad at driving play, Koivu would lift you to respectability.
Here’s every forward who played 1,000-plus 5-on-5 minutes with Koivu, and how they controlled play with and without him. This helped him make his teammates better to an almost absurd degree. Since 2012-13, Koivu has controlled 57.4% of the expected goals at 5-on-5, behind only Andrei Svechnikov and Patrice Bergeron. Once he got help during the Parise-Suter Era, he took off. It allowed him to consistently tilt the ice in Minnesota’s favor, even when his supporting cast was dreadful. His defense was the foundation of his game, and of the Wild itself. When you adjust it for shot quality, he leads the league, allowing only 1.8 expected goals per hour. If you look at shot suppression, he ranks 11th among that group. In that time, Koivu surrendered only 1.97 goals per game, 26th in the NHL (94th percentile). Thanks to shot data that dates back to the 2007-08 season when Koivu was 24 and in his third year, we can compare him to the rest of the league and see that he pops off the charts.Ī total of 424 forwards have logged 4,000 5-on-5 minutes since 2007-08. Koivu’s case starts with the fact that his defense was not merely good, or even great, but extraordinary. It’s time to plead one last case to give Koivu the recognition he lacked during his playing career. It’s a shame, as this means that we’re ignoring one of the best defensive centers of his era. Zach Parise, Ryan Suter, and a wealth of up-and-comers gave him a supporting cast in 2012, but with the Wild always outside contender status, Koivu’s talents went largely ignored.
He spent the peak of his career toiling on some truly brutal Wild teams.
In other words, he’s destined to be overlooked by the hockey world. As time passes, Koivu will have a devoted following across Minnesota and Finland, but around the league? The smart money says he’ll be a guy who’ll make most people say, “Oh, yeah, he had a nice career.” He’ll be a staple of Wild alumni teams and future retirement ceremonies.Īnd that’ll be it. He’ll likely pick up some sort of gig in the Wild front office. 9 will be hoisted to the rafters soon after fans can return to the Xcel Energy Center. Now that Mikko Koivu’s hung up his skates, we can guess pretty well what his post-playing career looks like.
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