4 Million in the NHL

Dustin Penner has endured quite a bit of flak this year from both coaches and fans.

From the MacT you have beauties such as:

•"We thought the contract ($4.25 million average for five years) was a starting point for him, but he views it as a finish line. I can't watch it, certainly not for another [3 1/2 years]"

•"He has to get his game to a level where he can help us, to this point, it hasn't gotten there.”

•"He's not competitive enough or fit enough to help us, so why put him back in? He's never been fit enough to help us, we signed him to be a top-two line player and that's kind of where it ended.”

• "We're at a critical time and we can't wait for players' games to round into shape. We need guys to perform."

The first three quotes are from middle November (1,2,3) with the last coming from earlier March (4).

From the fans you hear constant criticism such as:

•“Penner making it to the arena on time was a surprise. [Fortunately], the Anaheim Fire Department was able to use the Jaws of Life to un-wedge Penner from the 'Space Mountain' roller coaster car he was stuck on.”

•“If they can send him to the minors… go for it. If someone wants to claim him off of waivers… great as it would take the $$$$ off our books. But who will want to pay $4 mill a season for someone who has [underachieved] badly this year.”

•“I think that the problem is Penner was brought on to this team to fill a role that it is unrealistic for him to fulfill.”

While this is only a short synopsis these are the basic arguments that fans make in some of the hockey discussion forums (Sportnet 1,2 and HF boards 3).

Basically the fact comes down that some fans and the coach believe Penner to be: inconsistent, out of shape, and a waste of cap space.

With that being said I thought that I would focus on the first and last issue in the previous statement by comparing the forwards throughout the league that make within the 4 million dollar range. I excluded all players that made more money then Penner due to the fact that if possible the Oilers could fit those players under the cap space currently taken up by the aforementioned Penner. So without further adieu here is the list.

Name	Team	Age	Salary	GP	G	A	P	TOI/G	P/60
D. Penner	EDM	26	4.25	72	17	19	36	15:42	1.91
M. Ryder	BOS	28	4.00	66	26	23	49	14:58	2.97
D. Roy	BUF	25	4.00	75	26	39	65	21:17	2.44
E. Cole	CAR	29	4.00	75	18	19	37	17:29	1.69
P. Sharp	CHI	26	3.90	57	25	17	42	18:08	2.44
M. Hedjuk	COL	32	3.90	75	26	29	55	20:02	2.20
J. Lehtinen	DAL	35	4.00	41	8	15	23	19:22	1.74
B. Morrow	DAL	29	4.10	18	5	10	15	21:21	2.34
N. Horton	FLA	23	4.00	61	20	22	42	17:57	2.30
M. Handzus	L.A.	31	4.00	75	17	22	39	18:59	1.64
P.M. Bouchard	MIN	24	4.08	71	16	30	46	16:58	2.29
R. Lang	MTL	37	4.00	50	18	21	39	16:52	2.77
J.P. Dumont	NSH	30	4.00	75	15	43	58	17:26	2.66
B. Gionta	NJD	29	4.00	74	18	39	57	16:57	2.73
M. Naslund	NYR	34	4.00	76	23	20	43	17:19	1.96
M. Comrie	OTT	27	4.00	55	10	16	26	15:58	1.78
M. Fisher	OTT	28	4.20	70	12	17	29	18:29	1.34
S. Hartnell	PHI	26	4.20	74	29	30	59	17:51	2.70
B. Boyes	STL	26	4.00	75	29	33	62	19:16	2.57
K. Tkachuk	STL	36	4.00	72	22	20	42	17:09	2.04
J. Blake	TOR	34	4.00	72	25	35	60	18:23	2.72
P. Demitra	VAN	33	4.00	61	18	31	49	17:36	2.73
S. Federov	WSH	38	4.00	46	8	20	28	16:29	2.21
Average		29.8		64.6	18.7	24.8	43.5	17:55	2.27

For a closer look here are Penner’s stats in comparison with only the average.

D. Penner	EDM	25	4.25	72	17	19	36	15:42	1.91
Average		29.8		64.6	18.7	24.8	43.5	17:55	2.27

Here is a few things I believe that we can glean from these stats:

First, Penner is a big body, who is roughly 4 years younger then the average, and is/has not been injury prone having only missed games this season from being benched and overall has played about 7 games more than the average of the other players making the same amount of money.

Second, looking at point production he is only 2 goals away from being above average in said department, 6 assists shy of being above average in assists and as such 8 points from above average in the points category. As well, he has done this while playing over 2 minutes less per game then the statistical average.

Thus I would have to agree with Lowetide’s column that in fact the contract Penner signed has not been a bust. Penner is currently 26 years old and in his 3rd year of NHL hockey. My final comment would be that I would much rather have Penner on my team than many of the other players on the previous list.