Mr. Marginal not in ESPN's 51-100 overall

That ESPN dude raised quite a fuss when he didn't put John Tavares is his "Top 25 under 25".

ESPN's John Buccigross has his own rankings out there.  He is ranking the Top 100 players in the game today.

His criteria:

"What were my guidelines? I tried to rank players in terms of picking players for this spring. Guys you would want, and we assume they are all 100 percent healthy, for the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs. Past production, whether trending up or down, was examined in an attempt to get an accurate snapshot today. "Potential" or "ceiling" or projected dropoff were not considered. At least I tried not to let them affect my thinking. It's about who can help us win right now.

I also tried to use the parameter where if I definitely wouldn't trade Player A for Player B straight up (not taking into consideration cap number), then Player A must be ranked higher, right? I agree, it's hard to compare players that play different positions or have different roles. And it was difficult in situations where I know a team already had a goalie or a similar position in abundance. I admit to some human error and perhaps a contradiction or two. This is not an absolute list but a rough guideline according to one fool. I will probably have one or two glaring omissions that, upon further Ed Hochuli review, I will admit were foolish."

I guess what John is saying is he won't have Sergei Kostisyn ahead of John Tavares.

#51-100 have already been published, and includes one Islander:

"92. Mark Streit: Very productive blueliner who is still coming back from a shoulder injury. His shots and goals per game are down. Expect those to improve during the stretch drive."

Obviously this means that Tavares, who ESPN says wasn't in the "Top 25 under 25" last week, will be in the Top 50 overall.  We'll know tomorrow whether he is in their Top 25.

Analytics can be a wonderful thing in the business world; they certainly have earned their place in baseball (where so much of the game is batter vs. pitcher).  I'm just not sure about it in hockey yet.

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick