PIM Leaders

One of the things that bugs me about the WHL statistics is that some years ago, they quit counting 10-minute penalties like misconducts and game misconducts in players' PIM totals. Only minors and majors count....for what reason this move was made, it has never been clear to me. One can speculate that the league hoped to improve its' image by reducing the PIM totals of its' more thuggish players.

But whatever the reason, this move basically made the league's career PIM records irrelevant since today's players can never hope to attain the same PIM totals that players of yesteryear (when they counted 10-minute penalties) did. The league's single-season record of 511 minutes held by Brent Gogol of the 1977-78 Victoria Cougars and Billings Bighorns, for example, will never be touched. It is all but impossible to get 511 minutes in 72 games when you only count minors and majors. Today a season total of half that much (255) would be considered a very high number.

So, what would today's PIM numbers look like if you added misconducts back on? Here's the league's current top 15 PIM leaders, using the no-misconducts method:

1. Benn Olson: 101
2. Kyle Beach: 99
3. Scott Gabriel: 93
4. Matt McCue: 92
5. Garet Hunt: 86
6. Mike Gauthier: 81
7. John Flatters: 76
8. Ryan Bender: 72
9. Ryley Grantham: 70
10. Jordan Bendfeld: 68
10. J.D. Watt: 68
12. Frazer McLaren: 66
13. Mike Wuchterl: 64
14. Colten Teubert: 63
15. Colton Gillies: 61

And the top 15, if you count misconducts:
1. Scott Gabriel: 133
2. Kyle Beach: 129
3. John Flatters: 116
3. Garet Hunt: 116
5. Matt McCue: 112
6. Mike Gauthier: 111
6. Benn Olson: 111
8. J.D. Watt: 108
9. Mike Reich: 102
10. Ryan Bender: 102
11. Frazer McLaren: 96
12. Mike Wuchterl: 94
13. Chad Erb: 86
14. Josh Elder: 85
15. Colten Teubert: 83

The leaders themselves don't change a whole lot, but the totals do - by 20-30 minutes. Extrapolating over a whole season, you can probably add 70-100 minutes minimum onto the totals of many of the league's most penalized players if you were to add misconduct minutes.

All the players in the league with three or more misconduct penalties (both 10's and games) so far this year:

Mike Reich: 5
Josh Elder: 4
John Flatters: 4
Scott Gabriel: 4
Mark Hall: 4
J.D. Watt: 4
Kyle Beach: 3
Ryan Bender: 3
Lucas Bloodoff: 3
Chad Erb: 3
Mike Gauthier: 3
Garet Hunt: 3
Frazer McLaren: 3
Garrett Thiessen: 3
Brennan Sonne: 3
Mike Wuchterl: 3
Teigan Zahn: 3