Wednesday, October 3, 2012

WHL forwards by the numbers

And now, the look at the WHL forward corps. As with the defencemen and the goaltenders, the games and points numbers are combined regular season and playoff totals.

Chart is sorted descending on career games played. The number in brackets is the team's rank league-wide in that category.


#        Rookies    Ht (in.)          Wt (lb)            Age               Games        Points        
Saskatoon Blades14371.93 (10)192.86 (2)18.36 (1)1969 (1)1111 (1)
Kamloops Blazers14371.71 (16)181.21 (17)18.14 (6)1629 (2)1046 (2)
Edmonton Oil Kings14471.86 (11)185.71 (8)18.14 (6)1518 (3)936 (3)
Seattle Thunderbirds14473.14 (1)193.43 (1)18.36 (1)1441 (4)414 (18)
Kelowna Rockets15471.80 (12)181.73 (16)18.00 (11)1400 (5)585 (7)
Medicine Hat Tigers16771.06 (22)178.75 (20)17.88 (16)1400 (5)579 (8)
Spokane Chiefs15572.07 (7)188.33 (4)18.33 (3)1352 (7)622 (5)
Calgary Hitmen14572.07 (6)188.64 (3)17.93 (14)1320 (8)657 (4)
Red Deer Rebels15571.73 (15)178.33 (21)18.07 (10)1263 (9)509 (12)
Prince George Cougars14371.14 (21)182.50 (14)17.86 (17)1248 (10)474 (15)
Swift Current Broncos14472.79 (2)187.21 (5)18.21 (5)1245 (11)416 (17)
Moose Jaw Warriors15671.60 (18)180.93 (18)17.67 (19)1221 (12)555 (10)
Tri-City Americans14371.79 (13)177.86 (22)18.14 (6)1205 (13)574 (9)
Everett Silvertips14572.00 (9)184.29 (12)18.07 (9)1196 (14)476 (14)
Portland Winterhawks15872.40 (3)184.87 (10)17.53 (22)1103 (15)622 (5)
Prince Albert Raiders13471.77 (14)185.77 (7)17.92 (15)1055 (16)508 (13)
Victoria Royals13372.31 (4)184.38 (11)18.23 (4)1041 (17)513 (11)
Vancouver Giants15372.07 (7)180.60 (19)17.93 (12)996 (18)446 (16)
Regina Pats15771.67 (17)182.00 (15)17.93 (12)961 (19)342 (20)
Kootenay Ice12372.08 (5)183.67 (13)17.75 (18)934 (20)348 (19)
Lethbridge Hurricanes14571.21 (20)185.00 (9)17.64 (20)913 (21)335 (21)
Brandon Wheat Kings15871.53 (19)186.33 (6)17.60 (21)800 (22)309 (22)

So Saskatoon is the league's most experienced offence, and the highest career point total. Kamloops is right there with them, 2nd in experience and in points.

I admit I was surprised to see a team like Portland, who have played so many playoff games in the last 2 years, be so far down the chart experience-wise. But it does make sense since the Hawks have lost a number of forwards from last year, as evidenced by the fact they are breaking in eight rookies up front this year.

As with the goaltenders and defencemen, Seattle is the biggest group of forwards in the league, and also tied for the oldest. Tri-City is the smallest; I don't have these numbers for past years handy but I feel confident in saying the Americans have had one of the smaller groups of forwards in the WHL for many years now.

Brandon's forward group is the youngest, least experienced, have the fewest career points, and are also the 5th-smallest. There are nine rookies in the Brandon forward ranks right now. Assessing all that, it seems logical to suggest that the Wheat Kings are going to struggle a little bit to score goals this year.

Anyway, enjoy...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The top two appear to also lead points per game stat also. Though none appear to be over.7 (I didn't do any math, this is a approximent guess)

Anonymous said...

Interesting stuff. Seattle has had one of the biggest squads for a number of years. However they have done the square root of nothing. Farwell seems to think he can do what the Tigers did in the 80's. It's a different game. Overall the differences are small for the most part. It boils down to talent, coaching and goaltending period!