One thing that consistently hampered the Penguins last season was faceoffs. The Penguins were dead last in faceoff winning percentage last season at 46.1 percent. Ultimately, that didn't really hurt the team much considering they were a Stanley Cup finalist, but with Ray Shero hinting that Jordan Staal would take over for Ryan Malone as the team's power forward (at least on the power play), you would think that would open up a spot on the third or fourth line for a center. Here's a quick, easy look at some unrestricted free agent centers who we would call decent faceoff specialists and their winning percentages in the faceoff circle last season:
- Stu Barnes, Dallas Stars (54.7)
- Jim Dowd, New Jersey Devils (53.8)
- Sergei Fedorov, Washington Capitals (55.6)
- Chris Gratton, Tampa Bay Lightning (54.5)
- Dominic Moore, Toronto Maple Leafs (51.4)
- Mike Peca, Columbus Blue Jackets (52.7)
- Yanic Perreault, Chicago Blackhawks (64.3)
- Marty Reasoner, Edmonton Oilers (52.8)
- Byron Ritchie, Calgary Flames (50.9)
- Jozef Stumpel, Florida Panthers (51.2)
- Mats Sundin, Toronto Maple Leafs (55.2)
- Josef Vasicek, New York Islanders (55.6)
We only listed Sundin to be thorough with the list. Obviously he's a lot more than a third-line center.
Posted
Jul 02 2008, 10:54 PM
by
Seth Rorabaugh