Last week, we took an in-depth look at some of Christian Ehrhoff‘s numbers from last season in order to better project what we can expect from him. We’ll get to Ville Leino later this week, but today we’ll finish the new defensemen – it’s Robyn Regehr’s turn.
Let’s start things off the way we did with Ehrhoff by saying that Robyn Regehr played solid second-line minutes for Calgary last season, averaging 21:29 per game, a number which he’s averaged more or less for the past few seasons.
Now, when Ehrhoff was brought up there seemed to be a consensus in the comments that most fans would rather see the more defensively oriented Regehr paired with Tyler Myers than the more offensive minded Ehrhoff. For those of you on that bandwagon, let me just warn you that Regehr hasn’t averaged more than 22 minutes per game since 2005-2006; that’s not to say he can’t take on more ice time, but at age 31 you generally don’t start increasing minutes by 4 or 5 per game. Oh, and just to play devil’s advocate let me remind you that he has been defensive partners with Jordan Leopold before while they were both playing for Calgary – just sayin’.
I’m sure by now you know the basics about Regehr’s stat line – he won’t give you too many points, but he’s a solid defender who hasn’t had a minus season since 2003 while playing for some not-so-great Calgary teams. But by diving a little deeper we can discover that Regehr played against the best competition the opposing team had to offer last season – a solid point for those of you who want him on Buffalo’s top pairing.
Amazing also is the fact that he did that and was still a +2 even though he had the second worst quality of teammates among Calgary defensemen. The man can certainly hold his own around the net, however, it’s worth noting (for those of you that love the Corsi stat) that Regehr had the worst relative Corsi by far of any Calgary defensemen – that is, way more shots were put on his own net than the opposing net while he was on the ice.
More stats and some fights after the jump.
Regehr shouldn’t get any power play time at all but will offset that by immediately becoming one of the Sabres best penalty killers; he averaged over 3 minutes per game last season on the PK. Oh, and did we mention he laid out a monstrous 180 hits last year while blocking 142 shots? Not convinced about his toughness yet? Well then check out some of these fights from the past few seasons.
So we know he can handle himself in the regular season, but Regehr also brings a surprising amount of playoff acumen as well. He doesn’t have a ton of games under his belt playing for Calgary, but his .197 points per game in the regular season jumps way up to .366 in the playoffs. Nice to know that the guys Buffalo has brought in know how to bring it in the post season.
Finally I’ll close by pointing out something a bit more random that I’m personally excited for – apparently Regehr gives quite the thoughtful interview and does more than spout typical hockey cliches. Add that to his on-ice toughness and off-ice professionalism, and you get a player that I (and hopefully you) are very excited to see in the blue and gold for the next few years.