Best and Worst Faceoff Takers since 1997

The NHL has been recording a huge number of statistics for every game since 1997, but they have yet to master turning data into interesting insights. Case in point: hits and faceoffs. We always hear about which players lead the league in hits – Cal Clutterbuck, Dustin Brown – but do we know who the best faceoff takers are? Hits, in and of themselves, have no relationship with winning, but faceoffs are incredibly important because winning them results in puck control and more shots on goal.

Here are the even-strength face-off winning percentage leaders since 1997-98, minimum 1000 faceoffs through Friday's games:

Rank	Player	GP	FO	W	L	WPCT
1	Yanic Perreault	701	7803	4752	3051	60.9
2	Mike Zigomanis	189	1360	809	551	59.5
3	David Steckel	224	1917	1137	780	59.3
4	Scott Nichol	485	3620	2146	1474	59.3
5	Rod Brind’Amour	860	12314	7289	5025	59.2
6	Joe Nieuwendyk	562	7791	4596	3195	59.0
7	Mark Janssens	198	1769	1043	726	59.0
8	Jason Krog	202	1437	839	598	58.4
9	Tim Taylor	607	5635	3270	2365	58.0
10	Kris Draper	875	7873	4560	3313	57.9
11	Mike Sillinger	753	8333	4770	3563	57.2
12	Guy Carbonneau	220	2776	1589	1187	57.2
13	Sebastien Bordeleau	219	2493	1424	1069	57.1
14	Steve Yzerman	491	6261	3565	2696	56.9
15	Steve Dubinsky	284	2069	1178	891	56.9
16	Dave Andreychuk	556	3308	1882	1426	56.9
17	Adam Oates	511	7916	4503	3413	56.9
18	Antoine Vermette	447	3349	1903	1446	56.8
19	Eric Lindros	463	5938	3364	2574	56.7
20	Trent Whitfield	191	1586	892	694	56.2
21	Bobby Holik	836	11387	6389	4998	56.1
22	Jarret Stoll	420	4564	2556	2008	56.0
23	Jerred Smithson	381	2096	1167	929	55.7
24	Stacy Roest	244	1527	850	677	55.7
25	Steve Martins	242	1713	953	760	55.6

I knew that some of these players were very good on faceoffs: Perreault, Brind’Amour, Carbonneau, Andreychuk, Draper, Sillinger. And I watch a fair number of Sharks games, so I knew that Scott Nichol is a very good faceoff taker. But there was never any suggestion on any of those telecasts that Nichol is tied for #1 in faceoff percentage among active players. This seems like the kind of thing that we’d want to know, doesn’t it? Would Nichol have more than a one-year $750,000 contract if his skills were better-publicized?

The bottom 25:

Rank	Player	GP	FO	W	L	WPCT
276	Tyler Wright	527	3691	1632	2059	44.2
277	Mike Ribeiro	571	4514	1991	2523	44.1
278	Mikhail Grabovski	153	1518	669	849	44.1
279	Alexei Yashin	592	6722	2962	3760	44.1
280	Milan Kraft	207	2095	915	1180	43.7
281	Sam Gagner	221	1347	588	759	43.7
282	Eric Staal	468	5632	2455	3177	43.6
283	Tyler Arnason	487	3561	1552	2009	43.6
284	Harry York	170	1141	497	644	43.6
285	Marco Sturm	843	1469	637	832	43.4
286	Erik Rasmussen	545	2029	874	1155	43.1
287	Igor Korolev	489	3742	1608	2134	43.0
288	Nik Antropov	593	2810	1207	1603	43.0
289	Viktor Kozlov	741	5070	2174	2896	42.9
290	Nathan Horton	409	1024	437	587	42.7
291	Patrik Elias	850	1468	626	842	42.6
292	Martin Straka	659	2528	1078	1450	42.6
293	Robert Kron	355	1853	781	1072	42.1
294	Jochen Hecht	687	1806	760	1046	42.1
295	Tim Connolly	555	5175	2158	3017	41.7
296	James Sheppard	214	1637	681	956	41.6
297	Shane Doan	899	1191	486	705	40.8
298	Evgeni Malkin	305	2283	917	1366	40.2
299	Oleg Kvasha	493	2517	1003	1514	39.8
300	Andrew Cogliano	235	1359	525	834	38.6

There are some fairly well-known names in here – guys who've taken a lot of face-offs. Is there a point where a player should shift to the wing for the draw and let someone else take it? Indeed, this table of faceoff winning percentage versus the number of faceoffs taken per game suggests that Carolina would be better off letting a winger take the draw than letting Eric Staal continue to flail away:

FO/GP	% of Total	WPCT
>10	49.4	51.3
5-10	34.9	49.9
2-5	9.9	48.0
1-2	2.8	45.2
<1	3.0	40.3

I'm convinced that teams have long paid too little attention to faceoff-taking, and probably continue to do so. Maybe individual faceoffs don't seem that valuable – but having a high winning percentage can be worth several wins in the standings.

Talking Points