With PWHL action kicking back into gear after a thrilling international break, it seems like a perfect time to check back in on my personal favorite (and only personal) stat: plus-plus (+/+)!
As a reminder, plus-plus is the stat of champions neutral fans who aren’t concerned with petty things like which teams “wins” or “loses” but instead focus on seeing as many goals as possible. The statistic captures how many goals happen when a player is on the ice, for or against their team. If a player with a high plus-plus is on the ice, you may want to pay attention as you might expect a goal incoming. For more details, check out its debut article.
Plus (heh), with the recent PWHL stat updates giving us access to time on ice for players, we can change our plus-plus rate stat from being per game to per 60 minutes!
This helps with more accurate comparisons, especially between players might have significantly different times on ice in the same game. For example, in past articles we’ve noted a relatively even balance between forwards and defenders in the top ten, with relatively similar +/+ per game given. That’s neat, right, but is it surprising? I mean, there’s roughly the same amount of forwards and defenders out on the ice, so a roughly even split may make sense.
However, consider that, on average, defenders generally play way more minutes than a forward in a given game, around five minutes more. Five minutes may not sound like a big chunk of a 60 minute game, but considering forwards play around 15-17 minutes per game, that extra five minutes ends up being around 30% more minutes that defenders get to be on the ice during potential goals.
Then, maybe it is weird that forwards and defenders get roughly equal screen time on the leaderboard when defenders have so much more time to be around for a goal. Looking at +/+ per 60 minutes helps us more accurately compare between players, with all the stats having the same baseline and not being so potentially skewed by individual ice time as the old +/+ per game was. Of course, it doesn’t capture everything; for one example of many, it doesn’t capture how much of that player’s time on ice is during a power play or short handed, which we might expect to have a different chance of seeing goals than even strength play. Still, every bit helps.
But we’re not here to bog down our fun too much with “good statistical practices” and “contextualization of numbers to help understand if they’re actually saying what they’re purported to.” Despite all the rate stat chat, when it comes to the plus-plus leaderboard, all that matters is still just the raw number. Speaking of, let’s take a look at the rankings!
Alex Carpenter, previously the joint-holder of top spot, currently has the solo crown at a +/+ of 45, while Savannah Harmon, who we’ve been tracking the rise of across previous editions of this article, follows just behind at a +/+ of 44 as the sole PWHL Ottawa representative in the top ten. While the raw +/+ numbers are close, with the new time on ice stats we see Carpenter holding onto the top spot despite playing over forty minutes less than Harmon, and is
The middle slots on the leaderboard are dominated by tussling between PWHL New York and PWHL Toronto players. For PWHL New York, Ella Shelton, Jaime Bourbonnais, and Abby Roque hold down a tied-fourth, the seventh, and a tied-eighth spot with a +/+ of 42, 40, and 39 respectively. For PWHL Toronto, Renata Fast is third with a +/+ of 43, and Natalie Spooner and Sarah Nurse grab the other two tied-fourth spots with a +/+ of 42. Notably, Spooner and Nurse do so with sky-high +/+ per 60 minutes, with them on the ice for, on average, over seven goals per 60 minutes on ice. Spooner and Nurse have gold and silver podium spots on the alternative, +/+ per 60 minutes leaderboard (assuming a minimum of 60 minutes played for a player to make it on the table), but alas, +/+ is silly and therefore cruel, so they will have to settle for their fourth place spots.
The top ten is rounded out by PWHL Boston and PWHL Montréal’s only entries. Megan Keller for PWHL Boston is in the other tied-eighth place with a +/+ of 39, while Erin Ambrose for PWHL Montréal is in tied-tenth with a +/+ of 38. The table is rounded out by Jessie Eldridge in the other tied-tenth slot. She secures PWHL New Yorks’ continued trophy of having the most players in the top 10, claiming just under half of the top slots with five players represented (yes it is a top 10, but with the ties there are 11 players currently on the board).
You might have noticed that there’s one team with no representation in the top 10 once again: PWHL Minnesota. Checking the table of top +/+ skater for each team:
There hasn’t been much movement in this table since the last time we checked in March. In fact, only the PWHL Minnesota player has changed: previous holder Kelly Pannek has been replaced by Kendall Coyne Schofield claiming top spot for her team with a +/+ of 36, good enough for a joint-13th spot on the overall leaderboard.
In terms of +/+ per 60, Kendall Coyne Schofield is actually second highest compared to other top team scorers with a +/+ per 60 of 5.97, beaten out by current reigning +/+ champion and only other forward among the top team skater: Alex Carpenter with her +/+ per 60 of 6.32. That places her in seventh on the +/+ per 60 rankings, so it might not be a surprise to see her crack the top ten by the time the season wraps up. Tune in then to see how it all shakes out, and for us to finally crown the +/+ champion for the inaugural PWHL season!