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2022 Top 25 Under 25: Topi Niemelä is #6

Katya is not alone in ranting against the influence of points when it comes to how people consider the value of a player. I know Arvind has ranted about it before too, especially when it comes to defenseman. I’ve ranted about it too. The TL;DR is that points can too easily be influenced by things outside of an individual player’s control. player usage (total ice time, powerplay time, linemates), team quality, league quality, injuries/health, coaching style/systems (offensive vs defensive), and so on. And that’s before you get into things like luck.

It also is a lazy way to say if a player is good or bad even if you’re just talking offensively, and it ignores all the other ways a player can positively impact a game for his team.