The hockey community has come a long way in its ability to analyze players.
For ages, goals, assists, plus-minus and maybe shooting percentage or penalty minutes were the basis for understanding a forward or defenseman. Over the past handful of seasons, shot-based metrics like Corsi, Fenwick and a litany of others have oozed their way into common conversation when evaluating players.
Corsi for percentage (CF%) has enjoyed the most widespread use and remains one of the better tools for drilling down beneath the fluky nature of goals or the randomness of plus-minus to uncover a player’s true on-ice performance.