Ducks Stat-urday: Praising the Captain

I swear I was going to write this before Ryan Getzlaf signed his massive extension on Friday, but it just so happens that the captain agreed to an 8-year, $66 million deal before I got the chance. Still, even though we all know how awesome the captain has played this year, I wanted to take a quick peek at his stats this year, and how they compare to last year’s abysmal season and some of his career norms. [Ed. Note: Stats do not include Friday's 4-0 win over Calgary, in which Getzlaf had a goal and an assist. -CK]

Scoring

Getz currently leads the team in all scoring categories with 9 goals, 18 points, and 27 total points. The only place where he doesn’t lead the team is shots, where his 51 are second to Perry’s 53. Were this a normal 82-game season, the captain would be on pace for just over 100 points. Here’s how Getz’s scoring rates per 60 stack up to last year and his career. Note that I’m manually calculating these numbers since Behind The Net appears to only be ES.

It’s pretty clear that Getzlaf is just totally dominating offensively this season. Compared to his career, he’s producing significantly better in every area, save for shots. While his 17.6 (!!!) shooting percentage is probably unsustainably high, Getz is due for some puck luck after shooting an abysmal 5.9 last year. What really impresses me about the captain this year is that he has failed to pick up a point in only six games so far this year, and that his longest pointless streak is only two games. That is damn impressive.

Flow of Play

Getz is obviously contributing offensively, and to my eye, it sure seems like he’s dominating play when he’s on the ice. Even offensive dynamos can hurt their team in their own end, but let’s see what the numbers say about Getz this year.

Well that’s actually somewhat surprising. Getz was a Corsi monster last year and got nothing for it. This year, the opposite seems to be happening. All that said, Getz is having his best faceoff year ever and he’s taking fewer PIM than he ever has in his career. These are very good things.

Conclusion

While the $8.25 million per year cap hit looks hard to swallow, Getzlaf is having a career year and richly deserves this contract. He’s been the best player on the Ducks this year and though the Corsi numbers don’t bear it out, he is flat-out dominating the opposition, often time with a random third player on his line. And finally, since much has been made about how Getz’s deal puts him in rarified air, here’s how the players who have an AAV over $8 million are faring so far this year.

Yeah, I think I can live with that.