THN.com Top 10: Contenders for the Cy Young
Marek Svatos has 69 career goals, but only 36 career assists, in 177 NHL games.
Brian Costello
2008-01-22 16:00:39
Marek Svatos, meet Cy Young. The two have a date with destiny. Or, at least, Svatos has a date with the designation made famous by Cy Young.
Young, of course, was the famous pitcher who, more than 100 years ago, dominated baseball with 15 seasons of 20 or more wins. His win-loss line every season was heavily weighted on the first number. The connection to hockey comes when goal-scorers, with far more goals than assists, post Young-like numbers such as Svatos has this season: 20-3.
Svatos is on pace for a 34-5 season, which would be a modern-day record, bettering the mark of 34-9 set by Peter Bondra in 1994-95. Other impressive modern-day Cy Young winners over the years have been: Wendel Clark (34-11 in 1985-86), Ray Sheppard (30-10 in 1994-95), Eric Daze (31-11 in 1997-98) and Rick Nash (41-16 in 2003-04).
Joe Malone of Montreal set the all-time record of 44-4 in 1917-18. But that was back in the day when the NHL was parsimonious when handing out assists.
Here are the 10 leaders (minimum 10 goals) so far this season. Special thanks goes to Nic Chabot of Fantasy Sports Services for crunching the past and present Cy Young numbers. (Statistics are goals and assists. Ranking is based on the percentage of goals to points rather than the difference between goals and assists.)
10. Patrick Sharp, Chicago (22-14).
9. Alexander Ovechkin, Washington (38-24).
8. Dustin Brown, Los Angeles (24-15).
7. Bill Guerin, N.Y. Islanders (18-10).
6. Niklas Hagman, Dallas (18-10).
5. Brad Boyes, St. Louis (27-13).
4. Chuck Kobasew, Boston (17-8).
3. David Booth, Florida (14-6).
2. Guillaume Latendresse, Montreal (12-5).
1. Marek Svatos, Colorado (20-3).
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Guy Incognito (Posted 2008-01-23 03:39:47)
The byline "We countdown the players who are prone to put the puck in the net themselves, rather than help out a teammate" suggests selfishness in style of play. This couldn't be more wrong in Dustin Brown's case. Brown's become a great power forward who leads on the forecheck and leads the NHL with 224 hits, nearly 60 more than the next guy. He's giving up his body and hitting so hard, it's phenomenal that he's found time to score 24. There's no negatives to that kind of contribution to a team.
John Lane (Posted 2008-01-22 22:49:40)
Completely and utterly inane. Try comparing these guys number with their linemates. I bet there is a disparity in their goal v. assist numbers, but tilted the other way. And to throw a little hometown bias in, Sharp has a hoop of shorties this year, so that skews his numbers a touch.
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