MARK STONE’S NUMBERS IMPRESSIVE
(Courtesy of Rob Henderson, Brandon Sun) — At times it can seem like players come and go in the blink of an eye in the Western Hockey League.
We get a maximum of five years to watch players before they move on, and the best of them might only be around for three seasons.
Throw in the natural evolution of the game and it can be difficult to fully put into perspective what we’re witnessing on the ice.
By any measure, what we’ve seen from Mark Stone this season has been truly remarkable.
Heading into Friday’s game against the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors, the Brandon Wheat Kings’ captain was leading the WHLin scoring with 55 points in only 26 games. If he were to somehow keep that pace up over a 72-game season, Stone would finish with around 156 points, which would be the most bya WHLer since Mark Deyell had 159 for the Saskatoon Blades in 1995-96.
More telling is that 156 points would evoke the names of some of the Wheat Kings’ legends. That number would give Stone the eighth-highest total in the club’s WHL history, sandwiched neatly between Ray Allison (160 points and 1977-78) and, uh, Ray Allison (153 points in 1978-79).
When you start pulling out names like Allison’s, that’s where the comparisons get interesting, given the vast differences between the eras. While much has changed since the offensive dark ages of a decade ago, today’s game still bears only a passing resemblance to the high-scoring days of the late 1970s and early ’80s, when all of the major Wheat King and WHL scoring records were set.
So how do Stone’s stats compare to those of some of the greatest Wheat Kings of all time? To find out, we decided to adjust the historic numbers of some of those awe-inspiring seasons to current-day standards.
For instance, when Brian Propp set the Wheat Kings’ (and WHL at the time) scoring record of 194 points in 1978-79, there was an average of 9.736 goals scored in a WHLgame, compared to this season, in which 6.623 goals are scored in an average game. That means scoring was about 1.47 times higher in 1978-79.
Doing some simple math, we divide Propp’s 194-point total by 1.47 and come up with the rough estimate that he could be expected to produce 132 points in a season in the current game. Sacrilege, some might say, but there is no perfect way to compare different eras and if any mathematicians out there have a better method, we’d love to hear it.
Keep in mind as well that it’s been more than a decade since a WHLer scored more than 132 points in the season, so that’s not exactly scoffing at Propp’s legacy.
Of course, all of this is purely academic as there is virtually no way that Stone will end up with such gaudy numbers come season’s end.
He’s a good bet to play for Canada at the world junior hockey championship over the holiday season, which could knock 20 points off his total and even if he doesn’t, there’s no possible way he could keep this pace up (could he?).
Either way, it’s a special thing to behold, so sit back and enjoy it while it lasts. These seasons don’t come around very often.
BYTHENUMBERS:
The Brandon Wheat Kings’ top 10 single-season scorers of all time, with their point totals, the amount of goals per game (GPG) scored by teams that season, and their resulting adjusted point totals converted to the 2011-12 scoring level:
Points GPG Adj.
1. Brian Propp, 1978-79 194 9.736 132
2. Ray Ferraro, 1983-84 192 10.119 126
3. Brian Propp, 1977-78 182 9.796 123
4. Bill Derlago, 1976-77 178 9.095 130
5. Kelly Glowa, 1982-83 163 10.319 105
6. Ron Chipperfield,73-74 162 8.728 123
7. Ray Allison, 1977-78 160 9.796 108
8. Ray Allison, 1978-79 153 9.736 104
9. Bill Derlago, 1977-78 152 9.796 103
10. Laurie Boschman,78-79 149 9.736 101
Mark Stone, projected 156 6.623 156
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition November 23, 2011
