Winnipeg Jets By The Numbers: Jay Harrison 2014-2015

The season has been laid to rest.

Fans have completed their lamenting of the Anaheim Ducks sweeping the Winnipeg Jets. The healing process has begun.

But, before full closure can be completed, an autopsy of the Jets season must be initiated.

We turn our evidence-based breakdown of the Jets defenseman, Jay Harrison.

Harrison actually brought some offense. While he only scored two goals, he was above his career norm shooting percentage. Of course, only scoring one goal would have been below his average as well.

He did not create much in terms of shot volume and his penalty differential was extremely low for the amount of games and minutes he filled.

Paul Maurice actively tried to shelter Harrison as much as possible. He hid him from the defensive zone and he hid him from the other team’s best players.

Only Adam Pardy played less even strength minutes for the team in their games, although Harrison did some minute munching on the penalty kill.

Normally when a player moves to a stronger shot metric team, their numbers improve. Harrison was not the case however, which is interesting to see.

Jay Harrison had a rotating cast of defensive partners with rotating results, as one would expect from a depth defenseman. 

While Harrison did okay in overall point production, his 5v5 point production was actually the lowest among the Jets. Despite barely playing, Harrison picked up two points on the power play.

In terms of shot attempt differentials, Harrison did not perform to well. On a team that dominated for the most part in even strength situations, Harrison struggled to keep his head above water. Removing blocked shots makes him look even worse.

dCorsi suggests that despite being sheltered, Harrison under performed his minutes.

While Harrison did not play large enough minutes to have the overall negative Goals Above Replacement impact, he did have quite the negative estimated impact.

Harrison didn’t single-handily kill the Jets, which is pretty much all you can ask for a player the Jets picked up in desperation as five of their top six defenseman were injured at one point.

The issue though is Harrison is under contract for next year and the Jets are hoping to move forward. Hopefully the Jets do not cut ties with one of their better depth defensemen, like Adam Pardy, or miss out on upgrading that area due to Harrison’s place on the roster.