Winnipeg Jets By The Numbers: Jiri Tlusty 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 with the Jets’ deadline week acquisition, Jiri Tlusty.

Jiri Tlusty did not pick up a ton of goals as a Jet but he still did well in the assist column considering he only played twenty games as a bottom six player. Tlusty suffered the lowest shooting percentage of his career, with about one quarter of his career 13.0 shooting percentage.

Tlusty has always been more of a percentage driven goal scorer than a shot volume shooter, although 5.95 shots per sixty minutes is still low even for him.

The Jets started in the offensive zone relatively more often after the deadline than before. This is why we see that Tlusty was not started in the defensive zone that often, although relative to his teammates in the same games he took a share far above average

Tlusty was not given much power play opportunity and due to this seven of his eight points were in even strength.

Tlusty struggled early in the season, but started trending upwards right there after. Interestingly enough, Tlusty’s peak was two games prior to moving to the Jets, and he just sat there after.

Tlusty started off his season with Jets playing along the side of the infamous Mark Scheifele and Drew Stafford duo. Most of hist time though Tlusty spent alongside Mark Scheifele with either Lee Stempniak or Chris Thorburn on the other wing.

Tlusty’s best results came when with Stempniak and Slater, which says something about Stafford and Thorburn.

Despite Tlusty’s low point totals, he still paced above the second line forward average. Impressive really.

Tlusty performed okay in raw and relative shot attempt differentials, but did even better in scoring chances. His dCorsi numbers suggest that he out performed his usage, likely due to his most common linemates being considered very heavy anchors.

Tlusty’s goals above replacement includes his minutes as a Hurricane, but suggests he had a very positive impact on his two teams’ goal differentials.

It is quite extraordinary how much ice time and usage can skew opinion. If you were to take a survey on how Jiri Tlusty performed, you probably would not get too many people thinking Tlusty did that well. Except he did.

Given Tlusty’s ice time, zone deployment, and linemates, one should not expect much in terms of points or shot differentials. Yet Tlusty scored like a bonafide second line player –even with an unsustainably low shooting percentage– and carried strong underlying numbers.