Now is the Time to Add Carl Hagelin
Carl Hagelin saved his team’s season. Seriously.
The Swedish god of puck possession joined the Rangers back on November 25th, when the New York Rangers held a mediocre 9-5-3 record. At that point, advanced stats guru’s called for the team’s head, indicating they were not as good as their record showed. Why? Because their puck possession was well below average. In fact, it was similar to a bubble or non-playoff team.
Enter Hagelin, a 21-year-old speedster who came to the Rangers with only 17 games of professional experience. He was enjoying top minutes and playing in all situations with the Connecticut Whale of the AHL before earning the call up to the big club. But boy has his speed made a huge difference. Let’s take a look at how the team looked before Hagelin and after his arrival.
The two metrics we are using are Corsi Percentage and Fenwick Percentage. If you are unfamiliar with these advanced statistics, they are the easiest thing you can possibly learn. Corsi measures the number of shots directed towards the net while the player is on the ice. While Fenwick does the same but does not count blocked shots. So basically, these two statistics measure how much offensive success, or possible offensive success, a team can have. After all, you can’t score without taking scoring chances.
| Corsi% | Fenwick% | |
| Before Hagelin | 45.1 | 44.9 |
| After Hagelin | 51.4 | 52.4 |
As the above table shows, Hagelin really has taken the Rangers’ lucky start and turned them into a very serviceable team. Actually, his offensive help along with the Vezina Trophy worthy play of Henrik Lundqvist propelled the team into an elite standing, atop the Eastern Conference. So why is any of this information relevant to fantasy hockey? Because now is the time to add Carl Hagelin.
Hagelin is owned in only six percent of Yahoo! leagues. That’s pretty low for a top-line player on the second-best team in hockey. If you take a look at the team’s lines, the guy is lining up with Brad Richards and Marian Gaborik. To put further icing on the cake, the troika has chemistry as Hagelin finished last night’s game with a goal and three points.
This kid has pedigree as a former Hobey Baker finalist; he’s probably the best player to come out of the University of Michigan since Max Pacioretty. And, to boot, he might be the fastest skater in the entire NHL — last week I witnessed Brad Richards ice a puck from his own zone only for Hagelin to retrieve it like it was a normal dump in. Speed kills, and creates offense. To top all of that, he actually has some skill with the puck too.
Stop reading, grab him now.