Analyzing how Marcus Pettersson stacked up with other Anaheim Ducks defensemen

After the Penguins traded for Marcus Pettersson yesterday by sending Daniel Sprong to the Anaheim Ducks, GM Jim Rutherford mentioned that he could be a Brian Dumoulin-type player. Using advanced metric data that was aggregated and visualized by Sean Tierney, let’s take a look at where Petterson stood among Anaheim defensemen before being traded.

In terms of Pettersson’s value to the Ducks using Goals Above Replacement, he has not had the best start to the year. You can see that he has really provided basically only negative value.

When Marcus Pettersson shoots, he gets some dangerous shots on net, however, he misses the net more frequently than any other defenseman in the NHL. Hopefully, that can be something that the Penguins reclamation team of Jacques Martin and Sergei Gonchar can help work on.

Pettersson’s shot rates aren’t great, but neither are any of the Ducks defensemen’s rates. I have to wonder if that’s a Randy Carlyle effect on the team as a whole. Let’s not forget that this is the guy who didn’t know how to use a toaster.

Pettersson did rank fairly well among Anaheim defenders with primary shot contribution.

There’s not much to see here but an Expected Goals value of almost 1.5 and the fact that he has not scored a goal feels like a very Penguins acquisition!

After seeing the data compiled in this way, it feels like an argument for cautious optimism that a new change of scenery, better coaching, and better teammates could do a lot for a player who is still only 22 years old.