Paul Bissonnette rejects advanced stats and its usage in contract negotiations

Paul Bissonnette is no stat head.

The fourth-line grinder - who has carved out a career providing, well, immeasurable intangibles - sounded off on the advanced stats movement in hockey and its place in contract negotiations in response to a fan's question through the Players' Tribune Mailbag.

Now you have all these bottom-feeder teams handing over boatloads of money and influence to analytics guys, and I don't see the point. Now you're just using stats to say how bad your team is when that's apparent from just watching them play. These are guys who go, "Wow, Jonathan Toews has great puck possession." Well no shit, he's one of the best players in the world. I don't need stats to tell me that.

He continued:

But somehow they're starting to use this bullshit in contract negotiations. You have teams saying, "Oh, wow, look at this player in Chicago who had a 60 percent possession number." Well, yeah, because he's an average player playing with Toews and (Patrick) Kane. So all of the sudden a team signs him for $3 million a year even though he's a $1.5 million a year player, and they're shocked when his possession isn't as good. Are you kidding me?

Bissonnette, in camp with the Los Angeles Kings, argues that a player's advanced stats don't provide information on the individual, but those they are playing with and against:

Good teams generally have four great defensemen that advance the puck. So right there as a forward, you’re spending less time in your end and less time handling the puck. I find it hard to take a stat seriously when it’s mostly based off the performance of five other guys on the ice - from a struggling d-man, to a goalie who has trouble playing the puck, to a center that goes 3-for-10 on draws every night.