Greg Pateryn has been a blessing in disguise on the Dallas Stars blueline. The solid play of the American defenseman means the Stars have taken a W on his acquisition from Montreal.
It’s February 27th, 2017 – the Dallas Stars have traded longtime bottom-four defenseman Jordie Benn to the Montreal Canadiens for relatively unknown righty Greg Pateryn. As Stars fans, we didn’t know how to react.
We had lost someone we’ve seen grow so much over time alongside his younger brother, Jamie Benn. A physical anchor on a team that lacked a nasty edge, and a resilient soul igniting a spark in the dressing room. Jordie was that and more. In the end, he was a team-first defenseman willing to constantly work on his craft. He never took his National Hockey League job for granted and showed a desired to constantly improve.
Flash forward to January of 2017, nine months post-trade. Pateryn has exceeded all expectations with the Dallas Stars and finds himself as a solid second-pair guy, just out there making simple plays and providing a decent possesion punch to a team that defends well.
Also, the 27-year-old fits every description we laid down for Benn, now enjoying his time with the Habs. He’s the same guy – a stone-cold fighter playing a subtle, unimpressive game to support his peers. But weirdly, Pateryn is more effective.
Dallas Stars
In February, as general manager Jim Nill threw Benn away for scraps to comply with the NHL expansion draft, that would be certifiably insane to say. However, like this season, Pateryn has made our unlikely into his unparelled.
Another flashback, one to this past September. We outlined the battle for the spot as the Dallas Stars’ seventh defenseman – it had come down to three men: Pateryn, Jamie Oleksiak, and Patrik Nemeth. A training camp tussle between a questionable, unappreciated trade return against two home-grown NHL Draft picks did not bode well for Pateryn.
Except with the recent Oleksiak trade that sent the 6’7″ defenseman to Pittsburgh, and the waiver claim by the Colorado Avalanche on Nemeth three months prior… Pateryn won, in a way. He has impressed so mightily that his value to the team is now perhaps more than Oleksiak’s, Nemeth’s, or even Benn’s ever was.
If you think this is odd, it’s because it is. Nothing was expected of Pateryn. However, the Dallas Stars did something not even they tried to do: Dallas won the Jordie Benn for Greg Pateryn trade.
Late last season, Jordie Benn provided a spark for the postseason-bound Habs that few other trade-deadline acquisitions did. Benn gave them great minutes, a good push of offense, and reliability on the penalty kill that Montreal had been searching for. The euphoria surrounding the elder Benn has seemingly worn off, though.
More From Blackout Dallas: Greg Pateryn Endured Tough Road And Earned His Spot On Stars
His trade counterpart has surpassed him in various statistical, analytical, and value-based ways. Let’s compare, and show you, the reader, what we mean when we proudly exclaim that the Stars reigned supreme in yet another transaction.
The first chart, I feel, will appease the classic, traditional hockey fan. Greg Pateryn is eating up more minutes than Benn is, which is a mark of reliability. Though the offensive output of #29 doesn’t equate to that of #8, his plus/minus (an outdated, obsolete stat that I hate, but others still find a use for), is a goal better. He’s also throwing his body around more and making fewer mistakes with the puck than Benn has.
The blocked shots thing can be used to contextualize any narrative, but I’ll say this: it’s better to not block a whole bunch of tries. Since Pateryn isn’t blocking shots, it means shooters don’t have a chance to release any while he’s skating. Any way you want to cut it, shot suppression is a defenseman’s goal, and fewer shots are headed Pateryn’s way.
This is where it gets interesting. Pateryn is far from an analytics darling like John Klingberg or Julius Honka, but his Corsi For percentage ranks higher than that of Benn’s. The Stars are producing more shots with Pateryn on the ice than they’re allowing, and while that’s true with Benn as well, Pateryn’s Corsi +/- is +25, compared to Jordie’s +5.
Pateryn is doing this well despite staring far fewer shifts in the offensive zone, as seen above. The Dallas Stars right-hander isn’t allowing a lot of quality opposing shots, despite not really producing them either (but that will only help the “prototypical defenseman” argument). Neither d-man’s numbers necessarily have to be taken with a grain of salt, as the PDO numbers of each are around the average sum of typical players.
Pateryn’s possession numbers have just been a lot better, he’s been an improvement defensively, and he’s doing this in harder circumstances.
Of course, there are certain defensive partners and structures that can make anyone seem better. That doesn’t matter to Greg Pateryn. Despite playing alongside Shea Weber (a great defender despite his flaws), Benn has lesser numbers than those of Pateryn pretty much across the board. Playing alongside Weber has to be an upgrade from the partnership of veteran Dan Hamhuis, but don’t tell Pateryn.
We mention penalty kill and power play time to further illustrate “value,” which, as always, value is team-relative. They both have essentially the same special teams roles, yet Dallas has a superior penalty kill (81.7%, 12th place to Montreal at 77.6%, 26th place) and power play (11th, 20.3% to 17th, 19.0%).
Both Dallas Stars head coach Ken Hitchcock and Montreal Canadiens bench boss Claude Julien institute defense-first systems of hockey, meaning the team structure isn’t to blame or to credit. Greg Pateryn has just been that good, quietly and effectively, but good.
Next: Dallas Stars Have Tough Choice Coming Up With Dan Hamhuis
With the Dallas Stars long gone from the days of Jordie Benn skating around on the blueline, this comparison is made only for the sake of consolation. Not only has overlooked, underappreciated Pateryn been everything we had in Jordie, but he’s been an upgrade in Dallas.
Stats and metrics courtesy of Hockey-Reference, Corsica, and Left Wing Lock.