The NHL has a diff set of rules for Kaleta

[Cali512]

I dont see how something hes done for 5-6 years, is all of a sudden now a penalty. When Kaleta would see someone then pick up speed, and hit them it was how he became one of the best hitters. Its the players who arent looking for it, they should know at all times that Kaleta could be doing that. He doesnt jump, elbow, hit the guy when they dont have the puck, hit from behind etc. He hits people to hard and gets penalties, its bs. This is pissing me off as much as when they shoved Gerbe into a wall like the ref was a player

[Mski]

Re: The NHL has a diff set of rules for Kaleta

there is a charging rule... i think it has something to do with the distance traveled to hit the opposing player

[Cali512]

Re: The NHL has a diff set of rules for Kaleta

there is a charging rule... i think it has something to do with the distance traveled to hit the opposing player

42.1 Charging - A minor or major penalty shall be imposed on a player who skates or jumps into, or charges an opponent in any manner.
Charging shall mean the actions of a player who, as a result of distance traveled, shall violently check an opponent in any manner. A “charge” may be the result of a check into the boards, into the goal frame or in open ice.
A minor, major or a major and a game misconduct shall be imposed on a player who charges a goalkeeper while the goalkeeper is within his goal crease.

[Skooby]

Re: The NHL has a diff set of rules for Kaleta

What isn't violent in hockey, talk about being subjective.

[mightysimi]

Re: The NHL has a diff set of rules for Kaleta

It's usually called if you take 2 or more strides to hit. Or jumping is also charging.

[DetDannyWilliams]

Re: The NHL has a diff set of rules for Kaleta

he's #10 on the list of hated players

http://nhl.si.com/2013/02/07/the-list-nhls-most-hated-players/

[PTI]

Re: The NHL has a diff set of rules for Kaleta

That is what makes Kaleta useless,

[OpIv37]

Re: The NHL has a diff set of rules for Kaleta

That is what makes Kaleta useless,

You defend Roy but **** on Kaleta? Kaleta has drawn more penalties than anyone in the NhL this year. He's also developed into a damn good penalty killer.

Yeah, the refs **** on him but he's one of the few guys on this team that goes hard every shift. And his salary is peanuts by NHL standards, as opposed to Roy, eating up $4.5 mil for the production of guys making half that, with no toughness or grit added.

[jamze132]

Re: The NHL has a diff set of rules for Kaleta

Derek Roy is still on the Sabres?

[TheGhostofJimKelly]

Re: The NHL has a diff set of rules for Kaleta

I would like to know what the difference was with the hit on Richards and the hit last night on Tyler Myers (from Zajac).

[Mski]

Re: The NHL has a diff set of rules for Kaleta

Zajac is a bigger ""star"" in the league than myers? zajac in 2ft shorter than him too?

[rbochan]

Re: The NHL has a diff set of rules for Kaleta

Borrowed:

Kaleta the Most Effective Pest in the NHL

Stop living in the land of enforcers. Donald Brashear, Peter Worrell, Rob Ray, kind of players. Useless on the ice except for the fact that they are better boxers than ice hockey players. For generations this was the de facto mold for a "tough guy" in the league. Little skill, big fists, hard head.

The enforcer is dying however. Fewer and fewer teams are stocking them and they are getting less and less ice time. Teams have been shifting toward the "pest" role for years now. Instead of a player who was a liability on the ice they're opting for someone with enough skill to play a semi-regular shift who isn't going to cost the team with their defensive play. They are also looking for their pest to disrupt the other team, get them off their game, and most importantly, draw penalties. The role of the pest is not to fight. Some do and are decent at it, but that's not in the modern pest's job description.

Old school fans of the enforcers of yester year can bemoan this modern development as an affront to their precious "code", however it is the objective reality of the modern NHL. Pests are in. Slow moving skill-less enforcers are on their way out. Most NHL GMs are opting to sign players like Patrick Kaleta, Matt Cooke, and Zach Rinaldo rather than George Parros, or John Scott. The majority of enforcers left stradle the line between pest and classic tough guy and most can play a regular shift and actually be a hockey player. John Scott is an endangered species. Having a guy on your active roster that can literally do nothing other than throw a punch just doesn't make financial, or competitive sense in today's NHL.

I think most people here, would agree with my definition of a pest as a player who's role it is to get under the opposing teams's skin, get them off their game, and goad them into undisciplined, reactionary penalties. Thus, if we were to measure and discuss the best pests in the NHL, knowing how many penalties a player draws vs. how many they take would be valuable and probably be one of the top factors in determining who the most effective pest in the league is. If a pest draws penalties, but also puts his team at a disadvantage by also taking too many penalties, that would, IMO make for a bad pest. Especially as most pest type players don't contribute a lot to the scoreboard directly, getting the opposing team distracted and winning power plays for their squad is what they need to aim for.

Luckily for us, while NHL.com does not keep track of penalties drawn and taken, a great website called behindthenet.ca prides itself on recording and compiling odd and seldom talked about stats.

First off, let's look at Kaleta's basic penalty stats. What we want to know is #1: How often he draws other players into taking a penalty. Then we want to know #2: How often he commits a penalty himself and hurts the team. A top level pest should, in my opinion, at least break even in this stat. They need to draw penalties without hurting their team too often. There needs to be a net benefit.

So for 2012-2013, here are Kaleta's numbers:
Penalties Drawn per 60 minutes: 4.7
Penalties Taken per 60 minutes: 1.2
Penalty +/- +3.5

So, for every 60 minute of Ice time, Kaleta draws 3.5 more penalties than he takes. That number, is far and away the best in the NHL. His 4.7 penalties drawn is also the best by quite a fair margin as well. So not only does Patrick Kaleta draw the most penalties in the league when he plays, but he is also the best at getting his team a net Power Play benefit.

Just how much better is he than the other pests in the NHL at the moment you may ask? Well I've gone through the trouble of fishing out their numbers as well.

We have all seen the rise of Zack Rinaldo with Philly to the role of one of the most preeminent pests in the NHL this year. His number bear this out as well. He manages to draw 3.8 penalties per 60 minutes. While this is about one penalty less than Kaleta, this puts him as the 2nd best in the NHL at goading weak willed opponents into giving up a power play. However as he's still quite new he hasn't yet mastered the skill of drawing, but not taking, and takes 2.9 penalties per 60 minutes for a Penalty +/- of +0.9. Thus he nets the Flyers 1 power play per 60 minutes of ice time.

There are more pests in the league than just Kaleta and Rinaldo, although at the moment they are the two most prolific and effctive. I'm not going to discuss each one, but below you'll find a sampling of their numbers for your viewing pleasure.

NAME TEAM DRAWN TAKEN +/-

Patrick Kaleta BUF 4.7 1.2 +3.5
Zack Rinaldo PHI 3.8 2.9 +0.9
Brad Marchand - BOS - 1.3 0.5 +0.8
Daniel Carcillo CHI 1.2 0.6 +0.6
Brendan Gallagher MTL 1.8 1.3 +0.5
Chad LaRose CAR 0.9 0.6 +0.3
Leo Komarov TOR 1.0 0.7 +0.3
Jared Boll CBJ 1.2 1.2 0.0
Steve Ott BUF 1.2 1.2 0.0
Alex Burrows VAN 0.9 0.9 0.0
Raffi Torres PHX 0.4 0.2 -0.2
Colby Armstrong MTL 0.6 0.9 -0.3
Maxime Talbot PIT 0.4 0.7 -0.3
Matt Cooke PIT 0.5 1.0 -0.5
Chris Neil OTT 0.9 1.6 -0.7
Jamal Mayers CHI 0.0 2.2 -2.2
Steve Downie COL 0.0 11.7 -11.7

If you can think of another pest you're interested in seeing number on. Mosey on over to behindthenet.ca and check it out for yourself.

Thus, if we're going to judge the quality of a pest based heavily on a player getting the opposing team off their game and winning power plays for their own team in the process the numbers certainly point to Patrick Kaleta being the most prolific and effective pest in today's NHL.

[gebobs]

Re: The NHL has a diff set of rules for Kaleta

I dont see how something hes done for 5-6 years, is all of a sudden now a penalty. When Kaleta would see someone then pick up speed, and hit them it was how he became one of the best hitters.

Best hitters? LOL ... Kaleta has about a 10% hit rate. In fact, it's surprising when he actually makes contact.

[gebobs]

Re: The NHL has a diff set of rules for Kaleta

Borrowed:

From 4 years ago.

[PTI]

Re: The NHL has a diff set of rules for Kaleta

You defend Roy but **** on Kaleta? Kaleta has drawn more penalties than anyone in the NhL this year. He's also developed into a damn good penalty killer.

Yeah, the refs **** on him but he's one of the few guys on this team that goes hard every shift. And his salary is peanuts by NHL standards, as opposed to Roy, eating up $4.5 mil for the production of guys making half that, with no toughness or grit added.

Kaleta is terrible. If the Sabres cut him he would not be a regular on any other team, he would occasionally play, and be a healthy scratch most night.