Image courtesy of Bridget Samuels from College Park, MD 

Editor's Note: This post serves as a good follow-up to MF37's famous screed on Colby Armstrong that apparently offended evey member of his extended family. This is a really good fanpost looking to put armstrong's production and salary in context throughout the league.

Colby Armstrong is a likable player. However, he makes a lot of money—$3 million per season to be exact—and in the salary-cap world many would prefer their high-priced players to put cold, hard stats on the table.

Surely you’ve heard the mocking cry—"INTANGIBLES!" Simply put, those who use this barb are saying that Armstrong doesn't bring anything measurable to the table, leaving his defenders to speak in clichéd generalities.

But these days we have access to a lot more metrics than just goals and assists. I thought I’d pull some numbers from different sources, add a few notes of explanation or opinion, and see whether Armstrong is worth his weight in cap space.

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The mood around the Kessel trade is downright grim these days, with Tyler Seguin in the NHL and our current slump making this year's first rounder look like a sweeter and sweeter plum to have forgone.

Part of the problem, I think, is that folk do not quite realize what we have in Kessel, since his streakiness masks his true production level. Missing training camp last year meant he never had the chance to place amongst the goal leaders.

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Editor's Note: Nirbo takes an interesting look at the received wisdom that the Leafs make their opponents' goalies look like Vezina condidates.

A recent headline from Damien Cox carried a familiar, if tired, refrain: the Leafs have trouble finishing their opportunities. Ten months past the Jason Blake era, and the accusation still persists that the Leafs do not make their shots count.

Now, obviously, the Leafs aren't scoring enough because they are second-last in the league in shots per game at 26.6. But if they still can't score even when they do shoot, they're headed for the basement. A team shooting percentage of 8.65% is below league average, so maybe there is some merit to the claim.

When I think about the Leaf games I've watched this season, though, I'm not immediately convinced. After the jump are the numbers so we can take a look.

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Editor's Note: Here's a good first FanPost for anyone wondering what they should be striving for. Nirbo analyses Brian Burke's roster using GVT per million and gives us an idea of what we might be able to expect in a best-case scenario.

This is a pretty simple exercise for my first FanPost. Been a lurker and occasional commenter for a while, and I hope this adds at least a limited amount to the preseason discussion.

While I love many of the names and attached abilities that he has brought in, I haven't been sold on Burke's cap-management strategy. It seems he has overpaid on a significant chunk of contracts, particularly in free agency. I wanted to see if the stats backed this up.

I'm going to use GVT vs. $M to assess players whose current contracts are Burke's responsibility: players signed or traded for under his watch. I will exclude Kadri, Mueller and others who don't have historical NHL data to go on, though I'm sure we can have fun with eGVT at some point.

Here is Tom Awad's original series on how GVT is calculated for those who are interested and haven't seen it already.

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