Guys who play similar minutes/usage to Eller:

Andrew Cogliano, though he gets nearly 20% more offensive zone starts. 19 points on the year.
Jay McClement. 15 points on the year. Plays on a team who faces backups nearly every single game.
Matt Stajan, 10 points on the year.
Marcus Kruger, 10 points on the year. Even Shaw on the same team only had 15 points despite 67% offensive zone starts.
Talbot, 14 points on the year. Gets better offensive zone starts but mostly comparable otherwise.
Vern Fiddler, 20 points on the year. Plays on one of the highest scoring teams in the league and sees more offensive minutes than Eller.
Joakim Andersson, 5 points on the year.
Boyd Gordon, 10 points on the year. Plays on a team that can't even spell defense, let alone play it.
Dave Bolland, 16 points on the year. Plays on the PP.
Mike Richards, AHL.
Kyle Brodziak, 14 points on the year.
Dainus Zubrus, 7 points on the year.
Paul Gaustad, 11 points on the year. One of the only guys I'd say has tougher minutes than Eller so far. Literally gets all of Nashvilles defensive starts because he's a top 5 faceoff guy in the league. More comparable to Malholtra than Eller, but Nashville don't even have a single other guy who gets below 50% offensive zone starts. Cullen would be the "true" comparable at 13 points though he's over 50% offensive zone starts.
Grabitchsky, 19 points on the year. Former top 6 player, plays on the PP. Only on the third at ES because of depth. Wouldn't include him normally. Cizikas has more similar usage to Eller and has 14 points.
Coling Greening, AHL. Had one point on the year. Legwand 22 points, plays on the PP.
Couturier, 26 points on the year. Plays PP, PK, has second most TOI on his team after Giroux. Umberger plays the most similar usage to Eller on that team, though he's a winger and plays on the PP. 14 points on the year.
Kyle Chipchura, 11 points.
Brandon Sutter, 21 points. Plays on the PP.
Andrew Desjardins, 8 points on the year.
Steve Ott, 9 points.
Brian Boyle, 18 points. Plays on the highest scoring team in the league and frequently has top 6 quality players as linemates due to depth.
Peter Holland, 19 points. Plays on the loleafs PP.
Nick Bonino, 25 points. Plays in the top 6 + PP. Vancouver just have really shitty bottom 6 that gets offensive minutes for some reason. Probably cause Horvat needs to be sheltered as a rookie.
Jim Slater, 7 points. Winnipeg are a bit of a clusterfuck for usage though. Everyone seems to hover close to 50% offensive, nobody in particular being asked to take tough minutes. Could also go with Thorburn with 10 points.
Brooks Laich, 12 points. Former top 6 player.


Nearly all of these guys average a minute more of PK time too. Which you wouldn't think isn't an advantage offensively but Eller has had quite a few short handed points in the last few years. Several teams don't have comparables due to injuries forcing their bottom 6 minutes to play top 6 minutes for large periods of time. Also as you can see, Therrien is pretty much the only coach in the league who doesn't give his third line center PP time, as most of the people who are used in a way similar to Eller are fourth liners. Most third liners don't play such hard defensive minutes either.

tl;dr you guys are retards. Fuck you. Eller is doing more in the role asked of him than the majority of his comparables around the league. Vern Fiddler is the only real exception, and I would not be surprised if he had increased icetime at some point in the year from injuries or had a top 6 player playing on his wing due to depth.

You realize they do right? Cogliano 3 mil. Stajan 3.125 mil. Andrew Shaw 2 mil as a RFA. Danielle Briere 4 mil. Boyd Gordon 3 mil. Bolland 5.5 mil. Richards 5.75 mil. Brodziak 2.8 mil. Gaustad 3.25 mil. Zubrus 3.1 mil. Grabovski 5 mil. Legwand 3 mil. Sutter 3.3 mil. Berglund 3.7 mil though he moved to wing due to St Louis depth. Brooks Laich 4.5 mil. Nearly all of these were signed when the cap was lower than when Eller signed too. I'm sorry facts are hard for you Habs fans to understand but Eller is paid in line for what he's asked to do. Not only that but he is doing more than his comparables are for the same money and worse usage. Eller plays the toughest minutes of everyone listed in my previous post aside from Gaustad.

Here's a better list.

Players with similar teammates, similar competition and similar D-zone starts to Eller sorted by "points per 60 even-strength minutes".



This post was edited by LuLer on Feb 21 2015 05:57pm

Eller BLOWS this year

you don't even watch games m8. obvious from your posts

Eller works hard and puts alot of effort in is play but the fears that come with a lack of confidence like he has at the moment would ruine anyones efforts no matter how talented the players would be. And its obvious in his case that it have nothing to do with work ethic or lack of skills

missed maybe 2 games this year

he must have been a god during those 2 games I guess

Half the guys listed are wingers and the guys near the top of the list have absurdly high P60 because they play 6-7 minutes a game.

eller is complete shit, would trade for a bag of pucks

1) There's still like 6+ centers above Eller.

2) WTF does average TOI have to do with P/60?