Rookie Top-Nine Forwards and Top-Four Defensemen on Playoff Teams, Since 2005-06

T.J. Galiardi, Matt Duchene, and Ryan O'Reilly

Here’s a self-compiled list of rookie skaters who played top-nine forward ATOI (Average Time on Ice) or top-four defenseman ATOI on playoff teams since 2005-06.

Interesting conclusions drawn:

• Since 2005-06, only two teams have made the playoffs with three or more rookie skaters among their top-nine ATOI (Average Time on Ice) forwards and top-four ATOI defensemen: The 2009-10 Colorado Avalanche and the 2006-07 San Jose Sharks.  That's two teams in 112 playoff squads over the last seven years, which includes a 2005-06 season stacked with talented newcomers. 
• Unbelievably, the 2009-10 Colorado Avalanche featured a group of top-nine forwards that was nearly half-made up of freshmen: T.J. Galiardi, Matt Duchene, Ryan O’Reilly, and Brandon Yip.  The 2006-07 San Jose Sharks debuted forwards Joe Pavelski and Ryane Clowe, along with defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic.
• Only three rookie forwards and three rookie defensemen made a playoff team’s top-three forward ATOI or top-two defensemen ATOI.  Shockingly, T.J. Galiardi is one of those forwards, along with Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeni Malkin.  Tyler Myers is the only rookie who topped his team’s positional ATOI, while Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Francois Beauchemin were the other defensemen.
• For forwards, even the top-six is tough to crack.  Of the 46 rookie forwards who made this list, only 16 were entrusted with top-six ATOI. 
• There are 15 defensemen on this list; three finished with top-two minutes.  No playoff team has made it work with two rookie d-men in their top-four in the last seven seasons.
• The research backs up the idea that defense is the toughest position for high-leverage minutes as a rookie.  This even includes goaltenders.
• Brad Marchand, David Krejci, Karl Alzner, and Travis Zajac show the limitations of just using ATOI.  By the end of their rookie seasons, they were logging high-leverage minutes, but narrowly missed their team’s top-nine or top-four lists.  Marchand and Krejci took the minutes of Marc Savard and Patrice Bergeron, respectively, as both were out with season-ending injuries but had logged high ATOI when healthy.  Zajac and Alzner were out by technicality, surpassed by David Clarkson and Sami Lepisto, who both got cups of coffee with the big club.

Without further ado:

• Playoff Teams (in order of finish), 2005-06 to 2011-12
• Rookie Skaters (with at least 25 GP) Among Their Top-Nine ATOI Forwards and Top-Four ATOI Defensemen
• Rookie Starting Goalies

2011-12

Eastern Conference	Forwards (ATOI rank)	Defensemen (ATOI rank)	Goalies
NY Rangers	Carl Hagelin (8)
Boston
Florida
Pittsburgh
Philadelphia	Matt Read (4)
New Jersey	Adam Henrique (5)	Adam Larsson (3)
Washington
Ottawa	Colin Greening (5)	Jared Cowen (4)

Western Conference	Forwards (ATOI rank)	Defensemen (ATOI rank)	Goalies
Vancouver
St. Louis
Phoenix
Nashville		Roman Josi (4)
Detroit
Chicago	Marcus Kruger (6) Andrew Shaw (7)
San Jose
Los Angeles	Dwight King (8)	Slava Voynov (4)

2010-11

Eastern Conference	Forwards (ATOI rank)	Defensemen (ATOI rank)	Goalies
Washington	Marcus Johansson (7)	John Carlson (3)	Michal Neuvirth
Philadelphia			Sergei Bobrovsky
Boston
Pittsburgh
Tampa Bay
Montreal		P.K. Subban (4)
Buffalo	Tyler Ennis (8)
NY Rangers	Derek Stepan (4)

Western Conference	Forwards (ATOI rank)	Defensemen (ATOI rank)	Goalies
Vancouver
San Jose	Logan Couture (6)
Detroit
Anaheim	Brandon McMillan (7)	Cam Fowler (4)
Nashville
Phoenix
Los Angeles
Chicago	Bryan Bickell (9)		Corey Crawford

2009-10

Eastern Conference	Forwards (ATOI rank)	Defensemen (ATOI rank)	Goalies
Washington			Semyon Varlamov
New Jersey
Buffalo		Tyler Myers (1)
Pittsburgh
Ottawa
Boston			Tuukka Rask
Philadelphia
Montreal

Western Conference	Forwards (ATOI rank)	Defensemen (ATOI rank)	Goalies
San Jose
Chicago
Vancouver
Phoenix
Detroit			Jimmy Howard
Los Angeles
Nashville	Colin Wilson (7)
Colorado	T.J. Galiardi (3) Matt Duchene (5) Ryan O'Reilly (6) Brandon Yip (8)

2008-09

Eastern Conference	Forwards (ATOI rank)	Defensemen (ATOI rank)	Goalies
Boston
Washington
New Jersey
Pittsburgh
Philadelphia	Claude Giroux (8)
Carolina
NY Rangers
Montreal

Western Conference	Forwards (ATOI rank)	Defensemen (ATOI rank)	Goalies
San Jose
Detroit
Vancouver
Chicago	Kris Versteeg (6) Troy Brouwer (8)
Calgary
St. Louis	T.J. Oshie (7) Patrik Berglund (9)
Columbus	Derick Brassard (9)		Steve Mason
Anaheim	Bobby Ryan (5) Andrew Ebbett (7)

2007-08

Eastern Conference	Forwards (ATOI rank)	Defensemen (ATOI rank)	Goalies
Montreal	Sergei Kostitsyn (6)		Carey Price
Pittsburgh
Washington	Nicklas Backstrom (3)
New Jersey
NY Rangers	Brandon Dubinsky (7)
Philadelphia
Ottawa
Boston

Western Conference	Forwards (ATOI rank)	Defensemen (ATOI rank)	Goalies
Detroit
San Jose	Torrey Mitchell (6) Devin Setoguchi (8)
Minnesota
Anaheim
Dallas		Matt Niskanen (4)
Colorado
Calgary
Nashville

2006-07

Eastern Conference	Forwards (ATOI rank)	Defensemen (ATOI rank)	Goalies
Buffalo
New Jersey
Atlanta
Ottawa
Pittsburgh	Evgeni Malkin (3) Jordan Staal (7)
NY Rangers
Tampa Bay
NY Islanders

Western Conference	Forwards (ATOI rank)	Defensemen (ATOI rank)	Goalies
Detroit
Anaheim	Dustin Penner (9)
Vancouver
Nashville
San Jose	Joe Pavelski (7) Ryane Clowe (9)	Marc-Edouard Vlasic (2)
Dallas
Minnesota
Calgary

2005-06

Eastern Conference	Forwards	Defensemen	Goalies
Ottawa		Andrej Meszaros (4)	Ray Emery
Carolina			Cam Ward
New Jersey
Buffalo	Thomas Vanek (9)		Ryan Miller
Philadelphia	Mike Richards (8) Matt Ellison (9)		Antero Niittymaki
NY Rangers	Petr Prucha (7)	Fedor Tyutin (4)	Henrik Lundqvist
Montreal	Chris Higgins (9)
Tampa Bay

Western Conference	Forwards (ATOI rank)	Defensemen (ATOI rank)	Goalies
Detroit		Niklas Kronwall (4)
Dallas	Jussi Jokinen (8)
Calgary		Dion Phaneuf (4)
Nashville
San Jose	Milan Michalek (4) Steve Bernier (7)
Anaheim	Chris Kunitz (8)	Francois Beauchemin (2)
Colorado	Marek Svatos (8)
Edmonton